Opinion: Examining the Exchange in Endurance Fundraisers

After participating in a 60-mile nighttime bicycle ride for charity, a Wall Street Journal editor examines the rationale for both donors and participants in such cause-driven endurance tests.

Brian Carney, editorial page editor for the Journal’s European edition, praises the intention of charity biking, walking, and running events and the amount of money they raise for cancer research and other causes but says that amid his own “increasing agony” during his ride he pondered the nature of the transactions underlying them.

“If I hold a bake sale for a cause I support, the basis of the exchange is clear. I donate my time and money to produce cookies and cakes, and the money I raise selling them goes to help my cause,” he writes.

“When people ride bikes for charity, they are not giving their sponsors anything tangible. Instead, the offer is this: If you donate enough to my favored charity, I will ride some insane distance,” Mr. Carney says, adding that the dedication and self-sacrifice demonstrated by participants seems to have an “intrinsic value” for donors.