Rdsurfingmadonna wrote:
Sorry about the long reply.....
You view this as a fund raising social event. Some athletes view this as a race with prize money and that is an earning opportunity to them.
Neither you or them are wrong. Ask for the money back, take what you get gratefully and move on.
I suggest:
Next year give out no performance based cash prizes at all..
Write up the circumstances surrounding your mistakes . . Indicate that overwhelmed with the demands of devoting most of your waking hours to doing good deeds you did not realize you had written a misleading prize structure and compounding that had written checks and paid out more prize money than you intended. Explain that those who saw the event as a charity event gave back their prize money and those who viewed it as a pay for performance opportunity did not. This brought you to the realization that paying performance bonuses is not in the spirit of your event. It attracts people who want to make money and this is not the intent of the event.. Perhaps you will come to the conclusion all cash rewards take away money to fund the charity and stop all the cash prizes.
Yeah you will not get the entry fee from those few who enter because of the prize money but you will not have the expense of prize money and no chance to put yourself in a situation where you hurt the organization by not paying attention to details of the cash flow.
Keep up the good deeds and understand running for prize money is a business for some and they take earning as seriously as you take giving.