Volunteering at a race? Does it matter if it is for a non profit? (Read 300 times)

Pretty extensive, actually.

There is no official charity (denominator) and there are lots of words on lots of pages (numerator).

lots divided by nothing is infinity.

Infinity is pretty extensive.

/newmath

OMG!  there are charity slots open to run in that race!  I could still get in!

I could sure use a shot of bourbon right now......

I think the general consensus is that Trent sucks.

This example perfectly illustrates my concern with this type of activity.  To me, this seems intentionally deceptive.

Would it not also "serve my community"equally to get people to volunteer to perform work for any local business?  Perhaps moreso as businesses like Competitor are not even local and take their money elsewhere?

I like this model and I see it frequently but I don't know that Competitor does this.

 

This is a snapshot from one of thier events:

 

 

This summer we had a For Profit running event come to town. The City Admin rolled out the red carpet...the Chamber Of Commerce put out a call for volunteers to local businesses. They roped in the Boy Scouts, the YWCA, Red Cross...etc. To me, as an small event RD and committee member for others the whole thing seemed underhanded. it was promoted exactly as above...Come out and support your community.

 

Who cares who the charity is or even if there is one...I'm supporting my community!

Part of me is ambivalent toward Competitor Group, Inc. and part of me really despises them and finds their business model quite offensive. It's really confounding. I bet there are a lot of really nice people who work there--probably many of them are endurance athletes just like us who want to make a living in an "industry" related to their passion.

The capitalist in me wants to say that if they can make a living fooling people into running or volunteering for their over-priced, non-competitive, and cookie-cutter events then God love 'em. There's a sucker born every minute.

But the bigger part of me hates that their very existence depends on exploiting a culture that has existed in running for a hundred years--one that is community based, that relies on volunteers, and that is for runners by runners.

I am well educated to the economics of road races large and small. I understand that some of the largest and best races are put on by non-profit organizations with large, full-time, professional staffs, and with annual budgets in the tens of of millions of dollars. I also understand that while the organizer may be a not-for-profit whose core mission is to promote running and racing in their community, there are many functions of well-organized marathons and other races that are best handled by professionals--functions including timing, security, medical, transportation, and many others. I'm okay with all of that.

What I'm not okay with is that Competitor simply could not exist if most of its "staff" knew that they were effectively free labor for an organization trying to make a profit off of the good will of its customers. Their business model relies on maintaining the appearance of the culture they are simultaneously exploiting (and destroying, if they kill off enough small local races.)

The "Walmart of distance running" would actually be an apt description, except they are actually more deceptive than Walmart.

They are currently hiring!

http://www.postjobfree.com/job/adv0s4/vice-president-charity-san-diego-ca?utm_source=simplyhired&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=simplyhiredflex10