Running Free?

Local News | UW apologizes to marathoners over charity tiff | Seattle Times Newspaper: "University of Washington officials apologized Monday to runners in the Seattle Marathon who mistakenly believed that part of their race fee would go toward charity. UW Medicine spokeswoman Tina Mankowski said comments made by race announcers and promotion surrounding the Sunday event may have created a mistaken impression. She wanted to make it clear that only money given in addition to race fees — which cost up to $120 — goes to the UW Medical Center Patient & Family Housing Fund. The UW also is the primary event sponsor."

This story confuses me. Like many of the faculty I feel we should be doing a lot more of this sort of fund raising. There are many runs for charity and I had assumed that such runs did raise funds. If not why is the charity .. whether is it UW Medicine or the Heart Association. associated with the event? Esp. shocking is the claim that this event resulted in a net loss to the UW of nearly 100,000.

It is interesting that the Times says, "As well as providing medical staff for the event, the UW this year paid $125,000 to help put on the race. That goes up to $155,000 by 2009. In 2006, the UW paid $110,000 toward marathon costs. With the money the UW received back to help patients, it resulted in a net loss of $98,000." The event brought in about $1,000,000. If the UW is the principle sponsor, then I guess this means the runner's fees totaled $890,000 at $120/runner. This seems high, were there really almost 7500 runners????

What is the legality here and where did the 100 K come from? It is it even legal for the UW to donate its funds in this way? Are all runs conducted on a net loss basis?