So, I decided to bite the bullet...

[Legs]

and register for the WHW (ILPH) challenge in September, trekking from the west to the east coast of Scotland!
Six days of six hours of riding (will be taking a seat saver!!) and camping out every night
I got an email back last week and I got the last place Very, very excited but it really is a challenge. I need to raise £1500 for them by the end of the summer and meet deadlines in getting the money to them (£500 by end of April etc etc). Only thing is, when I told OH, he was jealous that I was going to get a holiday paid for me, the cheeky bug**r! I really don't want people to get that impression! I had to hand over a fairly hefty deposit and the money raised goes to helping them do their fantastic job, rescuing and rehabilitating horses in the UK and overseas, plus I see it as I would any fund raiser, I'm asking for sponsorship to do something in aid of a good cause.
I'm just about to set up a justgiving account and will try and spread the word, hopefully people will be generous Along with writing begging letters to my friends and family to give me a hand, and trying to arrange a show in the summer at my yard with everything raised going to them, might even throw in a BBQ after show if they're lucky!
If I get really stuck I might do something completely un-horsey and do a bake sale or something (as my OH tells me I'm becoming somewhat of a baker) and ask if I can display in the farmers market?
They've sent me tons of leaflets and letters to photocopy so shouldn't be a problem advertising, not really sure what I'm supposed to do with the 30 different A2 posters and the dvd though!?!

 

[bluntcrayon]

TBH... I agree with your OH. How much of that £1500 actually goes to the cause and how much on your trip?? If you can raise the money yourself as you suggest doing bake sales, organising shows etc that's fantastic, but in my mind it isn't fair to ask people to 'donate' money when it's actually paying for you to go on a nice trekking holiday in Scotland... yes a certain % goes to charity but the vast majority of that cash is paying for you to go, just look at the cost of a week's trekking and you don't get much change from £1500 I presume.

I don't mean to be harsh but I work for a very reputable charity and we don't touch these 'challenges' because they actually raise very little cash if people only achieve the basic - it's more an exercise in raising awareness and gambling on people exceeding their targets.

 

[Legs]

Sorry, wasn't very specific, I put in the initial deposit of £200 and in a letter, they told me that a further £300 would pay for the trekking.

I am obviously going to raise as much as I can via my own means but I think I'll be able to raise well over £300, therefore covering those costs for the trek and with spare going to the charity.

But I don't think asking for sponsorship that doesn't go towards the trek and goes straight to the charity is selfish of me.

I'm not doing it simply for the fun of it, obviously I can't deny it would be an experience but I've been playing with ideas to raise money for them since the beginning of last year and only read about the challenges a few months ago, if it was running a marathon I'd do it because I really care about this charity, it just so happens that they have horsey challenges.

Even in a best case scenario, if people did sponsor me and I reached the £1500 completely through people giving, I would still raise with a target of £500 as there is no limit to what you can give them.

If I only raised the £1500 then of course, £1200 would go to the charity but £300 would go towards the trek but if I managed to raise a lot of sponsorship and on the justgiving site, say £1500 and I raised £500, £1700 would go to the charity and £300 of what I raise would go towards it.

 

[bluntcrayon]

Oh OK, I understand - it was just in your first post you said your OH was jealous you were getting a holiday for free - hence I thought you were paying for your trip out of your sponsor money. Great if you can raise the money yourself, and very admirable - I just think it is only fair to bear part of the cost of the holiday yourself. People should be aware when they donate that X amount goes to the cause, but Y pays for admin/trip/whatever. At the charity where I work we say '80p of every £1 donated is spent on our work' (this is higher than average). The remaining 20p goes on admin and fundraising activities. However if we said '35p of every £1 is spent on our work, 20p on admin and the remaining 45p goes company cars, ski trips and private school fees for the execs' kids', obviously people wouldn't be impressed.

 

[Legs]

I think he was joking/hinting that he'd like a break
It will be part of my gap year and we've already discussed going to a country in need of aid and 'helping humans' as he likes to put it
I'll make sure I put down all of the details with regard to where the money is going but I think if I raise about £300 myself, it works out well.