Machka 

I'm not surprised. People are swamped with requests for donations these days. In one of the places I worked, just about every week someone was selling raffle tickets for this, or chocolates for that, or wanting donations for a walk-a-thon for some cause or another. And then there are the emails, letters, and people coming to your door. You could end up forking out hundreds or thousands of dollars for everything by the time it is all said and done.

I pick a cause/charity or two and stick with them ... and I think a lot of other people are starting to do the same thing. We just can't afford to support everything that comes along.

Also, many people dream of travelling around the world ... and many people are saving for their annual vacations or one big vacation. If someone comes along requesting sponsorship money because that person is going to travel across the country for a number of months (i.e. take what could be viewed as a big vacation) ... even if all the money will go to a charity ... people get jealous and "offended". They think, "Why should I hand over MY hard-earned money so that this person can go travel the countryside and have fun, while I stay here and continue to slave away at my job?"

Plus, I think, people are more suspicious now than they used to be. There have been so many email (and other) scams involving fake charities in the last few years. Also the books of many charities have been opened and it has been discovered that the money people have been donating to these charities has mainly gone to administrative costs, or directly into someone's pocket.

It's one thing to sell chocolate cover almonds for the local school, or bunches of daffodils for cancer, or whatever because people feel like they are getting something in return for their donations ... but to hand over money so that someone else can have an "experience of a lifetime" .............