Things apparently got complicated

It turns out that being forced to switch treks was more significant than just a change of dates and people I'm climbing with. The financial structure appears to have changed as well, and I finally had a conversation with the folks in the UK to confirm how this works.

Before I had a goal of 2500 GBP, but if I raised 4000 GBP I would pay no actual trip costs except plane ticket myself, and the amount I payed was on a sliding scale based on how much between 2500 and 4000 I raised. Thus, there was incentive for every dollar raised up to 4000 GBP

Apparently the sliding scale no longer applies. This is kind of a big deal, because the new structure is raise 2420 minimum and pay an additional 695 trek costs, or raise 3975 and pay no trek costs. No sliding scale. As you may have noticed, 3975 - 2420 is a lot more than 695 so this is actually a pretty expensive switch. I've already made my 2420 goal. I can close out my fundraisers, accept the fact that I'm paying an additional 695, and all the excess just is extra cash for VSO (which is of course not a bad thing) or I can try to push hard to get from the roughly 2600 I have now to 3975 in order to not pay any trek costs. But until I hit 3975 - 695 = 3280 that's the much more expensive option. In other words, if I fail to meet that goal I'd actually costing myself money to take that option. In theory I'm not actually supposed to be able to switch from one to the other but they'll let it slide since my circumstances are a bit odd. Now I just have to figure out how I feel about the rest of my fundraising efforts.... It's all going to a good cause but it's a bit hard to want to take on the sheer effort involved when it might mean that most of what is happening is that it, if I'm lucky, I'll have spent a lot of time fundraising in order to spend about the same amount of money out of pocket.

The money is still going to VSO and being used for good work, make no mistake. This is just a calculation of whether it really makes sense for me, under the new structure, to continue putting a lot of time I could otherwise use hiking and getting ready for Kili in setting up new fundraising events now that I have met my minimum mark and raised thousands of dollars for charity.