HELP!!! Charity Difficulties.

[Ibex]

Hi guys and girls,

I am currently in training for a charity event. In 90 days I will be flying to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for the NSPCC.
This will be a pretty solid challenge, even though the walking itself is not too strenusous. The big worry is the altitude! Some people are ok with it and some just don't cope with it at all.
If I am one of the unlucky ones, this could manifest in several ways. Whilst everyone struggles a bit, as there will be 33% less oxygen after 2000 metres of the 5895m climb of the mountain. Everyone will get altitude sickness to some degree, which is baasically like having a hangover, which gets progressively worse, the higher you go.

So I will be having hangover symptoms for around 4 days of the climb and it may go on to develop into pulmonary or cerebral oedema.
This means that fluid collects on either your brain, or in your lungs. So you either drown in your own blood plasma, or your brain comes under too much pressure and you die. Fun!

On top of all the general fitness I am doing, I have been climbing some of our fantastic mountains here in the UK. I have covered over 150km of walking in the hills, with over 10,000 metres of ascent.
There should be a load of photo's on my charity page, for anyone that is interested!

What I am asking today, is that any of you with Facebook accounts, could you please like and share my charity page? It would be a massive boost for me, as I am really struggling to get the sponsorship money and am in serious danger of not being able to go on the trip at all.

The page is here > https://www.facebook.com/TomNichollsKili

And if anyone would like to donate to my cause, my just giving page is here > https://www.justgiving.com/Thomas-Nicholls1/

Just by liking and sharing my charity page, you will be massively helping me raise its profile. Currently there are very few on there and I am beginning to despair for the human race.

I was lucky enough to be given a good childhood. I supose that I am even more lucky, because I was given up for adoption when I was a child, so I was lucky enough to go to a family that loved me and gave me plenty of oportunities.
So many children in the UK don't have that chance and I am hoping to raise some money and help them out.

Thank you for your time in reading this!

[bootsandpaddles]

I think the main problem here is that there are now so many trying to raise money through this sort of sponsorship. Everybody knows at least a couple of people who are running a marathon, climbing a mountain, doing a bike ride etc etc for charity and you just can't support everyone and everything. We all have our favourite charities that we like to support and many give what they can via direct debit. So I think that the human race is OK really (well, most of us!!!).

[IainG]

No offence to the original poster, but if theres a risk of you not going, is this trip then 'funded' and not 'sponsored'? I'm not sure about these once in a lifetime experiences almost masquerading as charity events. Like I said, I mean no offence, but you'd probably get more support if you done Ben Lomond wearing a diving suit, or got all your hair shaved off, or collected bags of rubbish on Ben Nevis?

I don't like these online donation sites either, for those wanting to raise cash for charity, get out and ask people, go round doors, or ask folk at your work. Sitting in front of a computer on FB or JG just means no effort.

Not a rant, but I am Scottish!!!!

[coachmacca]

Ibex firstly well done for making the effort to help others -

Can totally appreciate that you are trying to do some good for a great charity and that it certainly wont be easy however i think as mentioned before so many people now do similar that it can be hard to raise funds as the people you are seeking donations from a re probably (almost certainly) already donating to other just as great causes...

I really do hope you get the funds for NSPCC you need (however I don't think they fund Scottish kids - SSPCC do though so I would be put off I'm afraid )

Re this style of trip...

I have to agree I'm on the side of "if you are going to do it you should be paying for the trip then all money goes to charity".. for 2 reasons..

1. fundamentally at least 2k or whatever of anything you raise is gone right away funding the trip - please tell me if I am wrong as It would totally change my opinion ..so really fundraising is only helping the company running the event and you have a great experience (I know this sounds VERY cynical but its the reality)

2. these groups move VERY fast - typically 4/6 days up) and have poor standards and pay less to porters etc (in my experience talking to others, reading etc) as speed = lower cost whereas on a self funded "high quality" trip you will move more slowly to allow acclimatisation and also the standards (allegedly) tend to be higher and porters better paid as overall they charge more (again through others experience and reading) . A friend recently did such a charity event to Kili and a lot of the team were incredibly ill due to speed of ascent being faster than recommended and also the team being made to carry on despite how badly ill they were - FAR from ideal..

