trek/climb for charity

hi all

just wondering if anyone has done one of these treks themselves for charity or maybe knows anyone who has.... Its something I have wanted to do for a while now and maybe 2006 is the year - I'm just wondering what the cons are basically and maybe if anyone could recommend one they felt was well organised - The aim would be to do one in aid of a charity which helps kids.....

No offence but I think these trips are basically free holidays.

If you have to collect €4K to walk across the desert, why not collect the €4K, give it to the charity and not go on the trek - saving the charity costs of flights/accommodation/meals/guides etc?

Just my opinion.

To be fair it's obviously beneficial to the charity or charities wouldn't organise them. That said you wouldn't catch me giving sponsorship when near 50% of it would be financing someone else's free holiday. I don't know about kid-specific charities but Concern have a couple coming up [broken link removed]

Free holiday - well yes, to some extent - but the amount of sponsorship you have to raise (usually at least 4,000 and often up to 7,000) covers that cost and gives a lot more than half to the charity. The key word there being sponsorship. Many people would not simply give you money to pass on to the charity, they want to know you're going to be doing something for it.

I've signed up to do the 100k walk in the Slovenian Alps next April in order to raise money for the Jack and Jill Foundation (www.jackandkill.ie) which provides funding for (among other things) respite care and nursing assistance for families with severally developmentally delayed children under 4. A lot of people I know are prepared to sponsor me to do that walk - I'm overweight and not very fit so they're not all sure I'm going to hack it - if I just told them I was raising money for the charity, they wouldn't be so interested.

I know a couple of people who've done these walks before and they've all agreed it was a fantastic experience although hard work.

These charity treks are a big business. There's a uk company that allows you to search by charity, destination, date etc. They are also a travel agent.

The deal usually seems to be you can go as a holiday for say X, to go for a charity you have to raise sponsorship of a minimum 2X (so really the charity gets half).

I've never been asked to sponsor someone for one of these, but if I was, I would expect them to cover the holiday cost atleast ("X") themselves.

I agree, Janet, that people would be slower to give money to someone for a charity if there wasn't an element of the person having to do something for it. But there are a lot of physically exerting challenges (e.g. dublin marathon costs €50 to enter) that people can be sponsored to do without a good amount of the money being spent on the collector's free holiday.

I think these treks are open to abuse as well. What’s to say the person has not covered the 4k and is still collecting money!! I think the Charities should ask the people doing the trip to cover the holiday part themselves. Then if a further 2k needs to go to the charity people donate to the charity directly in that persons name until all funds are collected?

I had friends who have done treks in the past and plan to do them again. I think I will take Tiger's stance on this. No money until you have covered the holiday costs.

I went on a 10k walk in the Swiss Alps for Focus Ireland. The walk was sponsored by my employer who paid for the full cost of the trip, flights, accomadation , food expenses etc...

All sponsorship I then collected went directly to the Charity, Which worked out significantly higher than if id walked around selling lines for example.
So in essence I got a free holiday , but my personal sponsors didnt pay for it, it was corporate sponsorship.

I had a fantastic time. I would do it again, but not at the espense of other peoples charitable contributions. I would agree that you should your own expenses covered.

Barretstown are doing one next year to Vietnam

You all (that's an exaggeration possibly, but I'm too lazy to read back through the thread and see how many it was ) seem to agree that people doing these walks should cover their own expenses before starting to raise sponsorship for the charity, otherwise it's just a free holiday etc etc. I'd have to say that in that case you have a much higher opinion of your fellow human beings than I do. I'd certainly have to admit that I'd be unlikely to get up off my bum and raise this colossal amount of money just for the feel good factor of helping people - I'd intend to do it in the same way I've intended for years to volunteer at a charity shop and just never get around to it. In my case, I can't afford a holiday next year and couldn't afford more than a weekend away this year so the "free" holiday aspect of it was what spurred me on to try and raise the money. I'll contribute a certain amount of money (mostly from a cancelled gym membership which I hadn't used for a couple of months and so decided to divert this money to self-sponsorship) but certainly could never afford to cover the whole cost on my own.

Selfish attitude? Perhaps. But it's still, in my opinion, better than just sitting around intending to do lots of worthwhile things but never actually getting around to doing them. I know there are lots of people out there who do fundraise tirelessly. I believe there are quite a lot of people who would never be bothered trying to fundraise for any charity. And I think most people probably fall in between those two things and will only put the extra effort in if there is some other "reward" for them than just the knowledge of having helped a charity.

Janet said:

In my case, I can't afford a holiday next year and couldn't afford more than a weekend away this year so the "free" holiday aspect of it was what spurred me on to try and raise the money..

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I personally would have a huge problem with this. If I can't afford to go on a holiday I don't go!! There is no way I'd expect friends, family and colleagues to pay for it. I accept it is excellent if the charity receives 50% of 4K, but I would expect to pay for the holiday section myself and expect the same from someone asking me to sponsor them!

I just see it as asking for 4K to send me on my next skiing holiday, while I promise to give 2k to charity...............

I have done one of these walks and although I enjoyed it, it certainly wasn't a holiday. You have to do all of the walk and it is tough. Collecting the money is not that easy either. I went on my own. Everybody on the trip was very nice but it really isn't the same when you are not with your own. It is an excellent way of seeing the views of a country that you probably wouldn't see if you were holidaying there yourself.