Origins and Justifications for the Sponsor Me Doing X Charity Activity?
April 12, 2013 2:08 PM Subscribe
A friend has just posted that he is trekking up some mountain in Africa "to raise money for charity X" and is asking friends to 'sponsor him' (i.e. donate to the charity). He is aiming to raise a few thousand dollars or so - which is probably actually less than the trip and trek will cost him. Which just makes it seem the most self-serving hypocritical rubbish I've ever heard of. Am I wrong? What is the sort of ethical model that people have in their heads for these kinds of activities?
I just don't get the rational for the whole thing. So person A wants to do some relatively extreme thing that will cost a lot of money. But thinks "Wait, I'll do it for Charity (although I was going to do it anyway)".
Where did this practice start? Do people just not realise that it is really just self-serving / self-promoting? It just seems so myopic.
Often if they instead just donated all the money that the activity will cost - and hassled some friends to also kick in they might raise more money. But no. That's not how it works.
I've even had a colleague bring in a home made cake to work and then sell slices to "raise money for a charity" - to a total of what 5 quid for cancer research or something. Is this just years of brainwashing that "every little bit counts".
I just don't get the rational for the whole thing. So person A wants to do some relatively extreme thing that will cost a lot of money. But thinks "Wait, I'll do it for Charity (although I was going to do it anyway)".
Where did this practice start? Do people just not realise that it is really just self-serving / self-promoting? It just seems so myopic.
Often if they instead just donated all the money that the activity will cost - and hassled some friends to also kick in they might raise more money. But no. That's not how it works.
I've even had a colleague bring in a home made cake to work and then sell slices to "raise money for a charity" - to a total of what 5 quid for cancer research or something. Is this just years of brainwashing that "every little bit counts".
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is a rant, not a question. -- restless_nomad
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