Sorry to have hijacked the thread but as I was thinking on raising money on my next big adventure but am planning to fund myself and have all money got to charity It's close to my heart.. and btw before everyone says - aye that's ok if you are minted etc etc we are selling our second car to fund it!

[Ibex]

bootsandpaddles - I agree that a lot of people are doing charity stuff at the moment, which is great. However theres a bit of a difference between running 10K and travelling to the other side of the World to climb a huge mountain.
I understand that not everybody can support lots of charities, as I well know at the moment, due to my current financial situation.
This is why I have asked people to like and share my facebook page, as it will cost them nothing, but will still spread my page a bit further afield, in the hope that I may get more donations in the future.

IainG - First off I would like to admit that this is an opportunity to do something I would love to do and have wanted to do for a number of years. However, I have had to pay a substantial sum of money to go on this trip. It most certainly is NOT funded by the charity money alone.
As it currently stands I have paid over £700 to go on this trip and the option I took means I need to raise £4275 in donations (excluding extra money gained from gift aid) which cover about a further £300 for the trip, but all the rest goes to charity. So nearly £4000.
The other option was to pay a further £500 odd (if I remember rightly) and then only need to raise £2000. So I would pay for the whole thing, but a lot less would go to charity, assuming I just hit the targets.

So as you can see, where the trip is slightly funded by the donations, it more than makes up for the difference, compared to a totally self funded trip.

As for just sitting in front of FB, that is totally not the case. I have to utilise every avenue of fundraising possible and FB allows me to spread the word around and get more people interested in the event.
I have been training in the hills, running around my town etc. I have done pub quizes, raffles, cake sales etc. I have tried to do 3 car boot sales, to sell off anything we have, that we could part with. All 3 times it has pished it down with rain and we have made no money at all.
I've tried to get out to do some street canvasing, but you wouldn't believe the bullshit and red tape you have to get through, just to be allowed to collect money for a charity on the street. You even have to get public liability insurance, just to stand on the street with a bucket. In all honesty this Country sickens me at times!
So to say I am doing nothing is totally wrong.

The porters may be paid less by charity events, but they make more money from the people that do the trips, giving them cash at the end anyway. I was really looking forward to spending some time with the porters and getting to know them.
I've been trying to learn bits of Swahili so I can at least converse with them in their own language and not just be another tourist, who has made no effort.

Honestly i'd do anything to raise the money. I'd go on the game if the wife would let me!

coachmacca - See above to see why this is pretty much a self funded trip!
I agree that the trip is done quite fast. But they assure us that we won't be made to go on if we can't. No one will force me to do anything I don't think is safe and I certainly won't stand for any kind of bullying of others.
As far as I am concerned all charity work is great, but should never be done to the detriment of the person doing it.

I was hoping this trip would raise loads of money and then it would help me springboard onto doing more charity work.
One thing is for certain, and that is that all my future charity stuff will be done alone, so I have no one to answer to and no set target to reach.

[coachmacca]

coachmacca - See above to see why this is pretty much a self funded trip!
I agree that the trip is done quite fast. But they assure us that we won't be made to go on if we can't. No one will force me to do anything I don't think is safe and I certainly won't stand for any kind of bullying of others.
As far as I am concerned all charity work is great, but should never be done to the detriment of the person doing it.

I was hoping this trip would raise loads of money and then it would help me springboard onto doing more charity work.
One thing is for certain, and that is that all my future charity stuff will be done alone, so I have no one to answer to and no set target to reach.

Mate let me retract that then - and I am genuinely glad that all that money isn't eaten up - as I said It was my understanding so am glad to be set straight Well done on the effort so far ! and good luck going forward. Hopefully my response read as balanced and that I was going on my limited understanding based on reading and on feedback from colleagues...

