No offense intended but,
I am skeptical about anyone being a member for two weeks then hitting up everybody for donations to help their friend with some horrible disease or other.

I think there is a credibility issue here.

PoC

Best of luck to you on the run and to your freind on the bigger battle. I'll go hit your link now.

Personally, since it a well-known fundraiser in the sport, I'd be inclined to trust the original poster. And I believe the way their site works is that the donation goes directly to TnT. Also, it is a group that many newbies to the sport participate with -- so it being a newer poster and in that group also makes sense.

Personally, I don't donate when it is posted to a board like this: we all have friends and family raising for causes, or we are raising ourselves. I instead pick the causes near and dear for me personally and keep my donations to that.

I didn't think this would be an ordeal/issue. All thesonicson did was ask, doesn't mean you have to respond or anything.

I've done it too on here and didn't get nothing but I wanted to try ( no pun intended ) so good for you on trying to see what you could get.

It's good to have another bouncer in the fold. Luckily I don't have to worry about if it's legit or not since I barely have enough money to take care of myself.

I kinda feel like a couple the others do... I'm with a fundraising team too, but I won't be hitting the boards up for it. I just don't feel comfortable with that. I have to say for myself, I won't donate to TNT or the like just because so much of the raised money goes to admin fees. The group I'm with is 100% supported by the members so any money raised goes to the society.

First and foremost, I'd like thank the one's that donated and you know who you are. That meant the world to me to see people like that be generous enough to put a few dollars towards a worthy cause. Yes, I am new to this site, but all I did was ask. It's a damn shame that this crazy world has created so many cynics now, that even the noblest of causes get questioned. But that's the type of society we live in now.
I also want to thank all of you for the support and encouragement on here, it truly means alot and brought a smile to my face when I read it and I wish the best to all of you in your endeavors.

Peace.
Tim

My 2 cents.

First, I'm not exactly guilt free. My signature at the bottom is the link to my fundraiser page.
Anyhow...

When I decided I raise money for Leukemia. TNT was the obvious first place to look.
I didn't sign up with them because I wasn't going to be able to take advantage of their help with training. I do think there are many people that are able to take advantage of this help and without that help might not make it to the starting line.
So the fact that some money is taken from the donations for administration fees isn't really so wrong. Think about the fact they've raised 800 million in 20 years. Without these participants, I'm guessing the people who donated to these athletes wouldn't have donated anything at all.

That being said, I did a bit of homework trying to find a way to make every dollar raised count. When I contacted Dana-Farber I asked how I could fund one specific Doctor's research and how I could do it with no overhead being taken out. They told me I had to raise $10,000 to be given the option to direct funds to a specific doctor's fund. Then there were just a couple forms I'd need to sign to have the "zero overhead" status.
$10,000 sounded like a bunch but it was the closest thing to perfect I could find.

I'm pleased to say that it's all worked out. I surpassed the goals about a week ago and it's still climbing. The Race is the Mooseman on June 7th.

I definitely encourage people to do a bit of homework when you decide to do a fundraiser. They do make it a bit difficult to get exactly what you want but you will never know until you ask.

Yes, please don't take any of the cynicism personally. And best of luck with your fundraising efforts, and wishes of health to Mark.

Ok, but what happens when "keeping it real goes wrong?" LOL (Dave Chappell comedy sketch, for those that know it are probably laughing their but off right now). Anyways, I take things with a grain of salt. So far, I have really enjoyed the opinions of everyone's post and answers to my own posts. I guess that's why I felt comfortable with what I did. And am glad I did. I believe in using ALL methods of fund-raising I can. I'm even planning on going to an exit off the interstate here and holding a sign with my tri suit & helmet on, with my bike to collect funds as well. I here the bums do pretty well there, so why the hell not. If I'm going to do this, might as well have fun doing it! :)

Tim

Be prepared to fight for the corner :) Here the homeless (ok, bums ...was trying to be politically correct) will fight for "their" space. They get dropped off at the corner by someone in a nice car in the morning and "fundraise" all day. I can tell you they are not from the neighborhood. In any case, a few years ago there was a study done the AVERAGE panhandler took home 35k a year tax free. GO FOR IT I say!

Good luck with your fundraising and the race!