This is one of those blog posts that might come across as hypocritical, preaching or judgemental. Apologies. But I’mm also glad, as they often spark the most interesting conversations.
Here I go.
I’ve been mulling over the relationship between Adventure and Charity for a while. Perhaps ‘Adventure with Purpose’, or ‘Adventure for Good’ might be better phrases. There needn’t be a link, of course. Olympians don’t have to raise the profile of Donkeys r Us whilst striving towards their individual ambition. Entrepreneurs are not expected to complicate their busy days evangelising for Save The Whale. And most expeditions focus only on their direct goal. (Many exemptions apply, of course. A nod, say, to Jess, Tom, Ran.)
However, for some reason there is often a connection between an expedition and a charitable good cause. There are some inspiring examples in the industry (Patagonia’s activism, Haglofs’ sustainability goals, 1% for the planet, Alpkit’s Foundation) and from individuals (Rob Greenfield, Ben Smith, Jamie McDonald). This led me to consider if we might all be able to do a little more with the opportunities, voices and skills that we have. How can we all do our little bit of good, better?
Some of the reasons I’ve seen for linking adventures and charities are:
- A passion for a charity and its work; helping the charity (through cash or PR) is one of the core aims of trip.
- Raising the sponsorship necessary for a trip to happen.
- Creating wider good out of something that otherwise is just a personal challenge.
- Offering justification for a self-indulgent trip, the ‘raising awareness for world peace’ Pepsi commercial end of the spectrum.
My own experiences illustrate a few of these and may be useful for you to consider in planning your own adventures. (None of these, in any way, have been particularly onerous. I could have done far more, so please don’t think I am painting myself as a paragon of virtue.)
- Cycled coast to coast with two mates, aged 14. We raised a couple of hundred quid for the British Heart Foundation, and were mostly chuffed because they gave us a free t-shirt. Do something for fun, tack on a minor good deed.
- Off I pedalled round the world, with the Hope and Homes for Children logo on my website. I gave plugs to the charity through my email newsletter every so often, gave a load of school talks, mentioned them in interviews, and just about squeaked to my overall goal of raising £1 per mile. Do something big and make a bit of an effort to amplify a charity.
- Trying to raise big funding for expensive expeditions, mentioning in proposals how the expedition would raise wads of cash and garner great publicity for whatever charity I figured would resonate with the potential sponsor. This never sat comfortably with me, an ambitious return on investment quote as a means to launch a fun adventure.
- Giving talks, for free, at charity fund-raising events. These days I say no to most requests (a lack of time; a lack of effort put into some events when they get a speaker for free; a preference to focus on a few causes rather than spread thin etc. By the way, here is a useful link if, like me, you find it hard to say ‘˜no’), I get paid for a few, and I do some for free. Offering my ‘professional skill’ as a charitable donation.
- Running my own charity events (aka relying on people to give up their time and expertise to speak for free!). The 18 Nights of Adventure that have raised funds and awareness for Hope and Homes for Children have been a joy (albeit a joy that is a massive pain in the arse to organise). Using my time, contacts and audience to do some good.
- As well as cash, charities need the oxygen of publicity. Adventurers are able to help with this. I am delighted to be a patron of Hope and Homes for Children, The Youth Adventure Trust, and The Yorkshire Dales Society, for example.
- Finally, in the spirit of 1% for the Planet, but without the fees or the paperwork, I give a minimum of 1% of my income to environmental causes. It would be better if I gave more, of course, but this is a simple approach. Give cash.
Recently I have:
- Presented three charity evenings to decent sized audiences. They raised over £50,000. That’s more than I raised in four years of effort and hundreds of talks when cycling round the world!
- Helped make a film with a charity that has been watched, on various websites, more than a quarter of a million times.
- Written a blog post for a charity that has been read a few hundred times.
- Helped plant trees on a community planting day. (I only managed about 20 before my back hurt and I went in search of a cup of tea.)
The different impacts of these different activities are enormous. I’mm glad I did them all. But, being lazy, I am always keen to maximise the impact to effort ratio in everything I do.
