Great Limerick Run - where does the money go?

Raiser

rainbowdash wrote: »

Why don't you ask the people dishing out the money so and stop making a clown out of yourself.

If you have problems with the way money is given out make a complaint to the Gardai or the relevent government department.

You seem to think the government are giving away free money, why don't you just ask for some.:P

rainbowdash wrote: »

Advice I got was slighty different to OP. if the wife opens a business in her name then she does not have to register for vat (unless it's over the threshold) as long as its not the same line as the first business, which may be vat registered.

What you need to watch out for is that the vat business does not be seen to be claiming the vat back on the non vat business, claiming back all the VAT on phones for example, when some of it is obviously for the non VAT business.

Anyhow - When you're done name calling from your moral high-ground..... I must admit, its always so nice to see people interested in assisting their Wife with their financial affairs, so romantic.......

Anyway because I'm quickly tiring of the company on here and life is short then lets agree - €30,000 is not lot of money and the public has no right to inquire after the allocation of public funds.

- Also it must be said that there have been some valid points made (by the non-childish) and yes I will run a marathon to try and lighten up a bit!!!

phog

king2 wrote: »

Riverfest are holding a number of free public events,people are not being charged 70 euro to run on a public road

How do people train for marathons, they get out and run, if you want to run for free then you can, for those that enjoy running in road races they can enter the Great Limerick Run and pay the fee. It's an organised event and seems to be growing in popularity which in itself is a good thing for the city.

king2 wrote: »

30000 euro is alot of money. Its public money and not one cent of public money
should be spent without knowing exactly where it is going. What criteria is used to decide that this money should be granted to the Great Limerick Run or similar events? Do the people dishing out our money check how much the event will cost and how much will be made from it? Are there any safeguards to ensure that the money doesnt just go straight into some entrepreneurs back pocket?

Do you ask these questions for all public money grant aided to charities or companies? I've no idea of the checks and balances and would like to think that there are some costings and incomes checked before deciding on grant aiding the event but one of the big differences with this event is that the city makes money directly from the event.

king2

I contacted the Great limerick run via their website and asked the following question:

"I am at present subscribing to a thread on boards.ie on the subject of
the fees charged to enter the great limerick run. Is the run organised
as a commercial profit making venture or are the fees spent entirely
on organisation and administration?"

The reply:

"The following is what we wrote on our Facebook page in reply to the boards.ie thread.

The Great Limerick Run organise a running event. Peoples entry fee is used to make this event bigger and better each year. This fee is used to pay for everything from advertsining, to tiiming chips, to technical t-shirts, to prize money etc etc.... Any money raised for charities is not handled by Great Limerick Run. This money and how it is raised goes directly from the people who raise the money to their chosen charity. This is exactly the same as other successful mass participation events such as Flora Womens Mini Marathon (40,000 participants), Dublin City Marathon (14,000 participants), Connemara Marathon (3,000 participants), Dingle Marathon etc. Hope this explains our position here. This years nominated charity is Barnardos. In 2011 information sent back to us from all charities shows they arised over €250,000 for a variety of charities from people participating in last years Great Limerick Run. We salute each and every one of these charities. We hope this clears up any confusion.

We try to keep things as transparent as possible so please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any further questions.

Please feel free to post this on the boards.ie thread if you would like to.

Regards,

Clodagh "


The reply doesn't really answer my question. It doesn't state whether or not there is a profit being made.In the absence of the statement of being non profit making,I think its safe to assume that a profit is being made.

Amazotheamazing

king2 wrote: »

I contacted the Great limerick run via their website and asked the following question:

"I am at present subscribing to a thread on boards.ie on the subject of
the fees charged to enter the great limerick run. Is the run organised
as a commercial profit making venture or are the fees spent entirely
on organisation and administration?"

The reply:

"The following is what we wrote on our Facebook page in reply to the boards.ie thread.

