>I'm sometimes a bit sceptical giving money to friends I'm a runner/biker and I know dozens of people that do these charity events. I even went to an informati

>I'm sometimes a bit sceptical giving money to friends I'm a runner/biker and I know dozens of people that do these charity events. I even went to an informational session for one, since I was thinking about it... the way these charity events generally work, at least here in U.S. (not sure about that particular event in Australia and the fundraising requirement it imposes) is that the participant is required to raise a minimum of 3X the amount of the expenses for doing the event. So for example, if the hotel/airfare, event registration, and other misc training costs (generally this is water/snacks for group training on the weekends, e.g. the classic long run on a Sat morning for marathon training) are roughly $1000, then the participant will be asked to raise $4000. And of that $4000, $1000 goes to letting them do the event and $3000 goes to the charity. That was for the one I went to, not to name it specifically however it was a marathon in a foreign country. So airfare and hotel and the pasta meal the night before. A local event won't need so much diverted so the fundraising burden will be much lower. I've done local charity events which only required $250 (no fancy travel or lodging), so rather than bug all my friends I just wrote a check and submitted a matching form from my employer! So on the one hand, if your goal is to donate to the charity, you are better off giving money directly. But that's true of most fundraising situations as well. On the other hand, if you view the expense as the cost of getting donors, maybe that is reasonable. A mildly obscure disease might not have a better way of attracting donations other than aligning with a sports event. I'm just speculating here since the specifics probably vary hugely and I have zero experience on the race director side of the registration table or with the fundraising side of a charity. ;) Basically, I can understand your skepticism - your donation money is more effectively used directly to the charity or on people doing local events. If the goal event involves travel and hotels, then a chunk of the money raised by the participant goes towards them doing the event.