So the two things on my mind after this are:
- 1. How can I maximise the impact of what I do, and
- 2. What can nudge others ‘you, the reader’ into ‘putting something back’ through your adventures without getting all hairshirt and martyrish about it?
If you are planning a big adventure I’d urge you to consider whether using it to raise funds / awareness for a cause you care about would be appropriate / feasible.
If you do decide to link your adventure to a cause then think carefully about your real motives for doing so, think clearly about what low-hanging fruit is available (the easy things you can do that will help), and think sensibly about how you can maximise the impact you have and minimise the lip service.
I am pretty sure that I am at the peak of my powers right now. I do not expect my profile to grow much larger. I say that not out of modesty. It is partly through choice (I feel the beat of different drums calling to me these days), and partly because every sun sets. New adventurers appear and old ones get grumpy and fade away to running quietly up hills on their own. So my current audience is about as big and engaged as it is ever going to be. I am not famous (thank god!), nor epically heroic and awesome (alas!), but I am aware that I do have a niche audience and therefore a degree of a voice.
My question then is what can I do better, more cleverly, and right now, to leverage adventure for good?
And how can the public-facing adventure community, of which I’mm a member, be less narcissistic and more community minded? I do not include those accomplishing genuinely difficult, inspiring stuff in this category, nor the millions of people who have normal lives and squeeze in adventures as much as they can. But how can I rally the individuals in an audience bigger than me – YOU in other words – through my voice-piece of adventure, to feel inspired to contribute to something bigger than ourselves?
Adventure in itself is a good thing to do with our time and life. But there are even more important things. These are things that we all care about too, not boring stuff like pensions and tax law. The environment and charitable causes close to our heart are two big examples. Yvon Chouinard seems an apt person to quote at the end of this piece about trying to learn to live a life that combines the things we love doing with the things we know to be important. ‘œTo do good you actually have to do something.’
This post is neither as pithy nor coherent as I thought it would be when I began. That, I am sure, is because my mind is not as coherent on this subject as I would like it to be. Which means, as I asked above, that I would love your thoughts, criticisms, links to articles and books, to help me / us delve deeper.
Thank you.
The methods you’ve described are certainly good for raising awareness and money, but they’re indirect methods. What about considering how to use ‘Adventure’ to more directly influence and help others? I know there are organisations that use adventurous activities to excite and empower those less able (autistic, physically disabled, etc.).
(And that’s certainly not meant to belittle the value of the indirect approach of course – horses for courses and all that)
Much of your inspirational nature is because you appeal to ‘normal’ people, encouraging us to get out and do something, anything, beyond our comfort zone. That attitude could easily be applied directly to those who are normally constrained in where they can go or what they’re expected to be able to do regardless of where their threshold for adventure is.
I love this post.
The one adventure I did was for charity.
I have to say I had never previously been attracted to adventure but it was an amazing way to earn money for charity (which I hadn’t really done previously either).
For me, it was the perfect formula. I had planned the fundraising before really knowing what the journey would entail, set myself a massive, unachievable target which really spurred me on to do something a bit crazy to make people donate. I’m not certain that this should be the way to get the drive to do the adventure but it really changed how I approached the whole thing.
I managed to raise over £21k in total. Having said that, the whole thing ended up putting me at the end of my overdraft but that wasn’t the point.
Taking stupid, dangerous risks and getting massive thrills when there’s the possibility of making a load of cash for charity feels great to me.
I’m not sure I could justify having a biggish scale adventure for any other reason than shouting like mad about something I really, really believe in. It’s a great formula and I can’t wait to do it again.
For me it’s all about the fundraising, otherwise it’s vanity (I’m judging because I don’t exactly get it) unless you’re doing some kind of scientific research, awareness raising or something which will have some other positive repercussions for society. I feel that if one has the drive to do big adventures, one is responsible to communicate something positive to a wider audience.
I think you do great stuff, Al, by the way. I know you don’t need to hear that but this kind of blog post is very necessary. I’m inspired to write one now!
[…] just read an article by the ace Alastair Humphreys where he encourages people to do a good thing when they plan an […]
I read this with great interest, as someone who does extreme long distance running and cycling for fun, and as a part-time musician who constantly gets asked to play for nothing in the name of charity.
