Charity fundraising websites...

...and charity fund-taking websites.

Fundraising websites ... taking their cut.

Usually on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I like to feature daft subjects and as a general rule I prefer to avoid discussing serious subjects. However, this week I've decided to break with tradition and cover a serious subject which really annoys me, and that subject is the fees charged by charity fundraising websites...

There's been a lot of coverage in the media of the Alan Barnes fund which was set up by Katie Cutler after Alan was the victim of a cowardly attack outside his own home. The attack left Alan too scared to return to his home, so the £330,135 raised will be able to buy Alan a new house where he won't feel frightened.

Katie has now set up another fund to raise money for Kacie Martin who is a two year old girl with the severest form of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Kacie's is a heart-breaking story, but if she can get a special wheelchair which costs £27,000 then this will help improve her quality of life.

They're both excellent causes and the funds have highlighted that there are a lot of very generous people in the world.

However, after doing a little research into websites like Go Fund Me (the website which hosts the fundraising pages of Alan and Kacie), I couldn't help but feel more than a little angry.

Here are some figures...

Charity Russian roulette

Here's an idea for anyone going out on a pub crawl on Children In Need night.

Oops!  Looks like someone's had an accident
... or have they?

It's Children In Need this coming Friday, so this is an idea for anyone who wants to raise money for Children In Need and have fun at the same time on a night out. It doesn't specifically apply to Children In Need though, so you could play Charity Russian Roulette at any time of the year to raise money for any charity.

Charity Russian Roulette is basically just a game of dare where everyone has to do dares or challenges, and each time you wimp out and bottle a dare, you contribute £1 into the Children In Need fund for the night. Each person has to take turns at pulling a random number out of an envelope with each number corresponding to a dare which the person then has to perform.

The only preparation the game requires is that before you head out for the evening, one person has to write out the dares (or corresponding numbers) on little pieces of paper and then crumple them up in a bag or envelope. You can use any dares you want, but here are a few ideas to start you off...