I have to admit that when I saw the trailer for tonights Dispatches my heart sank. Apparently, according to a press release by the London Marathon, Dispatches are going to accuse them of creaming off excessive funds intended for charities and claiming that monies that should be going to charities is disappearing into a separate trading company. The London Marathon have just released this press release:
VLM press releasePersonally I'm more than slightly annoyed that Channel four have decided to air this program only 16 days before the race, as someone who's trying to raise money for make-a-wish foundation I know that I'm going to find my fundraising over the next couple of week even harder than it already is.
I'll have to wait until I see the program but I'm already expecting the worst.
Comments
The programme is about how much they make from all of the entrance fees, pay their top execs and things like that. Whatever you raise for MaW will ALL go to them.
So far I've raised 1100, I was hoping to get 1850.
My donation page
What i do have a gripe about with fundraising nowadays is how the money is raised. Back in the day you would tell people you were doing something heroic or gruelling, ask them to write their pledge down, then collect money afterwards when it is done.
Now, everyone is asked / harassed to donate beforehand, weeks, sometimes months in advance, because someone's wifes sisters cleaner is walking 400 yards. Not only is it a lot more trivial, but say the person doing it gets injured the day before, or simply wakes up and doesn't fancy it ? The vast majority has already been donated, making a bit of a mockery of the 'challenge'.
Glad worthwhile charities get good money out of it, just wished all the money side was done after the event, not before.
Yours
Scrooge of Sidcup
For this years race I got my place through work, our school is on the marathon route and we will be manning a water station as well as having myself and another teacher taking part. As I got a guaranteed entry, I didn't need to go though the same process I did last time, trying to get a place through a charity. This year I was in the fortunate position of being able to choose which charity to run for.
The problem is, most charity place demand a non-refundable "deposit", in my case, back in 2006 when I ran for the Anthony Nolan trust, I had to pay £200 up front. Additionally I also paid for my entrance fee. As part of this golden bond application I also had to pledge to raise a minimum of £1600, a sum that did not include my "deposit" of £200.
If you have never tried to raise a substantial sum for charity you'll know that you can't do it overnight. The whole process can be extremely laborious and somewhat demoralising, particularly when people who have pledged money don't pay up for months on end. The advantage of donating money up front is that I don't have to spend months on end chasing people up. After the last marathon I took part in I waited so long for some people to pay up that I made up for the shortfall in pledges by paying out myself.
My fundraising for this year has been divided into areas, online donation and people pledging to donate via the traditional sponsorship form. I'm not too sure but I think with the online donation you can opt to not pay the sponsorship until I have completed the race.
Indeed it did. I don't really think it "attacked" London Marathon Ltd, merely highlighted the apparent lack of transparency as to where the money comes from and where it goes.
The highlighting of the "advertising packages" in particular will have been an eye-opener to most (not me, have worked a lot with charities in the past and knew all about that and the Golden Bond).
Personally, I am growing increasingly uncomfortable with the way charities raise money these days - in particular the "challenge events".
"Can you sponsor me because I'm going trekking in the Himalayas to raise money for X and I need to raise a minimum of £2k", comes the email from Julie F*ckwit in HR. Tell you what Julie, how about I give some money direct to the charity and DON'T pay for your free "life experience"/holiday?
As a runner, I've always been critical of the way the marathon as an event has drifted from a celebration of sporting endeavour, to the fun run it is today.
The thing that annoyed me about the show was the way that the Marathon organisers control the monopoly on long distance running events in the capital. I've always wondered why we could have another marathon in London (Berlin for example has three or four every year), for me the whole point of these events is to encourage people to improve their health and to promote the sport of long distance running.
I f***ing HATE all these stupid charity events that are an excuse for some c*** in HR (and it's ALWAYS some c*** in HR) going backpacking through Nepal, or walking the inca trail or some other fantastic thing that they're supposed to have done on their f***ing gap year that they now want US to pay for. There's someone at work doing this in the next few weeks - and has loads of sponsorship for it - whilst a woman who is running the marathon is struggling to get anyone to sponsor her. Out of sheer spite I sponsored her a hundred quid and put £1 down on his sign-up sheet.
You know it Leroy. I've just done some work for a fairly well known charity who regularly organise events like this. I wont say which one and will change the amounts - but keep the same ratios - but they run a regular event that works like this;
There's a £100 "registration fee" payable by all participants and they also make a £1,000 "minimum sponsorship" pledge.
The event itself costs them £360 a pop per person of hard costs to run (i.e. not central admin costs) - so basically the first £360 of sponsorship money goes nowhere near the charitable cause. If everyone raises the minimum amout they "make" £740, but then less central admin costs, printing, back office, etc.- so not too bad. However, over the last 4 years approx 15% of participants haven't paid anymore than the £100 reg fee, and a further 40% have raised less than the "minimum" pledge. So, basically, some poor f**ckers have not only lobbed in £360 so their mate can go on holiday, they've also lobbed in a wedge so that some other people they've never met can go and have a "life changing experience" at their expense. And they are the ones who genrally act all self-righteous as if they are the new Bob Geldof!
Unfortunately people still think that 80-99% of the money they give to charities in sponsorship, etc actually goes towards the cause they are supporting - but that is a long way off the mark, particularly so for this type of event. Overall it still raises money for charity so is a positive, but the charity really is much better off if you just made a "traditional" donation than take part in this sort of thing.
Trust me on this one.