My introduction to adventure also came through raising funds for charity – my uncle and aunt were diagnosed with cancer within a short space of time, and I decided I wanted to raise money for a charity that was supporting them and to get myself fit for when cancer inevitably came knocking for me. I had no idea what I was getting into!
A 100km night cycle round London led to a triathlon (which almost finished me off!), then to a marathon to 2 cycles up Mont Ventoux and now to 7 ultramarathons (which will hopefully be 9 by July).
I no longer raise money for charity in this way as I really feel I’d be doing all this anyway, it’s now just part of my lifestyle, which is much much healthier and happier as a result of a simple decision to set off on a charitable path.
I do play for charity but very occasionally. Now these gigs have to be something that is for a friend or very close to my heart as I just get asked too often now and my instrument is an expensive one with many strings and costs a lot of money and faff to transport and maintain.
(and I now refer to Fatboy Slim’s excellent 5 Fs for how he chooses whether to accept a gig – http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/fatboy-slim-the-superstar-dj-who-bounced-back-from-rehab-reveals-secret-of-the-five-fs-10251220.html).
So how else, and who do I choose, to support? With recent world events I am giving this a lot of thought at the moment, but I am fortunate to work for an employer who encourages us to raise and support charities in work time as well as out of it.
Charity doesn’t have to be the be-all and end-all of adventure, or music. but for me, it proved to be my way-in to a more adventurous lifestyle and I’ll always be grateful for that!
Thanks for this thought-provoking article.
What a cool answer – thank you!
I’m not sure I’ve ever met a real life harpist!
Random question (and not the point of your post), but do you know if your friends were equally as impacted by the trip you did together as 14 year olds? A trip that I did with my brother and Dad at that age definitely influenced me.
One of us is now a detective. The other is now cycling round the world! He’s http://supercyclingman.com/
Great post Al.
It’s interesting to hear your views on this. From my perspective you already have been doing a lot with the microadventures to promote environmentalism and sustainability whether intentional or not. The more people spend time outside in wilder places the more they appreciate them and therefore want to protect them. I am sure you will have turned a few people to be more sustainable whether you meant to or not.
I am also a big believer that microadventures aka sleeping outside is a fundamental part of connecting with the natural world and understanding that once upon a time that was how humans lived. Pushing this concept to people will help them appreciate that living simply, and a little more connected to the natural world can lead to being happier. Again, I’m not sure if this has ever been your intention of it all but it’s definitely been a message I have taken from following along.
Personally, I don’t see the answer of making positive change being raising more money. I see it as exactly what you have made happen with microadventures. Persuading people to take small, tiny steps. A few more steps down the line they are having bigger adventures/living much more responsibly.
Perhaps using you’re powers to connect these dots and make it all a little more obvious for people could be a good use of your skills. I’d be stoked if none else would be ;)
Keep up the good work, glad to see you’re back posting regularly.
Thank you!
You raised some interesting points here but your reflections are from a unique angle in that you are a high profile adventurer. I felt like your article started out with inspiration for others looking to raise money and ended quite critical: “if you do decide to link adventure to a cause think carefully about your motivations”. Regardless of motivation, we should absolutely be encouraging people to add a charity to their pursuits – even if it is for a self-indulgent activity that results in the person getting more sponsorship interest! Isn’t that better than the charity not getting anything at all? And really (without getting too deep) is there such a thing as a selfless act anyway – I certainly give to charity because it makes me feel good!
I used to work in as a charity fundraiser and for a lot of charities, adventure/challenge events are the biggest income. It’s important to recognise this.
Don’t get me wrong though, personally I am very critical of the industry and fundraising as a whole. In particular mixing adventure and charity the biggest concern, for me, is the lack of transparency involved. Ie, not be honest that 50% of your donation will pay for my trip, the rest goes to the charity. This is also the case for running (cycling, swimming, etc) events, although most don’t think about this. It costs the charity a huge amount of money to enter a charity place (not to mention print a T-shirt, provide on the day support, etc) and this is on the hope that the participant will raise enough to cover this cost plus a significant amount more for the charity.
