Please forgive me if this post turns out to be less than well thought out or devoid of relevant proof texts ("no change from the norm then" some of you are thinking). I'm going to allow some swirling thoughts to be poured out onto paper / screen and we'll see where it goes...

Something has been bothering me for a while now. You'll be familiar with this type of thing if you are reading in Ireland or the UK. I don't know if North America has experienced this phenomenon. You see huge adverts on billboards offering you the adventure of a lifetime trekking through the Sahara or along the Great Wall of China and then the name of a charity on the bottom. You sign up to take part, manage to raise a certain amount of money in sponsorship and off you go. (The same principle applies, though more subtly, with something like a fundraising ball or dinner). The logic is a little baffling to me, even when it's a secular charity. Basically, you get a lot of people to give you money, you might even get a few businesses to sponsor your adventure, and they pay for you to have a great time and give what's left over to the charity. Wouldn't there be a lot more money for the charitable cause if flights, accommodation, horrendous insurance costs etc. were taken out of the equation? Maybe not, since then the participants would not be bothered to raise any money at all. So, it seems to me that the charities involved have given in to basic human selfishness which dictates that we won't help unless there is something in it for us.
From a secular perspective, I can just about understand this. Raising funds is a never-ending and difficult task; knowing your target audience and playing to them even if it means pandering to and exploiting their weaknesses is essential.
However, from a Christian perspective, is it something that Christian groups should be mimicking? Is it not a rather terrible indictment of how much we are of the world if Christians too must have a carrot dangled in front of them before they will set about giving and raising money that will address the injustice, poverty, oppression and darkness in the world? In entering into this contemporary fundraising fad, are we not simply highlighting how our involvement and giving is more about what we get Are our consciences so easily salved in the face of our selfishness that we can convince ourselves it's all ok so long as some money goes to a good cause as a result?

If someone has another way of looking at this, please respond.

Emma