[RyanfaeScotland]

That's great to hear that it is pretty much self funded Ibex, I done a parachute jump a couple of years back and it's made me pretty cynical about these sorts of things like Iain and Macca as well. Had to raise £500 and the cost of the jump was £250 which came out of the money raised, didn't think much of it at the time but recently realised that it would have been much better to pay the cost of the jump myself (since I wanted to do it anyway) and put all the money towards a donation.

Anyway I'll drop in a couple of quid, good luck with it!

[Ibex]

coachmacca - Dont worry, I fully understand your concerns and you were clear about only having them, if it was taking money out of the charity pot, as it were.

RyanfaeScotland - Nobody is more of a cynic than me Ryan. I am one of the most miserable, cynical, untrusting bastards you will ever meet.
Doesn't mean I wont do my bit and try and raise money for charity though. In fact I hope this will inspire me to do a load more walks in the future for charity. I might make a lot less money doing stuff at home, but if it is applied to a smaller, local charity then that same money goes further.

Cheers everyone!

[Rudolph]

Sorry I genuinely don't get this sort of thing - even leaving aside the 'self funding' issues.

Someone has a dream to do something and saves up a lot of money to pay for it. Then they ask others to pay money to a specific charity in recognition of them fulfilling a lifetimes dream. It's as if I went round my few friends and said "Hi my name's Rudolph and I'm going to the Maldives for a month. Please sponsor me".

Of course there will be bits that are unpleasant of the Kili climb- that's true of most really satisfying goals - and I can see the point of sponsoring someone for doing something they really don't want to do and won't enjoy at all.

I hope, Ibex, that you get to go on your trip and that you get the right balance of pain and pleasure and that we see a great walk report afterwards. I also hope NSPCC gets all the money it needs as a result. But I still don't get it.

[Captain Black]

I'm not talking about well-paid professionals such as doctors or lawyers. I'm talking about people being paid 100s of thousand of £s, often for jobs which don't contribute much to society.

Is there anyone being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds in a job which does contribute a lot to society?

Remuneration of that level generally implies a nose firmly in the top trough.

In terms of charitable donations I prefer to donate direct to the good causes of choice - that way all the money goes to the cause, guaranteed.

[Ibex]

Jesus Christ people are now signing up to a walking website, to weigh in with their two pence worth, about someone doing a charity event.

People seem to be losing focus here. What matters is not the event, or the fact that it is a physical challenge. What matters is the children that the NSPCC will support with the funds that are raised.
Children that may have small problems, such as parents that cant afford to clothe, or feed them all the time. The NSPCC covers relatively minor problems like this, and more severe problems, such as physical and sexual abuse. They train councillers to help children cope with these problems. £4000 wil train a counciller that may help a large number of children that have been abused, or raped by their parents, or guardians.

I'm stuck in a factory working 45 hours a week for minimum wage, whilst suffering from depression, but at least I am doing something to help others despite my predicament. I have it tougher than a lot of others, but not nearly as bad as a lot more.
People that bitch and moan about the ins and outs of someone doing something to help someone else sicken me to the core. People like that are what is wrong with this Country. And its people like that which have stopped me joining the territorial army. I would consider it an honour to fight for my Country and defend my family, but I won't do it for the people of this Country, who quite frankly I believe are an absolute disgrace.

[Rudolph]

I think the answer is that people simply won't donate unless it involves something unusual.

I guess you are right. Aren't people odd.

Good luck with it Ibex

[GableNovice]

Blimey this got very contentious

I personally would love to climb Kilimanjaro for a good cause but to be honest surely the money spent on the trip would be better going direct to the charity. This sort of thing only usually works out as financially beneficial to the charity if it was someone famous and recognised doing this, it raises the profile of the charity and the general cause. Sadly your man on the street couldn't raise the profile one iota

Good luck Ibex and looking forward to seeing pictures of you posing by the summit

[NickyRannoch]

If you put something on a public messageboard people will give you the wide variety of views that exist out there in the public domain. That the price you pay for the free publicity. If you don't like the back and forth buy an ad in a newspaper.