However, the charity sector would be at a loss without all these individuals with good intentions signing up to their next challenge, even if there are some big flaws. For the average person, organsing an event raising £10k + is not feasible (it’s all about contacts and confidence!), so those small amounts the ‘everyday person’ raises after weeks of effort pestering for donations and selling cakes, are not a great use of time (it’d be better for most people to work and give the money they earn to charity!) but ultimately make a big difference. I think we should encourage any form of charity fundraising, even if it’s not done particularly well…it’s got to start from somewhere!
(Also most fundraisers return to do something again for the charity and often build up their ‘fundraising potential’…just as you did. It’s all about getting that initial hook in, however that may be!!)
Hi Bex,
Thanks for your thoughts.
Perhaps I should have made it more focus on ways/inspiration for people to get involved and raise money. And I certainly did not mean to detract people from supporting charities. I totally agree that “by any means / motives” is still good for the charity.
How would you suggest I go about encouraging people to raise more money through their adventures? Would you like to write a blog post for my site about it?
Al
Excellent thought provoking reflections from both Alastair and Bex. I have often wondered if there was a way of linking both adventure and giving to a cause that is close to my heart, at the same time. Often, when I am away from my normal working life in a distant country or even when I am in my local area enjoying the natural surroundings, I wish that I could share certain moments with others. I feel grateful that I am able to do these activities and usually, they are on a shoe string budget. My idea is to send some of the money that I am able to save on these small adventures to those who are not able to share what I am living during those times. In this way, I am including individuals or a charitable organisation who support individuals, on my adventure, in a meaningful way.
Hi Al
I’d love to! I’ll have a think about ways to encourage people to combine adventure for the greater good. It’s something I think can be used as a great platform either for fundraising, raising awareness or research.
I’ll drop you an email this week with a blog.
Thanks :)
Bex
You can read Bex’s post here – https://alastairhumphreys.com/adventure-good-2/
[…] while ago I wrote a post called Adventure for Good? One of the comments that resulted from it came from Bex. She […]
Bex, I totally agree with your article especially with the fact that we are so lucky and fortunate to be able to go on adventures. Therefore it’s our duty to help others along the way whatever the reason is. Thanks for inspiring me to do more!
I think raising money for charity, regardless of motivation, can only be a positive thing!!
Thanks for all the ideas Bex….. i have so many ideas spinning in my head now!!
And I love the starfish story…. I’ll be stealing that one!!
Wow, great guest post. Really made me feel good about my adventure and raising money. Sometimes I have doubts about my choices and how its percieved or the reasons behind my decisions. But this just reaffirmed my belief that adventure is a great opportunity for fundraising!!! Thanks AH and big thanks Bex
So great to hear Charles! Don’t ever feel bad about doing something good and kind for other people.
Keep up the great work :)
Thanks Charlotte. I really love the starfish story. Too many times I hear people say that one person can’t make a difference. Which is nonsense…everything that has ever triggered change in the history of mankind (good or bad) has stemmed from individuals. It’s a powerful thought to hold on to when you feel disheartened.
Full disclosure – I’m Bex’s mum so am slightly biased but she is truly an inspiration. Bex was the reason I headed off on my own with a large rucksack to do voluntary work in Zambia, why I now spend a huge amount of my time supporting various causes (which gives me great satisfaction) and why I think “why not”. Find something you’re passionate about and support it … doesn’t matter whether this is with time, money or effort, do what fits in with your current commitments. All those small things add up to something big!
You must be very proud!
Aaaah…thanks mum (Although I’m super embarrassed)!!!!
I’m blessed to have a mother who taught me so much about kindness and generosity growing up.
Thank you! It can be easy to forget when tired and fed up on adventures. But it really is a luxury.
I did my biggest adventure ever for charity in memory of my hubby. It was something I would not have done on my own and has given me the drive to do more. I think that however charity is involved in our adventure, whether it is volunteering somewhere or raising funds to participate, it makes our adventure worthwhile. I was amazed at how generous everyone was with their time. Collecting old clothes that were then bought by an amazing charity and distributed where needed raised my funds in no time and didn’t involve my friends and family putting their hands in their pockets! This is a great st with some useful ideas. Keep going Bex! Off to plan my next one!!