The Great Limerick Run organise a running event. Peoples entry fee is used to make this event bigger and better each year. This fee is used to pay for everything from advertsining, to tiiming chips, to technical t-shirts, to prize money etc etc.... Any money raised for charities is not handled by Great Limerick Run. This money and how it is raised goes directly from the people who raise the money to their chosen charity. This is exactly the same as other successful mass participation events such as Flora Womens Mini Marathon (40,000 participants), Dublin City Marathon (14,000 participants), Connemara Marathon (3,000 participants), Dingle Marathon etc. Hope this explains our position here. This years nominated charity is Barnardos. In 2011 information sent back to us from all charities shows they arised over €250,000 for a variety of charities from people participating in last years Great Limerick Run. We salute each and every one of these charities. We hope this clears up any confusion.

We try to keep things as transparent as possible so please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any further questions.

Please feel free to post this on the boards.ie thread if you would like to.

Regards,

Clodagh "


The reply doesn't really answer my question. It doesn't state whether or not there is a profit being made.In the absence of the statement of being non profit making,I think its safe to assume that a profit is being made.

That's incredible, 250,000 raised for a variety of charities in the middle of a recession. Just goes to show what a great event this is.

fair play to the organisers.

BESman

I ran in this last year and thought it wasn't the best organised race ever so decided against doing it this year. The entrance fees are definitely excessive, well more than the Cancer Care West Galway Run (which is clearly stated as being a charity event). I thought the finish line was a bit of a fiasco with very little volunteers, and those there didn't seem to know anything. My name was spelled wrong in the Irish Times the next day too.

I agree with some of the comments here, for example, I don't think a private enterprise should be receiving grant aid, however little it is. The Great Limerick Run is well established now and does not need any State assistance. I also would agree that it should be more clearly stated that it is not associated with a charity and that the fee does not go towards a charity. While most runners will be aware of this, the general public could associate the event with charity. Nonetheless, its good for the City and its a bit of craic. The organisers have done a good job, just a few loose ends they need to tighten up on and they'll improve on it each year.

Raiser

I'd say BESman's post captures this one in a nutshell TBH - Undoubtedly good for the city, certainly indirectly raising a lot of money for charity but in comparison to other similar events it seems to be at the very least charging equivalent fees or in some peoples eyes is prohibitively expensive for whats on offer, even though it is grant aided. Bear in mind that this is not a week long event or an actual community spirit driven venture.

I'm sure the Organisers have just simply overlooked this and once they realise that they're just about the only people involved not contributing towards charity (please someone advise if untrue) they'll be anxious to correct this - I'd imagine they'll be keen to match the top 5 sums of charity funding raised or something similar - or maybe make 6 spot prize donations of €5,000 - that would come to a nice round figure of €30,000 after all.......

osarusan

BESman wrote: »

My name was spelled wrong in the Irish Times the next day too.

did they have you down as BSEman?

I don't agree that private enterprises shouldn't receive grant aid - lots of businesses start up with the aid of a grant from organisations like Enterprise Ireland.

As long as those giving the grant have studied the application properly and decided that the application meets whatever there are, I don't have a problem with it.

In terms of how this applies to the Great Limerick Run, I'm assuming that the body that approved the grant have decided that it terms of the positive returns for the city, charities, participants, and organisers, the 30,000 is worth granting.

It's clear that a few posters on here thought the thing was a charity event, but I haven't seen anybody point out anything the organisers have done to mislead people into thinking this.

source

BESman wrote: »

I also would agree that it should be more clearly stated that it is not associated with a charity and that the fee does not go towards a charity. While most runners will be aware of this, the general public could associate the event with charity.

You believe that a private enterprise should state on their website/literature that the monies raised will not be going to charity????? Does the absence of any charity affiliation on their site/literature not do this?

This does great things for the city and charity alike, the organisers would have huge overheads and insurance costs, and why shouldn't they get something out of this as well? Do you really expect them to work on this full time and not make a profit????

Also do we really live in an age where people cannot figure something as simple as this out? Does it really need to be spelled out to them that there is no direct charity affiliation to this event?

If so then:

sceptre

source wrote: »

Also do we really live in an age where people cannot figure something as simple as this out?

Ah, now. I think we both know the answer to that question. It doesn't make anyone any happier that the answer is "yes, we do".

Kess73

Not long now.

In London tomorrow for the FA cup final. Then back to Limerick to run 26 miles on Sunday.

Here is to two good results.

