[at-l] Financing trips

[spiriteagle99 at hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Saunterer wrote:
>Pretty much the same way you finance anything you want badly enough to
>figure out how to do it. Save up, reduce expenses, sell stuff you no longer
>need or want as badly as you want whatever you are trying to finance. A few
>people start a fund raiser for some cause. "I'm hiking for [fill in the
>cause here] and need donations." Run around giving speeches about the cause
>and collecting money with the aim of collecting enough to finance the hike
>plus money for the cause. At least 2 AT journal books ("Walking the Dream"
>and "A Walk for Sunshine") are about hikes that were done for causes.


I know people do that - but frankly, I consider it sleazy and unethical to 
"hike for a cause" and then use the money people donate to the cause to pay 
for ones hike.  If one wants to "hike for a cause", then IMO it's incumbent 
on the hiker to pay for their own hike and make sure the donated money goes 
to the cause.  Otherwise it's not "hiking for the cause" but rather "using 
the cause to hustle people into financing the hike."  We went through this 
ethical maze a long time ago when the first multiple (AT & PCT) hike was 
being planned in my living rooom and the question came up.  We found other, 
more ethical solutions.

Of course, you "could" just ask for contributions.  At least it's an honest 
approach.

Both of those approaches involve something I won't do - it's called 
"hustling your friends."

OTOH - I see no ethical problem with being up-front with an "I need money to 
hike the Trail and I'd like you to buy stock in my future" type approach.  
That's been done before.  It's a way to allow people to invest and 
participate in your hike, with the promise that they'll get their money back 
eventually (and presumably with some small profit) as you buy the stock back 
from them after you finish the hike and are in a better financial position.  
I know of several people who financed their way through college like that.

Otherwise, my personal view is that one should work and save (and acrifice) 
what's necessary to do what you want to do.  It's a matter of personal 
pride, responsibility and integrity.  It's also a question of commitment to 
the hike.  If one is not willing to make the effort, to sacrifice the 
movies, pizza or electronic goodies in order to save that money for the 
hike, then what's their real commitment?   If one person is doing the hike 
on OPM (other people's money) and another has worked a "horrid" job and 
sacrificed their comfy lifestyle for a year or so in order to finance their 
hike --- which one do you think will appreciate and enjoy the hike more?  
And which one do you think is more likely to actually finish the hike?

Walk softly,
Jim