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.

It still felt funny to be connecting the two. I have fund-raised in the past, but not by saying that I was riding or doing something else in exhcange for the fund-raising. But I loved the training and the group, and I was succesful in raising $3000 for a good cause, so I will probably do it again.
I don't do fundraising rides for the training. I'll be riding my bike anyway. I do the fundraisers to make something good out of it, so it's not purely self-indulgent.

I worked my butt off to do 5 consecutive Livestrong rides. Planned my entire year around all of them, sacrificed my social life so I could train, experienced lots of stress trying to get ready for them. My life would have been a lot easier if I had not done them.