Not because we weren't looking to charge them mind you, but they said they didn't think they needed to pay. Felt like telling the bird that it was them that was the charity, not me/my firm, but was discouraged from doing so by the senior person at my gaff in charge of the account. I wont be doing anything else for them.
That said, these next few weeks are a deservedly selfish time for you...at this stage, you've done what you can, now go out there and relish the event itself. You've done the work, now enjoy the fruit of your labours.
Hope things go well on the day...I'm in the midst of watching long range weather forecasts for mine right now!
I'm going to have to put all the fundraising to the back of my mind now, the next couple of weeks are al about getting my mind right for the race.
VFR I don't know what your taper's like (oh er missus) but if you're interested theres a decent 10k in Newham next weekend. It runs up to the stadium and I suspect that if not next year, then maybe 2012 itself it'll be one of the first 'events' going on in it. Might be one of those that'll be oversubscribed by 2012 if you've not entered before. I ran it last year and was well organised and a pretty decent goodie bag.
Newham 10k
Don't get me started on the London Marathon and the way it treats proper runners...
Small charities may not have the slickness, presentation and general marketing bollocks of larger organisations but they are invariably run by dedicated people, often volunteers who offset their expenses as a donation, and the money goes to the sharp end of the cause promoted. In my experience.
In my view it's about time the Charity Commission forced ALL charities to prominantly publish the percentage of their income that goes on overheads/running costs, etc against that which goes directly for charitable purposes. That way people can choose who they want to support and the badly run charities - large and small - will get a kick up the jacksy!
I wouldn't disagree with your last suggestion.
Bournemouthaddick, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts, whether by whisper or publicly. My sister lives in London (well, basically in the environs of Hampton Court now, but has lived in Docklands, southwest and various other places over the past 10 years), and I have been quite excited about the prospect of doing London next year, especially if the southeastern part of teh route remains intact. I take it you've got a cautionary tale?
Good luck with Boston, I would love to run it one day, in fact I would want to run Boston before I run any other race in the states. I'm doing Rotterdam next spring where I aim to go for a Boston qualification time. And yes, I will be very twitchy next week!
Very weird VFR! If you got at least one 20 in by now you'll be fine so take it easy fella 'cos from this moment on you can't do much good at all only hurt your chances (not that you need me to tell you that). I've not ran Boston (nowhere near the qualifying time I last time I looked many years ago) but I can highly recommend Chicago and Washington.
Can-addick, if you get a chance to run London do it! It is a fabulous event that every runner should have a crack at. That's my issue with it really. It is so very, very difficult to get into for the ordinary club/recreational runner. I've been fortunate to get in 4 times through a mixture of good luck in the ballot and getting a club entry or two but year on year it gets more difficult with the amount of charity places held back. As in sold. I'd happily raise a few £100 if that's what it took but when they are asking for £1500 upwards it puts it out of the reach of most runners tbh as people tend not to sponsor you as much/at all if they know you've done it before and it's a bit cheeky asking them to. I've given up to be honest.
Basically it's become too much about making money and they are marketing it more and more towards elite athletes and then the charity runner (many of whom end up not putting the trainng in, walking the whole course or dropping out before or during the race) to the detriment of the average club runner who rarely gets to run in a well supported, well organised, big city marathon. Difficult I know because it raises huge amount for charity and there's a place for fancy dress and one off charity runners but if you look at the aims of the marathon when it started it wasn't to rake in millions for the organisers and/or charities it was to raise the overall standard of long distance running in the UK. It's hardly achieving that now.
I think that's why overseas marathons are so popular with club runners: 1. you can get in and 2. because, rightly or wrongly, the emphasis is usually on the race itself rather than raising money. If you want to raise a bit for a charity that's great but it's not the primary purpose of the event.
Ironically, as an overseas entrant, I believe you stand a far higher chance of getting into next years marathon than I do as they go into a seperate ballot (at least they used to)...
...oh yeah whilst I'm ranting, if I hear Steve Cram describing someone on course for a sub 4:00 as a "fun runner" one more time I may not be responsible for my actions...
My total mileage for this week will only be 20 miles (down from the 40+ I was doing before I got injured) with next week being five days of light jogging around the block before the big day. The physio reckons I should be OK, having ran 20 miles for my last LSR.
I agree with everything you say BA, I ran the Cologne Marathon a few years ago and the entry process involved going on line, entering my card details and that was it, I was in. I had the same for the Rotterdam marathon (which I've deferred to next year), equally as easy to get on to.
The problem with The London Marathon is that it has become purely a fund raising spectacle and I think this has a lot to do with the British attitude to such events. I found that when I lived in Germany, people ran Marathons as part of a fitness goal, you wouldn't see many people running for charity or wearing a silly costume. When I announced to people at work that I was going to run the London Marathon the automatic response was, "who are you running that for then?" People in Britain just can't think of the Marathon as anything other than a fund raising process, it's as if you can't run a marathon for any reason other than raising money for charity.
When you consider that one of the original goals of the Marathon in London was to, "..improve the overall standard and status of British marathon running", looking at the constant stream of Kenyans (with the exception of Paula Radcliffe and Yamaguchi) crossing the finish line nearly 10 minutes in front of the closest Brit, the London Marathon has failed as an athletics event. 1993 was the last time a male British runner won the marathon, 2003 for women.
I would like to see another London Marathon, one where the emphasis is on running and sporting achievement rather than raising money for charity. London is a big enough city to sustain two marathons, in fact, there is opportunity for a flatter, straighter course that would challenge the dominance of Berlin as the home of the Marathon world record.