We could solve this problem by simply asking people for money to be given to us personally, and then making a large donation from that money, but right or wrong this feels disingenuous to me
I did both: we asked people to donate to recommended charities (only people who couldn’t come did it) or to give us the money and we would donate it ourselves (my ex-wife’s family was pretty generous with this).
The pro of asking them to donate directly is that you can elicit more engagement—if just one of your guests likes the idea and decide to copy afterwards, you already have a higher impact. If you want to do this, perhaps you could have an online campaign—like a crowdsourcing campaign. In Brazil, we often use doesuafesta to do it for birthdays—people can see others are donating, they can donate even if they can’t attend, etc.
Was going to suggest this exact thing: do both. And I don’t see anything disingenuous with donating money people give to you unless you tell them you are going to do something else with it.
Agreed on it not being disingenuous. If I gave someone money as a wedding present, I personally would not feel any expectation that they spend it in some particular manner.
I did both: we asked people to donate to recommended charities (only people who couldn’t come did it) or to give us the money and we would donate it ourselves (my ex-wife’s family was pretty generous with this).
The pro of asking them to donate directly is that you can elicit more engagement—if just one of your guests likes the idea and decide to copy afterwards, you already have a higher impact. If you want to do this, perhaps you could have an online campaign—like a crowdsourcing campaign. In Brazil, we often use doesuafesta to do it for birthdays—people can see others are donating, they can donate even if they can’t attend, etc.
Was going to suggest this exact thing: do both. And I don’t see anything disingenuous with donating money people give to you unless you tell them you are going to do something else with it.
Agreed on it not being disingenuous. If I gave someone money as a wedding present, I personally would not feel any expectation that they spend it in some particular manner.