Fwiw I think it's great you have an ambition and in the pursuit of that ambition you want to see if you can help others along the way and I'm happy to share your link.

However, I think it's good to take a step back and look at the bigger picture sometimes. You state that there is a bit of a difference between running a 10k and going round the world to climb a mountain.unfortunately outside of your friends and family the two will not actually register much differently on the wider public's giveamonkeysomoter

Good luck with it all but don't get yourself upset when other people don't share your vision.

[Ibex]

Sorry I got a bit annoyed there. I am going to be doing something difficult for me, in the pursiut of helping others and people scotching it, as going on a bit of a jolly, riles me up a bit. Plus it was early in the morning, and I HATE mornings!

There is more background to this charity event, that I currently haven't let on about. I haven't let on about it for several reasons. The first is that the charity is not about me, but rather the children that i'm trying to raise the money for. I have absolutely no desire for the limelight, or to be praised, or any of that crap. I just want to raise money to help the children out and that is reward enough for me.
The second reason is that I didn't want potential employers to see the reasons and use it as an excuse not to emply me. But seeing as this is on this site, then I can problem go into the reasons without fear of potential employers seeing it. Plus it may go to explain why I got a bit angry and why I feel passionately about this cause.

First off I have had severe depression since the age of 13 and it has been a constant burden in the years since then. I'm 32 now and its still a daily battle at times. For the last 4 years I have also had severely bad anxiety problems, and found it difficult to go anywhere. These two things together were ruining my life!

When I signed up for this charity challenge, I had recently been made redundant for the second time in a year and was extremely down. I honestly was waking up in the morning wishing I had died in my sleep. It was an extreme low, in a life that has had a lot of downs, due to the depression anyway.
For the first time in around 18 years of depression, I was on the verge of totally giving up. I needed something positive to focus on, to give my life some direction and meaning.

As a child I was given up for adoption. I was lucky enough to be adopted by a family that gave me love and everything I could have needed to survive. I decided that I wanted to do a charity event and raise some money for children that may have been denied the good fortune I had.

I needed some challenge that would make me face my anxiety problems head on and also I wanted to do something physically demanding, so I could raise a decent bit of money. £200 for running 7K just doesn't cut it for me!
I've always been extremely bullish when it comes to getting over problems, so deciding to do a big walk at altitude, in Africa meant that it ticked all the boxes for me. I could raise a lot of mney for a charity. I had to travel outside of my comfort zone and so confront my anxieties head on. Plus it would be a decent challenge, but one that I would enjoy, so would be more motivated to take it on.

So as you can probably see now, this challenge is a lot more of a difficulty for me, than just climbing Kilimanjaro. Its about facing head on my problems and overcoming them.
I understand that people won't see that, and that its not exactly Everest with no oxygen, or going ten rounds with Mike Tyson, but in the context its a pretty solid challenge for me.

I have never once in my life accepted help. I am fiercely independant and despite my depression I have always fought through any problems that I have ever encountered. So for me to get to the point where I was on the verge of giving up, was very bad. Looking back at it now scares me a bit, how close I came to just dissapearing one day never to be seen again.
I've been out of work a lot recently, but I refuse to accept jobseekers benefit etc. I know that is stupid, as I have paid into the system since 15 and never once been out of work untill now. But I have always been of the mindset that if you haven't earned something, then you don't deserve it.
During workless periods I bought nothing and ate as cheaply and rarely as I possibly could. On my last trip to the Lakes my first two nights of food, after my walks cost me 36p and 43p respectively. I ate stuff from Aldi that I wouldn't normally feed to a dog. I've been doing all this stuff to save money, as I train.

I hope that gives people a better idea of my reasons for doing the challenge and why it means so much to me. And a bit more about me as a character!

Sorry this was a bit of an essay, but i'd like to get things cleared up and try and get my points across.......