Hello everyone!

I live somewhere where there are no things like 'Charity walks' or 'DaretoBare' campaigns. What I would like to understand is what is the logic of it?

In the case of a charity walk you get sponsored to walk while wearing smth that indicates your relation to a cause. Is the assumption 'lots of people see a big group of people walking with a badge, therefore become aware about the cause and, hopefully, donate to it'? If so, it's understandable to me.

Okay.

But what about 'DareToBare' or something like that? In this case a woman gets sponsored to not use makeup for some period of time, and that's it. That's her 'badge'. If I see a woman without makeup, I don't automatically think 'Oh, cancer sure is a big problem'. So it's not that effective and a logical step would be for a company not to sponsor people, but simply donate money.

See where I'm going with this?

It all depends on how the charity is "set up".

For walks, most who participate will get donors before the event, such that if they walk 5k, the donor will pay a specific amount for reaching the goal.

Other charities are about recognition, with the purpose of getting people interested in it such that they may want to donate.

Companies use charities as advertising platforms in exchange for their donation. The more money given, the more they're expected to see their brand placed everywhere. I find it a disgusting practice, but charities aren't going to turn away free cash.

Good companies will donate to the cause if they find value in it, and do so anonymously.

Personally, I dislike charities because of what goes on behind the scenes. Volunteers, by my definition, means no salary, so it boggles my mind when I hear of CEOs earning millions from a charity event.

Now, if I give, it's only canned foods and toys. CEOs can't buy boats and houses with chicken noodle soup and Barbie dolls.

It's exactly the same thing, blatant attention seeking for a good cause. No-one is going to sponsor research to help a disease they don't know about and most corporate donations are for PR (which means they're going to fund cancer or AIDS research). When it's just being used for cancer there is a certain element of attention seeking for oneself rather than for the cause due to the publicity cancer research already has.

The fact you're talking about how much it doesn't make you think cancer is a big problem is proof that it did its job, because it made you think about cancer.

When I was a kid, I had to go around getting sponsors to give me X amount of money for fasting for 40 hours. Then you get certified for that, go back to them all and collect the dosh. Basically knocking up all your neighbors, kind of stressful.

Geez, they just gave me the money.

I don't understand. I understand charity walks, because big groups of people walking = raising awereness, you know, by people seeing a crowd with badges. How does fasting help in raising awareness?

Exactly! That's what would make sense. You knock on their door, tell them 'x is a big problem, please donate', you get money. Done...

Is fasting supposed to make you more compassionate towards starving people or something?

yeah, i don't do that kind of stuff. i just give what ever cash is in my wallet to some one who looks like they need it and is asking for help. except this one time i wrote a couple hundred dollar check to some kind of homeless veteran thing.

Well, some of those housewives get lonely. And this was before the invention of Viagra.

Hey, if I knocked you up you would be aware of it. Probably.

No. It's attention seeking. Only you can't just fund an advertising campaign so you have to do something else wacky to get attention. If you just ask for money they're more likely to tell you to piss off, if you're doing something they're more likely to pay you.

So it's like, If I see a starved guy I would be more likely to give him money?

I suppose it makes sense. Kind of. A little.

You obviously have noticed these activities, and know what they are for so they have done their job.

Well, there are no things like this where I live, so I know about DaretoBare and charity walks from stuff like Seinfeld and such. We do have charities, and door-to-door people who ask for donations. But they don't starve themselves or anything,

Charity, like everything else, benefits most from word of mouth promotion.

I support (financially) a particular charity. I mention them occasionally if the subject comes up in conversation, but no one would say I 'promote' them. If they did an organized 'event' I would participate. Because I was participating I would be letting family and friends and even vague acquaintances know that I support that charity. Those people may or may not be inclined to 'sponsor' me, but it would raise awareness among them regarding my own support and make the charity much more a topic of conversation around me for some period of time.

No, it's more like recognizing that someone is going to strive for/show dedication to something (fast for X time, run X kilometers, dance for X time, etc) and sponsoring their attempt. Doesn't always make sense, but hey....

Only thing like that I ever did was in the early 80's in the Boy Scouts - we had "Bowl-a-Thons". I don't remember what it was raising money for; was probably feed the hungry or something like that. We'd go door-to-door to get sponsors at various amounts of money per pin, then we'd go and try to bowl as well as we could - the higher our score, the more money we'd get. Like any of the other "activity"-thons (marathon, dance-a-thon, etc), it adds a sense of competition & striving to do the best you can, for the volunteers.

But, yeah.. some of the charity events that have sprung up over the decades are a bit wacky. (And yes - the whole issue of how much money actually goes to the charity's purpose, and how much is taken up in administration & overhead, is a big issue.)

Then that makes it even more effective? They don't even happen near you and you know about it.