Downturn Slows Elite Charity Events

But this year she got nervous when some of the belly dancers told her they could not afford to donate private lessons as raffle prizes.

"That's when we started thinking maybe we should scale back a little bit because the economy is bad," said Gabriel, 41, an engineer from Lunenburg.

Rather than committing to raise $4,200, which she would be obligated to pay whether or not she collected that much in pledges, she is taking a shortcut, pledging $3,400 for a shorter Pan-Mass Challenge route that ends in Wellesley.