Running a big city marothon?

the people of the UK are famed for raising money for good causes and in order to do this they'll freely give of their time money and effort, to help those less fortunate than themselves. However one way of helping the 'charity' of your chioce is to run a marathon (26 miles) to raise money, with 'sponsors' donating or backing you.

Be warned, do you know were your hard earned donations are going? I'm sorry to say that the charity of your choice probly wont see the money, or very little of it.

Heres how it works. A 'company' (that could be an individual, or group of people, etc) owns the name of the marothon, Lets call them 'City Marothon Company'.

City Marothon Company', then form a second company and calls it 'City Marothon 2' and registers it as a charity.

City Marathon 2 then engages backing from other companys and television coverage rights to sponsor them, allowing them to advertise their product and then banking the resulting revenue.

City Marothon 2 then contacts certain registered charities and sells them places in their marothon at £300 per place, then banks this revenue. Say they allocate 10,000 places, limiting the number of places available, thats 10,000 x £300 going into the bank account of City Marothon 2

This cost of course is beyond the means of many 'small' charities so they are barred from entry into the marothon.

The large charities then allocate their alloted places to choosen successful applicants at a cost of say £20 per entry plus a 'contract' stating they must each individully raise £1400 for that charity.

The cost of organising and marshalling that marothon  is paid by City Marothon 2 but being a 'charity' it doesnt have to pay certain taxes and gets reduced rates for services such as police, medical and the cleaning up the streets etc. (sometimes these are given free)

The police and street services are of course paid for out of our income tax and comunity poll tax. So the bill for the marothon is considerable small change.

The £millions left in the City Marothon 2 bank account is then transfered into the coffers of the original company (City Marothon Company).

So you see, next time you run your socks off for charity, the recipricant of your hard earned money could be sat on a motor yacht in the Mediteranean watching you on satalite TV.

We have known this for an long time, most our "Scouts" look into how much money is given back to the organization for the effort put forth. We would rather simply as parents Pay out the funds and know our kids are getting 100 percent of the money, instead of 20 cents on the dollar for someting we really dont' need to begin with...not only that, but for us working parents it help us from not having our kids out roaming the street to solicit money..they don't go beyond thier own neighborhoods...so its an "safety issue" as well. I do though have no problem of the school itself rasing funds in some kind of an carnival or "event" there. But you know with the economy like it is right now, many teachers are simply handing out news clips of what it is they need for what event....and to get ahold of the school....rather then having fund-raisers also....they take up an temedous amount of people's time. One of the the best and highest money making fund raisers in the Portland Area, is once an year...Catlin Gable School, an "private" school...which  has an "Rummage Sale" in wealthier West Portland..and they have an reputation for the expensive things they sell at this rummage for VERY good prices. They have been known to sell cars, mink coats, jewels, furniture, etc....besides ordindary everyday type stuff. They put an "ad" in the paper once an year, and never around an Holiday...like Christmas for example when everyone else is "pushing" crafts they have made. Each parent holds their own sort of small "area" to sell things, anyway they want to sell it also. They then decide how much they want to contribute to the school also. As far as I know, they don't buy their space to sell the stuff either...it's in an Gym, out to the parking lot if need be.One of the most sucessful "Rummage" sells of today..and word goes "fast" if your goods are well worth the price.

i read recently cant remember where,does anyone  remember the 3 soldiers bringing the cd out for charity just before christmas.                    the cd was retailing for £ 10  plus and only 38p per disc was going to the soldiers charity --funny old world.

i had an idea re/your post michael.