Why do we ban self-sponsorships?

From the very start, we have relied on financial support from donors to run Beaches On The Air to promote the principle of solidarity and to ensure that our programme is free of charge to activators and chasers. In the last couple of years, we have developed the system by implementing

1. a method by which everyone can easily become a donor,
2. an internal currency system by means of which donors can earmark their donations for the support of specific activities, such as the creation of new beach listings available to everyone,
3. rolls of honour of sponsors to highlight how their donations translate into the results of their sponsored activators and chasers.

In most cases, our system has been understood correctly, but in a few cases it has created misunderstandings. It is for this reason that we have upgraded our system to make sure that we ban self-sponsorships.

The reasons we are now enforcing an outright ban on self-sponsorships are threefold:

1. we want to stress the principle that sponsors provide unselfish donations for the enjoyment of others,
2. we want to stress the principle that participation in our programme is free to activators and chasers, and that we do not accept any kinds of payments for activating or chasing, not even voluntary donations,
3. we want to avoid any potential conflicts of interest in case we decide to use the endorsements of donors as an indicator of quality in our system.

We hope that this reform will introduce clarity into the system, avoid misunderstandings and strengthen the figure of sponsors on which our system relies.