It doesn't even need malice or selfishness, this kind of thing can also be lack of skill.

A lot of for-profit businesses also take a lot of investments and fail to make much money.

I did a sponsored walk as a kid, I don't think I even raised enough to cover the cost of the petrol to get to the place it was at.

And I hear hospitals have to ask people to not do sponsored skydives to raise money for them, owing to the mean amount raised being lower than the mean cost of the healthcare they need to provide due to skydiving accidents.