Last year I shared my diary entries for my attempt to drive a car bought for £100 from Plymouth to Dakar, on the west coast of Africa. But what I completely forgot to share was what happened after, when we returned home after less than 12 hours of driving.

We’d raised money for Action for Children, and received corporate sponsorship from some generous firms and individual sponsorships from friends, family and colleagues. Sadly, we didn’t know Elon Musk, but I’m sure even the world’s richest man also thinks “God no, not another sponsorship request!” when someone sends an email for a fun run sponsorship around Tesla HQ. But, even without a billionaire, we’d done okay and were happy with the amount we’d raised for charity, even though we had spectacularly failed to complete the race. See here.

All was good. Except for one person.

“What do you mean, you didn’t complete it?” they asked.

“Our gears broke. We couldn’t drive more than 10mph. We had to abandon the car and then abandon the race. There was nothing we could do.” I explained.

“Well, there’s one thing you can do now,” they said.

“What’s that?”

“You can give me my money back!”

I laughed. I thought they were joking. They’d sponsored us £50, or to be more accurate, they’d sponsored the treatment of sick children in hospital fifty pounds.

“Do you us to break little Timmy’s leg again then,” I joked.

“No,” they said, “I just want my money back.” Before they added, because they wanted to show they were not being completely unreasonable: “Just let Timmy heal.”

This continued for another couple of minutes but every joke I made or comment designed to remind them how the charity was benifitting from their sponsorship was met with an outstretched open palm and a demand to put cash in it.

So, I had to pay them back. £50 for charity returned because we hadn’t completed the race.

It was a dick move. And, to be fair, probably the kind of move Elon Musk would pull too so I’m glad we didn’t get any sponsorship from him as he may have demanded his billion dollars back.

“Worst investment since Twitter,” he’d have said, which would be a tad harsh. At least we haven’t encouraged far right Nazis. At least not deliberately, I can’t speak for Action for Children.

In any event, the money was returned. The person was happy and I made sure to add a proviso to any future sponsorship requests: “Donations are non-refundable!”

The best thing about Findhorn Beach, apart from the soft sand, fancy beach huts and fascinating WW2 MOD fortifications is that if the weather is foul you can always swim instead in Findhorn Bay. See reports here and here. That way you can check the beach to see if conditions are okay for swimming and, if not, you can still swim in the sheltered calm of the bay. However, for this visit, the sea was flat calm, the skies were blue, the thermometer was hitting 20 and Findhorn was doing a good job of imitating the Caribbean. I couldn’t have had better conditions or a location for a sea swim.

REVIEW

Ease of Access: There’s plenty of parking beside the beach. There used to be a sign that warned that parking costs £1. However, I’d never paid anything and nothing happened and now it’s disappeared so I’m assuming that parking is now free.

There’s plenty of grass beside the car park and it’s easy to walk to the beach, even barefooted.

Water quality: Very clear. There’s also plenty of room to swim before the beach starts to drop away. You can easily move away from shore and still, not only see the bottom, but also find places to stand and keep your head above water. The water temperature was c15 degrees.

Swim Quality: Excellent – at high tide, the sea was calm and there were views straight across the Moray Firth. Watch out for the estuary though – someone has told me it has a “whopping great whirlpool”, not sure if that’s true but I’d definitely avoid swimming near it and head east along the beach only.

Other People: Findhorn Beach is popular but, at more than five miles long there’s plenty of quiet spots away from entrance to the car park.

Would I go back: Yes.

How many times have you been asked to sponsor someone? Whether it’s a marathon, a bungee jump or growing a moustache, we are asked all the time to give money for a good cause. In return, we promise to say “Well done!” when the race is over, the bungee rope holds or the moustache looks more like Henry Cavill in Mission Impossible than Henry the Hoover after vacuuming the hairs around a barber’s chair. And that’s it. Nothing else needed. Hand over cash, say congratulations. There’s nothing else to do. Because why would you do anything else? It’s a donation to charity. You don’t expect to get if refunded, do you..?

Until a few years ago, I’ve never thought to check up on the sponsored person. I’ve never checked whether someone has ran around London or abandoned their razor. I just pay my money and I forget about it until I see an email saying “Thank you!”

Even if they don’t complete the race, or even start, or if they remain bumfluff free for the next six months, I wouldn’t never go back and ask for my money back. So why am I talking about it now? I’m talking about it because at the weekend I was reminded that when I raised money for driving from Plymouth to the Gambia, and the car broke down on day one – see the race diaries – someone asked for their sponsorship money back.

“I heard you crashed out,” they said when I met them a few days after returning home.

“Well, we didn’t crash,” I said, “the engine just failed. There was nothing we could do. The car couldn’t travel faster than 10mph. We could have kept going but we’d still be driving to Africa next year, if we stayed in the car. We had no choice but to quit.”

“So you don’t finish it?” They asked.

“No, we didn’t finish it” I said.

“In that case, can I have my money back?”

They’d sponsored me £50. Or more accurately they’d sponsored Action for Children fifty pounds.

I thought they were joking so I said: “Would you like interest on that too?”

And they said, in the same tone they would speak to their bank manager: “no, the interest would be next to nothing. I only gave you the money two weeks ago. You can keep the interest.”

“That’s kind of you,” I said but that’s not what I was thinking, they genuinely wanted their money back.

“You can pay tomorrow,” they said, “otherwise I will have to charge interest.” And they weren’t joking when they said that.

And I paid them because what other choice did I have? We had asked for sponsorship to reach Africa and we’d only spent one hour in France before the car broke down. They were quite right to ask for their money back. We’d been sponsored to travel, not sponsored to quit.

That’s why it’s important when receiving any sponsorship request to write back immediately with a lists of conditions for your sponsorship. The first, of course, being that any money gifted is conditional of them completing the event. The second is that interest WILL APPLY if any refund is not paid within 48 hours. The third is that you know a man who will kick their door if they don’t pay.

I guarantee these conditions will mean you will never lose money again when sponsoring someone – because you will never again be asked again to sponsor anyone.