Climbing Kilimanjaro for charity. How do I propose this to staff without me looking like an idiot

Cadets Ask the Staff
,
1

Me and a couple other cadets from my squadron have recently come upon a charity for people in Kenya who are struggling with funding education , having financial problems ,etc.after you had raised the money they would send you out to climb Kilimanjaro. How it works… | Climb Kilimanjaro For Charity Climb Kilimanjaro For Charity

How would we go about asking staff if they could aid us in fundraising and possibly asking if any of them wanted to join us on the event

I understand that rafac is very strict nowadays and seems as if you have to fill out a form for almost everything , so there will probably be a few limitations.

Thanks In advance .

Cdt 2F

2

That’s quite a commitment, so well done.

Firstly, the bad news. There is very little chance of the RAFAC running this as “official” expedition. The silver lining is that you won’t have to jump through a gazillion MOD imposed rules.

You should plan this as a bunch of mates doing a good deed, and sell it to your boss as that. There is no reason why they can’t help you, and advise you, but they won’t be able to fundraise on your behalf.

3 Likes
3

Well done for wanting to raise money for what looks like a reputable charity. There are several things that would make doing this through cadets more ‘complicated’. It doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, but it would be a major challenge.

TLDR do this as a private activity with your friends from the Sqn and the support of your parents.

RAFAC issues to consider are:

  • restrictions on fundraising for charities, other than RBL, H4H etc
  • arranging suitable fundraising activities through RAFAC and getting all of these approved
  • the difficulty of arranging an overseas expedition with a very challenging mountain climb. This type of expedition would require major organisation from several RAFAC volunteers for months.
4

Hants & IOW completed a trip to Kilimanjaro maybe 15 years ago now, the current WATTO & DepWATTO were both involved in that.

If you did complete officially you would be able to apply for a grant from The Ulysses Trust although perhaps not for the fundraising option.

5

And to further add to that… look at the types of expeds being carried out that are supported by Ulysses Trust grants. It might give you some ideas other thank Kili.

6

Just to echo what everyone else has said here; your best bet is to do this externally to cadets.

There’s no reason why, with CFAV consent, you couldn’t undertake some fundraising at squadron through things like bake sales etc, but it must be clear that you’re doing this outside of the cadets as private individuals.

Unfortunately, the hoops that have been put in place for you to jump through, if you wanted this to be a cadet-supported activity, are high and numerous.

7

It can be done, but it would require a huge amount of commitment from Staff & Cadets to make it happen.

Now you are lucky, your OC would definitely listen to you if you went to speak to him about something like this, you just need to sell it to him, so for example you would need to go to him with ideas as to what sort of fundraising you guys would be willing/able to do to pay for the trip etc

I would suggest speaking to your DofE Officer first, this sort of thing would be a good volunteering (the fundraising event) and expedition for your Gold DofE. Your Squadron and Wing DofE Officers are both really good (assuming they still are who I think they are), they might say no, but they would give it a fair hearing.

1 Like