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May 21, 2013
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Bulletin Boards -> Anything Else -> Charity Running Programs - What Do You Think

Message Category: Anything Else
Topic: Charity Running Programs - What Do You Think
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 		Mike From Shangai-Another Limiting Factor
Lee
11/23/05 1:07:32 PM ET

Mike, history tells us there is another factor that may help bring the charity runner problem under control. The current charity runner dispute is not the first charity related controversy in running. When the first running boom caused the number of runners to mushroom in the 1970's, many charities joined the rush to sponsor races for the new athletes. In fact, I understand that sponsoring a road race was number one on lists of money raising ideas published in charity newsletters at the time. Some of these charities conducted quality races from the start. Most, however, seemed to take the attitude that "my cause is so noble that runners should be grateful for a chance to give us money and so we don't have to worry about much more than collecting checks, designating a starting and finishing point, and having someone shot off a gun." (sort of reminds you of the "my cause is so noble I shouldn't have to obey the rules" attitude of some of the posters defending charity runners, doesn't it?) Concepts such as safe, accurately measured coures, sufficient aid stations, and accurate finish times were alien to such charities. For awhile it worked and charities raked in large profits from their races because even if they teed off 500 runners one year, with the number of runners doubling every year, the next year there would be 1000 new victims clamoring to enter their race. But all things come to an end, the growth in the number of new runners leveled off and as word got around among experienced runners, these charities found their entries and profits dropping. A few cleaned up their acts and now sponsor quality races, most looked elsewhere for fund raising ideas. But now, of course, one of those new ideas led the charities back to running - why not sponsor a "team" to train for established races? The effort required would be much less than putting on a quality race of their own and the rewards far greater since the fund raising requirements set for team members could be 10, 20, or even more times greater than any entry fee the charity could hope to charge for a race. And so we have the proliferation of charity teams and runners. But just as the number of runners willing to put up with substandard charity run races eventually put most such races out of business, the number of people willing to sponsor a charity runner may eventually remove most of the current problem. As the number of such runners increases their circle of friends and relatives are likely to overlap and donors may tire of being asked year after year being asked to donate to possibly several runners. Thus fund raising may become more difficult and the number of people be able to succeed at it may drop. There are some signs this may be already occurring. The sums of money that charity runners mentioned in their posts that they had to raise have been only about a third to a half of the required sums that I saw mentioned a few years ago. This may be an indication that the charities have been forced to settle for less profit per runner in order to keep their runner numbers up. But there is a limit as to how far they can reduce their goals. For charities that pay entry fees, hotel stays, and cross country travel as recruitment incentives for runners, the overhead costs were already over a third of the former higher fund raising requirements. As those requirements are reduced, the charities will be faced with watching their profits dwindle to only a small portion of the money collected or trying to cut recruitment incentives, which likewise would reduce numbers of runners and the profits. Either way, as they did previously with respect to sponsoring their own races, at least some charities may decide that the return is not worth the effort and drop out of the team sponsoring business thus perhaps bringing the charity runner problem down to a manageable level.

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