'Black market' in London Marathon golden bonds
Howard Lake | 5 April 2005 | News
The shortage of London Marathon golden bonds which guarantee places for charity runners has led to a ‘black market’ according to Third Sector magazine. One charity has paid twice the official cost to secure a bond for five runners.
The difficulty of obtaining golden bond places for fundraising runners at the London Marathon has prompted some charities to pay over the odds to secure a place for their supporters.
The £1,250 bonds were introduced in 1993, and are capped at 2,400. Since holders can renew them and the waiting list has been closed at 600 charities, there is almost no chance of other charities getting a place.
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For this reason, charities desperate to get their runners into the event are prepared to pay more than the going rate to get them. According to Third Sector, the Ataxia-Telangiecstasia Society paid a larger charity £3,000 for a bond for five runners. The charity had been doing this “for several years”.
Phillip Bush, a fundraiser at the Royal Blind Society, has been leading a campaign among smaller charities to try to get the London Marathon organisers to change or relax the rules. A joint letter from 39 charities will be sent to the organisers shortly requesting changes such as an increase in the number of Golden Bonds, ending the system of carrying forward unused places, and allocating Golden Bonds to charities which have been on the waiting list for more than six years.
David Bedford, race director, told Third Sector that he regarded the selling on of golden bonds as another form of fundraising. “We are proud of the golden bond scheme,” he said, “which has allowed the marathon to become the biggest annual fundraiser event in the world.”
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.