Marathons, CN Tower climb, and other Charity Runs (RANT!)

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Warning: This IS going to piss a few people off. Deal with it. :cool:

Ok, here is something that has bothered me for a while, especially since I know a couple people that are legit into running and/or cycling and enter some of these events for the challenge and cause they actually do decent and enjoy the training.

Why the hell is almost every single one of these events named after some charitable cause and in order to enter you have to turn into a grueling, penniless, bum that BEGS people for money in order to enter? Seriously, if someone thinks they are fit enough, and want to challenge themselves I applaud them for entering a 10K, half-marathon, full marathon, or whatever. I also understand that these things cost money and I don't think it's unreasonable for there to be an entrance fee and for extra profits to go to some charity. However, the whole begging people for donations cause you want to run is PATHETIC. If someone wants to better themselves and run, why should they be PUNISHED by having to DEGRADE themselves by begging for money and pissing off half their friends?

Also, using a charitable cause as a purpose of participating is, let's face it, 99% BS. I understand that there might be a VERY VERY small minority of people that actually get involved in these things cause they have been personally effected by the disease in question and want to raise money, but 99% of people enter cause they either ACTUALLY want to enter a race, and/or are doing this as a chance to enter a fun social event and make some friends or meet girls/guys to bang. It wouldn't make the smallest difference to these people if the cause was cancer or "save the midget tranny hookers in Zimbabwe", they would still do it. Yet these same people will talk about how they are running to "battle cancer", "save lives", etc. making it sound like they are some kind of heroes cause they did a 10K in 2 hours and narrowly avoided a heart attack.
 
Pertaining to motorcycle rides, if the cause is that important to the participant why doesn't he/she sell the bike and donate the money to the charity along with the various other motorcycle expenses? All you lose is the bragging rights of doing a ride or is that what it's all about?

Riding a loud bike on a charity ride doesn't turn you into Mother Teresa.

I do one a year to pay my respects to a friend who commited suicide. I pay my own way but don't go soliciting.
 
Some of those events require a minimum $50 fundraiser amount. This can be considered the entry fee, anything raised above and beyond that $50 is another matter.
 
I'm not gonna lie. It puts me off doing a lot of these activities too. I think it's a hassle to go around asking people for $$, and I'd almost rather just pay an entrance fee and be done with it.

I recently participated in a spin-challenge at work for United Way (or something like that), but only because I was basically strong-armed into it by my manager in order to make our department look good.
 
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There's so many of these damn things that I think the only way organizers can get roads closed etc is to have them as charitable events. I hate all of them, charitable and non charitable if they take place on public roads etc. if you want to run, go run round a frigging air field a hundred times or get a farmer to let you trudge through muddy fields. They are ****** events for public viewing anyway.
 
short stop said:
I'm not gonna lie. It puts me off doing a lot of these activities too. I think it's a hassle to go around asking people for $$, and I'd almost rather just pay an entrance fee and be done with it.

I recently participated in a spin-challenge at work for United Way (or something like that), but only because I was basically strong-armed into it by my manager in order to make our department look good.
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I have actually banned the united way and will go out of my way to make sure my money does not go to them. I too lived through the strong arming at a previous job by management for the united way. Basically along the lines of "we know who gives and how much through payroll and it will factor in come promotion time" Of course those were not the exact words but that was what they implied, basically extortion.

Now back on topic, I agree on the fund raising aspect for events like these. Many years ago this is why I stopped doing them, for a while I was just paying the min, but even that ticked me off--the way it is done not the amount. Now of course my not doing them has more to do with being fat and lazy.

The problem we have in this country is there are something like 80,000 (if I remember right) registered charities, all competing with each other. Competing with each other to raise money for basically the same causes. Due to this they need to find ways to win the marketing game to get their money, including spending donated money on marketing to raise more money instead of the cause.
 
At my work, its JDRF... and theres "JDRF" season.

They sell samosas, spring rolls, popeyes, ice cream, portuguese chicken, 50/50 raffles, more samosas, more spring rolls, day off work raffle, and so on.
To me, its now undesirable spam.

Cant do it any more.

Unfortunately a lot of these NGOs have so much bureaucracy to pay off before a cent goes to the actual primary need of the organisation that..well.. its like being over-taxed on the income you give them.
 
I hate charities that "cure" things. Name one thing these people have cured running 10K.
 
I have a problem with charities period. Bloated bureaucracies that are primarily used to give local people fat paying jobs and then when some is left over to whatever charity.

