Quote Originally Posted by aronan View Post
Maybe because you feel like people are asking for money in exchange for receiving training and recreation/trips for themselves as well as for whatever cause they are asking you to contribute to? I know I have felt like that about Team in Training for years, as I got asked for contribusion again and again by a friend who use the program to train for rides and races both near and far.

Yet this year I joined the program myself, because I wanted to get in better shape and it seemed like a great training program. I also have a close friend with cancer, so it seemed like a good cause to put time into. I dealt with the conflict (or what feels like a conflict to me), by stating to everyone up-front that I was donating the 25% of the minimum fund-raising amount that went to cover the groups administrative and fund-raising costs. That made it easier for me to ask for others to contribute to the rest of my fund-raising goal.
I did something similar when going to Hawaii to run a marathon with the American Stroke Association a few years ago. I'd hit a wall in fundraising and, I figured it would cost me X dollars to go to Hawaii if I was going without them, so I just covered it myself. It seemed fair.

TnT now has an option where you can choose to cover your own travel. I like that. I also opted for a local event to avoid the appearance that I was getting some kind of vacation for free.

I can't say that I feel any type of conflict about it, though. If I was hired by a charity to do fundraising, I'd be collecting a salary. Instead of a paycheck, the charity trains people for endurance events, and they benefit both financially and by getting their name out there.

I wonder what the re-up percentage is with TnT. I know it's pretty high. Once you've trained for your first endurance event, you really can do the next one on your own, so I really believe people who go back do it because of a belief in the cause, even if their original focus happened to be on their own training needs.