Couldn’t agree more Suz that doing something good makes the adventure worthwhile. It sounds like you found a creative way to raise money without having to ask people directly to donate which is great.
Good luck with the next one!! :)
I’m going to disagree (to some extent) with the “any money raised is better than nothing, just do it!” approach. Tacking charity on to adventure can have downsides.
The commercial Kilimanjaro climb (at a cost of £3000 ++) that raises £300 is not a good look. I always wonder why, if the Kili climber is ! all about the charitable cause ! she didn’t give that £3000 to the charity and stop sending me begging emails.
This makes me uncomfortable. “Asking for sponsorship from friends and family is usually the first step …make it personal… sending an email …need to be reminded 3 or 4 times before they actually take action.” I have my own thoughtful choices about which charities I support and why. I don’t like being on the receiving end of this.
Certain kind of adventures do better that others for raising money. As a generalisation, people do better in their own country, with a project done over time, where they move around, supporters can join in, they can talk to local media as they travel, their coverage can build momentum.
Alex Staniforth’s just-finished project is a good recent example – low cost, real effort needed, over £20k raised. Alex Ellis-Roswell (ongoing) is another – over £50K raised. Both with ongoing media attention for the causes involved. And those outcomes are much bigger than guilting friends and family.
If the charitable cause speaks to you, build the best adventure possible to get great fundraising outcomes. If the challenge speaks to you – it’s fine to just head out there and climb that mountain. There are other ways to make positive contributions to the world.
You raise some interesting points Cathy and in truth I agree with a lot of them. If someone is going to pay 3k to climb Kili, would it be better for them to give that money directly to charity? Absolutely!! But people know this, yet they still pay these prices to have this experience. so surely it’s better that they raise £300 for charity in the process than nothing at all?
The kind of low cost adventure you talk about is only really suited to a particular type of person I think. Someone who is really driven by charity and willing to dedicate their time to this. It’s the sort of thing I would do, but I can’t think of many friends or family who would be confident or comfortable enough to do this. For them, joining tour companies and paying to do so is where their comfort level lies. And that’s fine. As long as they cover the cost of this and are transparent, I can’t see the difference between a ‘cheap’ or ‘expensive’ fundraising adventure. The outcome is the same (I’ve also seen Kili climbers raise 50k for charity in the process).
Although I have a different outlook to charity than most, I try not to judge others when they are fundraising. And I also try to be realistic about the expectations I have of others. Most people have a different view in life in terms of spending habits and what they view as important. But when I look back on my journey, I didn’t start out like this. My first adventures were paying to do a race or a challenge and raising a few hundred pounds for charity in the process. These were stepping stones on a journey that led me to more grassroots adventures and bigger fundraising targets. It was a learning curve and that didn’t happen over night. Sure, these sign-up challenges have got bigger (and priceier) than they were 10/20 years ago….but they are still a start and should be celebrated I think.
As for the reminding people 3-4 times before getting a response I do sit somewhere in the middle. But it’s been proven that even someone who wants/intends to donate will forget or put it off and will need reminding this amount of times before they actually do it. Human nature! It’s the same principle for advertising or events and if it’s ok for companies to do it (who also play on guilty tactics), then why not charities? Perhaps I should have worded this better. It’s certainly not right to pester people but sending updates on your progress with gentle reminders to donate is a soft approach and from my experience, it works. I realise this is a fine line but as someone who used to work as a charity fundraiser I know that regular asks for donations is what keeps the charity world ticking over. I don’t always enjoy it on a personal level but I think it’s the right thing to do.
I remember being in a talk once where the lecturer asked how many people donate regularly to charity. Out of 150 people only around 12 put their hand up. He then asked how many give sporadically to bucket collectors or friends who ask for sponsorship. Nearly the whole room raised their hand. I bear this in mind when I’m feeling frustrated or question if it’s good to keep asking for donations. Just because people care and are passionate about charities, it doesn’t instantly mean they will donate what they can/what they should.
I’d be interested to hear if you have any more thoughts on this.
