Alzheimers

[barry grannell]

I am fundraising for the Alzheimers society because my mum has advanced stages of this terrible disease.I am trekking the Inca Trail in may 2012 and need to raise a minimum of £3200. I could think of no better place to post this message because Terry has brought this terrible disease to the attention of the many. If you feel you can help me raise these funds by donating then please visit my fund raising page on " justgiving.com " my page is barrygrannell

I thank you all in anticipation of your help.

Kind Regards

Barry Grannell

[poohcarrot]

Hi Barry

I hiked the Inca trail in 1988. If you look at the Twurps Peerage bios in the Broken Drum you can see me (page 2) at Machu Pichu at 6 am.
Why do you need 3,200 pounds? You can do it a lot cheaper than that.

[Tonyblack]

It's £3,200 because that's how much the organisation that runs the thing says you have to raise. SEE HERE for details.

Oddly enough, I don't see anything there about how much of the £3,200 goes to the actual charity. Can you supply details of that?

I don't want to sound mean, but wouldn't it be better for me to make a donation straight to the charity?

That way I know exactly how much of my money is supporting the charity rather than having no idea how much of it is going towards funding some one's holiday.

Still - I wish you luck.

[The Mad Collector]

Having looked at several of these sort of trips the usual cost is half the minimum amount to be raised. So Alzheimers would get £1600 out of the £3200 and even less than that if the money is collected through a site such as justgiving.com which charges a commission.

Effectively 50p in every pound raised goes to pay for somebody's holiday

[Tonyblack]

I can't say I'm surprised that so little actually goes to the charity. But I'm a cynical git.

I wonder if the company running these things is registered as a charity. After all, they are sort of collecting for charity and if they had charitable status they'd get big tax breaks.

I'm with Sam Vimes on this - if something doesn't make sense then work out where the money is going.

[archerinwood]

Maybe that's for the flight?

[poohcarrot]

Can't you walk from Lands End to John O'Groats? That'd be a lot cheaper.

If I want to lie on Copacabana beach for a week and it costs 1,000 pounds, if people donate 2,000 pounds, then a charity can get 1,000 pounds and I can get a free holiday.

[pip]

Cheques in the post Pooh.

[poohcarrot]

I hope it's not an Irish bank cheque.

Give a man a horse and not let him ride it.

[Tonyblack]

Can't you walk from Lands End to John O'Groats? That'd be a lot cheaper.

But you'd have to carry your own luggage. According to the website, part of the cost of this Inca Trail thing is that you get some local to carry it for you.

[pip]

I hope it's not an Irish bank cheque.

Give a man a horse and not let him ride it.

Don't worry its a reliable euro cheque

[poohcarrot]

Eh? I carried my own. Sedan chairs aren't mentioned, are they?

[deldaisy]

I actually used to work for a rather large medical foundation. Large budgets too..... one summer we raised $20 million for prostrate cancer research alone. And I will proudly list the ground breaking research and developments they DID develop (mainly for babies).

BUT its heart breaking to know how much money it COSTS to raise charity money. And the means that they use to GET that money (alot of pulling at heart strings....) I love the foundation. I love the research and many thousands around the world owe their life to them... but I don't know if I would ever have the heart to work for a charity organisation again. You don't raise millions upon milllions without expert management and marketing and the hundreds of professionals to do it.

In fact that part of my resume is always questioned.... Oh! You worked for X? So you did charity work? No.. I got paid alot of money to work for them in a very professional capacity.

Yes! They raise money and every cent raised is good... but it COSTS.

[Tonyblack]

It costs even more if you are actually selling adventure holidays cunningly disguised as charity.

[deldaisy]

It costs even more if you are actually selling adventure holidays cunningly disguised as charity.

Or giving away 1 to 2 million dollar homes eight times a year......