I had a friend who always ran the CN Tower and badgered me for money until i snapped. I basically told her that i want to go to a track day and need $50 from her. She looked at me like i grew a second head. I then explained to her that her enjoying the run up the CN Tower has NOTHING to do with the charity but its something that she wants to do and is required to pay for it through raising money for charity. I want to go track day riding and need to raise money for charity, in fact, 100% of my donations will go to the local race track. lol

I had a guy from a charity walk into my office at work and try to guilt trip me into donating...."oh that cup of coffee you have there is enough to feed xxx number of xx people in xx country" I snapped and told him that a. I dont buy coffee and that someone left that on my desk, i make my own tea and that b. If every single charity walked in here and asked for "only" a dollar a day, i'd be broke. So why should i give HIM money and not to the next guy that walks in? I then asked him how much of the donated money actually reaches the needy people vs how much is spent on paycheques, company cars and company dinners and six figure CEO salaries. He then proceeded to tell me he makes minimum wage. When i asked him if everyone but the lowest minion in the pyramid scheme makes minimum wage he shut up and i actually had to ask him to leave my office TWICE before he left.

Its a company, whose sole job is to sell their product, charity for X.

You guys remember Haiti? Hundreds of charities popped up overnight with commercials, everyone clamoring for the exact same thing, everyone wanting their slice of the tear-jerking heart-string tugging money donating pie! What, we need dozes of different companies? We need dozens of teams of people working on this? There are only so many airports to send things from and so many airports to send things to, and only ONE Haitian government that you can laison with. It had nothing to with helping Haitians and everything with collecting the paycheque on someone elses tragedy. Thats what sickens me.
 
Red_Liner740 said:
charity.

You guys remember Haiti? Hundreds of charities popped up overnight with commercials, everyone clamoring for the exact same thing, everyone wanting their slice of the tear-jerking heart-string tugging money donating pie! What, we need dozes of different companies? We need dozens of teams of people working on this? There are only so many airports to send things from and so many airports to send things to, and only ONE Haitian government that you can laison with. It had nothing to with helping Haitians and everything with collecting the paycheque on someone elses tragedy. Thats what sickens me.
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And the Haitians are still living in tents with one outhouse for hundreds of people.
 
nobbie48 said:
And the Haitians are still living in tents with one outhouse for hundreds of people.
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Yup...up until recently my uncle was living in his backyard in a tent (he's blind and cant do much for himself)

But there was an organization that came and repaird the major cracks in the house and its safer... ugh...

there are thousands of people who arent as lucky though
 
OP, why not just re-frame how you look at it? I'm not gonna lie - I don't care for most of the charities or causes that these events support. In a lot of cases, I just want to run the race or do the event. I see the $50 or x as the entrance fee and don't care to raise more.

I figure if I REALLY wanted to help make a difference, there would be more efficient ways to do it.
 
True story. This happened a long time back 15 years.
A friend of mine worked for the Salvation Army in the group homes for mentally handicapped people. The folks that are age 10 or under.
A group of workers will work day or night shift caring for them.

So one year I see all these Compaq computers show up. I was told the staff can not use them and their is a special key they need if they want to use them. I was like WTF and to top it off they just bought them from Grand and Toy.
Ok, so you paid LOTS of money for junk that your own people can not or not allowed to use.

I asked why and was told the Major (person in charge of that area) had left over budget money and had to use it up so she bought computers from Grand and Toy.

So, we have staff that could get a pay raise or better benefits, we have patients that could benefit with smaller groups or more aid BUT instead they BLEW the left over so they could get back more in the budget next year. I was also told about the expensive buildings they own too.

After that, I don't pay attention to these places. It's a SCAM.
It's a charity, so why does the CEO and other Execs need to make six figure + salaries?
The other part of the scam is for companies to use the larger charities i.e. United Way and Salvation Army as tax write offs and to improve their corporate image.

It has VERY little to do with helping people and more to do with making money for personal gain.
 
I agree to every single thread in this post, 'nuff said...
I don't mind doing something for Charity, but setting a minimum amount in money for EVERYONE OF THEM just pisses me off!
And the part where you have to beg for more from other people is just bs, basically turning you into a begger/door-to-door marketer
 
Those types of events always make me laugh, especially the ones that ask you to do something or other for a "cure". The pharmaceutical industry makes more money then the next five industries combined, and yet people seem to buy into this notion that they need to "run" to raise money because the pharms don't have enough to find a cure. In reality pharms spend more on advertising products like viagra then they do on R&D for aids or cancer. Charity is definitely big "business".
 
Who says you NEED to ask anyone for Money?
Every Run or Ride i enter i pay myself

I chock it up to simply paying an entry fee
 
This is why I don't dont contribute anymore to any of these causes....the CEO's are raking it in while the people who the money are intended for don't see a dime.

Pink Ribbons, Inc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmsknoYIos8
 
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