At Long Last - The Charity Poll Results

[Doris]

Sorry this has taken so long guys.  Must kick myself up the arse more often! 

In the great poll of 2006 to find out if CA members wanted the funds raised from donations for the 2007 Guide to be split across a number of charities or champion one cause for the year the end result was a 50 / 50 split.  As such I had the thought that we could look at incorporating both options.  Have the two most popular charities as permanent beneficiaries, while the third beneficiary could be voted on by forum members per Andy Z’s suggestion:

...Anyway, we could have a thread where we can all nominate our favoured charity and offer a brief word why we think it should be on the "panel". Then we have a poll. Top three or four win. Once the charity has been on the panel they should be excluded the following year.

CA members initially suggested 11 charities.  Below is a breakdown of how the votes were split.

Charity                                                            Votes          % of Vote
Air Amublance                                                     2                  10%
RNLI                                                                    1                    5%
Motorsport Safety Fund                                      3                  14%
Cancer Research UK                                            5                  24%
Richard Burns Foundation                                   1                    5%
CLIC (Cancer and Leukemia in Children)             1                    5%
Sport Relief                                                          1                    5%
Asthma                                                                1                    5%
Lung Disease                                                       1                    5%
Association for International Cancer Research    4                  19%
Oxfam                                                                  1                    5%

As is very evident the cancer charities took the bulk of the vote and if we were to combine the totals for Cancer Research UK and AIRC they have 43% of the vote followed by the Motorsport Safety Fund.

If we do decide to go with the two permanent / one temporary beneficiaries I would suggest we go with AIRC (to keep the international flavour) and the Motorsport Safety Fund as the two permanent beneficiaries.

Personally I was also taken with Big H’s suggestion to apply a charity surcharge to people (especially newbies) buying tickets off forum members.  I would suggest people adopt this if they choose to and give to their chosen charity.   

Let me know thoughts / any other suggestions.

Dx

[Perdu]

Doris, thanks for posting the results.

I would agree that a cancer charity ought to be one of our permanent choices. Few of us are unlikely to have a brush with this terrible disease somewhere in our lives. So I vote for the AICR and the MSF gets my second vote, (just copying you of course) maybe a ticket levy could go to the third choice of the year, a la Andy's Zuggestion.

[Snoring Rhino]

In the great poll of 2006 to find out if CA members wanted the funds raised from donations for the 2007 Guide to be split across a number of charities or champion one cause for the year the end result was a 50 / 50 split.  As such I had the thought that we could look at incorporating both options.  Have the two most popular charities as permanent beneficiaries, while the third beneficiary could be voted on by forum members per Andy Z’s suggestion:

Sounds like a good plan, thanks for sorting through the responses and making sense of them

[Paddy_NL]

I go with the flow...

We'll support you in any way we can again, Doris!
With the help of all other teams around us we can make it possible again

[Robspot]

I may be too late and I didn't vote on the first poll but I'll throw my two penny's worth in.

Whilst I donate to cancer research every month and I'm more than willing to contribute to Doris again, I think we should be looking to the more unfortunate groups.

Don't rare up at this suggestion. There are people in the world who don't even know what it's like to live as we do.

There has been mention of a motor racing charity that looks to improve safety at events. I'm sorry but surely everyone knows that motor racing is inherently dangerous and by attending these events you accept that there is a risk.

Contrast this to people in Africa and India who can't even guarantee that by drinking the only water available to them they won't be killed by horrific diseases.

The amount of money that we are able to raise is not insignificant and we have a genuine potential to affect the lives of people far less fortunate than us. Next time you're enjoying a beer, give a thought to people who haven't even heard of beer and would be overjoyed to just be able to get clean water.

Just my thoughts but maybe it's time to think outside of our comfort zone.

[Nobby Diesel]

I would have to say, that normally my approach to charitable appeals, is that "charity begins at home". Not always a popular view, but there you go.

However, although the majority of the CA members are UK based, not all are.

Therefore, my thoughts on this situation would be to contribute to a cause that has a global benefit.

With that in mind, I would happily go with the Cancer suggestion.

Ultimately though, go with the majority.

Thanks for collating the info'.