Bex
Very useful article! Unfortunately I’ve just read it now after completing a London to Oban (Scotland) cycle for charity, but it’ll definitely help next time! One thing I might add, which had a surprisingly huge effect – never underestimate the power of branding yourself – I spent a pound on a permanent marker and scribbled “London to Oban, Fundraising challenge, please donate! :)” onto the shirt I wore everyday whilst cycling, and a surprising number of strangers made a huge contribution, just from reading that!
Congratulations on completing your adventure Daniela….and on raising money for a great cause!
That’s a fantastic tip. I have never thought about adding some kind of visual aid advertising that you are fundraising. I will definitely be trying that on my next expedition. Thanks for sharing! :)
One thing that wasn’t the focus of either this post or Al’s is the choice of charity. By choosing an effective one, you might do much more good with the same money raised. Check out independent charity assessor http://www.givewell.org/ and http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities for ideas. If you are willing to spend 10 or 20 hours raising money, surely it’s worth spending at least a few hours choosing a more effective charity. It will do as much good or more.
From a donor perspective, if you spend time online and choose the most effective charity from your own research, you also make a more effective donation. If you give to someone who someone who stopped you in the street, then a much larger portion of the money has gone to the charity’s expenses than if you make an efficient online donation. So I reccomend to give most of your money to the charities that are proven to do the most good, and smaller amounts to people that pester you at work or stop you in the street etc. But…that does not mean I’m arguing against standing in the street, or doing fundraising activities, because most people don’t think like me and only give money if asked.
Jamie this is a really brilliant point!!
It is only something I even thought about after having a personal experience while working in the charity sector a couple of years ago. I really disagreed with the way that the budget was being spent; it felt wrong. Since then I have done A LOT of research into the effectiveness and quality of the charities I support – preferring places with low overhead costs that have a sustainability policy. Both great websites that you recommend for guidance on this.
You do point out that you think differently from other people which I think is a key point. It’s important to recognise this and also that, although there is lot to be improved in the charity sector, it’s a working progress and for the most part good.
Thanks for raising this :)
Some people are just not natural fundraisers, so I don’t think we should expect introverts to get out of their comfort zone and go and do things in public places if they’re not comfortable. That being said, doing something big like a marathon or Kilimanjaro or a Lands End to John O Groats cycle or 3 peaks challenge and not doing any fundraising at all does feel like a waste. You can get the first 200 pounds for a charity with 1 hour’s work setting up a webpage and sending out an email. After that, it gets harder but an alternative for those who don’t feel comfortable giving talks and so on and approaching strangers would be to get a temp data entry office job for instance and give the money to the charity, and/or just pay some of your own money into the fund.
Those 1 hour/£200 donations all add up to make a big difference, so I’m a big supporter of these ‘minimal effort’ fundraisers. Something is better than nothing.
Getting a temp job and donating the money is such a great idea. But also hard….I wonder how many people would be able to let go of their earnings in this way? I’ve never done it but I feel inspired to give it a go when I next have an opportunity to do a temp job! Thanks for the idea!
There are other ways that introverts can fundraise without it being a big public spectacle. Setting up an online shop or E-auction could raise money without ever having to put on a face to face event. I think confidence and not being afraid to fail are key character traits…although I also think you need these to do adventures anyway.
Raising money is clearly a good thing especially when dine as an individual. I do have concerns about “challenges” which involve hundreds of people all trampling over one area with the consequence to the environment.
My concern is when there events such as 3 Peaks with hundreds walking a route. Good intentions but not necessarily good for the environment.
True indeed.
It’s so annoying that trying to do good often does a different sort of harm!
Excellent post I’m very glad to read as I’ve recently done a charity ride “Pedal To Empower” for World Bicycle Relief on Sep. 12th! I’ve been supporting this Organisation for a good number of years and believe in their cause!
Actually, I was in need of a “reason” to try a DIY ride I had in mind but the months I spent in lockdown affected my way to push myself out of my comfort zone. I did the ride, had a lot of fun, felt great conquering my DIY challange along with reaching my fund raising target and definitely been inspired by the global community taking part of the movement…It proved to be definitely good time spent doing something very good!