Limerick91

It depends on what your definition of a "good result" is YNWA

Raiser

osarusan wrote: »

did they have you down as BSEman?

I don't agree that private enterprises shouldn't receive grant aid - lots of businesses start up with the aid of a grant from organisations like Enterprise Ireland.
As long as those giving the grant have studied the application properly and decided that the application meets whatever there are, I don't have a problem with it.

In terms of how this applies to the Great Limerick Run, I'm assuming that the body that approved the grant have decided that it terms of the positive returns for the city, charities, participants, and organisers, the 30,000 is worth granting.

It's clear that a few posters on here thought the thing was a charity event, but I haven't seen anybody point out anything the organisers have done to mislead people into thinking this.

Good post, valid points very well put across.

- When should the absolutely established great Limerick run decline its next round of funding though and let new up and coming businesses/ventures get a fair slice of the limited pie?

CheltenhamJ

how did event go ? lucky with the weather

panda100

Was a great day. Brilliant atmosphere and the sun was shining high in the sky. It was great to see town so busy, and all the restaurants and coffee shops seemed to be jammers.
There was great support for all the runners. I have to admit It really spurred me on towards the end,so thank you people of Limerick for getting out and supporting.

Great event that I will continue to support, but this is a very successful business venture now, and the organisers no longer need financial support from the state.

Agent_99

What a brilliant day, I for one was happy to hand over €20 to see my 13 year old complete his first 10k in under an hour. He now wants to do the 21k next year.

Great weather, Brilliant atmosphere, loads of families out and about. the only thing i was disapointed about was the finish line was very congested and i did not get to see him finish. So I'll just have to run it myself next year

The Snipe

For some reason all the stewards that I'd delt with yesterday were arrogant little... "Excuse me there." "Where are you going, your not aloud here." "I'm a press photographer, I've a pass." "No your not aloud here." "Erm, I'm joining all the other photographers. Its my job. No can I please get past you." "No your not aloud in." "Okay two minutes." [Proceeds me to dig out a business card I had in my wallet for one of the persons involved.] "Yeah, ****, your stewards wont give me access to by the finish line. They are saying I'm not aloud."

And then the stewards that were there got a bollocking.

Also, just before the start of the half marathon, they kept on pushing me further and further back from the start line. No harm, but I asked them to stop pushing and dragging from me for two minutes whilst I change lenses, as I was holding a couple hundred quid between my legs while changing lenses. Which I wasn't too keen on dropping.

Name stared for privacy reasons.

Kess73

The Snipe wrote: »

For some reason all the stewards that I'd delt with yesterday were arrogant little... "Excuse me there." "Where are you going, your not aloud here." "I'm a press photographer, I've a pass." "No your not aloud here." "Erm, I'm joining all the other photographers. Its my job. No can I please get past you." "No your not aloud in." "Okay two minutes." [Proceeds me to dig out a business card I had in my wallet for one of the persons involved.] "Yeah, ****, your stewards wont give me access to by the finish line. They are saying I'm not aloud."

And then the stewards that were there got a bollocking.

Also, just before the start of the half marathon, they kept on pushing me further and further back from the start line. No harm, but I asked them to stop pushing and dragging from me for two minutes whilst I change lenses, as I was holding a couple hundred quid between my legs while changing lenses. Which I wasn't too keen on dropping.

Name stared for privacy reasons.

I had pointed you out earlier and made up a pile of lies about ya.:D

gaf1983

Really enjoyed the day. Thought I ran a personal best in the half marathon - 1:43:38 - but then I checked my results from previous races and it turns out my chip time of 1:40:30 in Liverpool two years ago beat that - still, I started in the second row of the runners so it was my fastest gun time. Kept up with the leading pack for about the first mile or so, so could afford to take the foot off the gas after that. Delighted with the weather and support along the race. Fell in with the 1:40 crowd in the city centre, but couldn't keep up with them, unfortunately lost them at around Thomondgate. Genuinely got some sort of high coming into Raheen, afraid the wind was knocked out of me going up the overpass bridge by the Crescent Shopping Centre. Only negative point was my bloody toe at the end of the race, not good, will have to go easy for the rest of the week.

Great day, will be back again next year, perhaps for the full this time.