Charity tasks

So some people will do some onerous tasks for charity (including some people on this very forum). My feeling is that such tasks should require the participant to do something that they don't entirely want to do. Good for them me thinks.
I thought "Good on Jesse J" when she shaved her head for charity. But then it seems that months later, she's still sporting a very short crop, so it looks to me that she really just wanted a public makeover. Whilst the end goal is good in that she raised lots of money, it seems rather disingenuous to me and rather takes away from those people who do a similar task sincerely.

completely agree! i jumped out of a plane for charity, enjoyed it but initially i was sh*t scared. whereas she was definately planning on having short hair anyway

[yorkie_chris]

That's my usual rant... tw*ts who use "charideee" as an excuse to go skydiving/climb a mountain etc. when the majority of the funds raised go to fund their entertaining activity.

My opinion is you'd better cough up for the fun bit yourself, otherwise you've got no fookin chance of me contributing towards it!

[Red ones]

But most of those deals work on the individual paying the cost of the activity, and the sponsorship going to the charity?
Remembering that the activity is actually about raising profile of the charity and is an advertising thing, otherwise why not just give the money direct to the charity??

infact YC i did pay for the jump myself i just forgot to mention it. a family member passed away due to a condition so i done the jump which i DID pay for and then all the money i raised went to the charity.

Originally Posted by Red ones

But most of those deals work on the individual paying the cost of the activity, and the sponsorship going to the charity?
Remembering that the activity is actually about raising profile of the charity and is an advertising thing, otherwise why not just give the money direct to the charity??

Not how they're sold to participants. If you look at these charity cases where you can ride a bike across Africa where it'll get delivered to a doctor who can then use it to visit villages, you have to raise (something like) £4500 and then it's free to you.
A friend of mine who worked at a big city bank and retired at age 42 needed to raise £5k to do a trip to Machu Picchu. I didn't sponsor that.

[Littlepeahead]

I ran, well half walked and half jogged 10k once - I am lazy, I didn't own any trainers so did it in Converse sneakers and bear in mind here if I can send a work experience to the sweet shop to buy Maltesers rather than get off my bum and walk there I will. I raised a couple of hundred quid and looked a sweaty mess and ached all over the next day.

A few months later for the same charity I put on a slinky low cut dress, high heels and a bit of lip gloss then shimmied round a cricket ground selling raffle tickets to mildly boozed up lads using the line "Who'd like a strip for a fiver?" and raised £1000 in 4 hours.

Which just goes to show that sometimes the task doesn't have to be a challenge to raise the most money.

I have no problem with taking advantage of people (within reason) to make money for good causes, it's more as YC said about getting something other than inner peace for yourself that I object to.