Backlash Against Charity Sweating

By Rebecca Winters

Walking three days to raise money for breast-cancer research or cycling hundreds of miles for AIDS causes seems like the pinnacle of virtue. And the field of rigorous charity sports events is booming. So why are breast-cancer advocates circulating brochures that ask participants to "think twice before you walk"? And why are AIDS charities embroiled in a nasty legal fight to break ties with one of their most successful fund-raising events, the lucrative California AIDSRide? The charity endurance event--that unassailable, feel-good fund-raising strategy--is beginning to suffer a backlash, as participants and nonprofits question how hard-raised dollars are being spent.

Both the AIDS bike rides and the Avon Breast Cancer Walks, which together netted $69 million last year, are produced for charitable causes by a for-profit firm called Pallotta Teamworks. In the 1990s, Pallotta elevated the folksy fund-raising trend to a well-marketed mass movement with glossy brochures and inspirational videos. But that kind of approach is turning off do-gooders like Carol Peeples, 44, a teacher in Salida, Colo., who raised $2,500 for a Pallotta-run Avon Breast Cancer Walk last year. Peeples and other walkers received a coffee-table-book-size color catalog promoting various Pallotta causes, like a suicide-prevention walk in Washington; they were required to watch a "safety video" that some described as a Pallotta infomercial; and they saw Pallotta merchandise, like books by the company's founder, all along the route. Cyclists on last year's California AIDSRide, meanwhile, were upset that only 50% of funds they raised went to fighting AIDS, with some of it spent on a fireworks display that was virtually invisible under the midday Los Angeles sun. Pallotta argues that charitable causes deserve the same marketing muscle as for-profit companies and points to the hefty $223 million it has sent to charities in its nine-year history. But the rebellion in the ranks won't go away: the AIDS cyclists are planning their own ride, which, despite a legal protest from Pallotta, will take place in May.

--By Rebecca Winters