General Cycling Discussion - Charity rides - I have a couple of questions.

I am thinking about riding in the following charity event: www.mssociety.ca/manitoba/biketour.htm Biking to the Viking. My sister enterd this a few years ago, she had to quit when a bee stung her in the eye, her eye closed up and she had to quit.

the only problem is I hate having to ask people to sponsor me, I don't like asking people for money. It is hard for me to do. Does anyone have any tips on how to ask people without making them angry? I have never ridden on this ride before. It is 148 KM, what kind of training do I need? The ride is on August 26th 27th 2006

What happens if I don't raise a certain amount? Will I not be able to ride in the event? What happens to the money I have already raised?

The Riding Mountain tour is on September 9th & 10th

I am thinking about riding in the following charity event: www.mssociety.ca/manitoba/biketour.htm Biking to the Viking. My sister enterd this a few years ago, she had to quit when a bee stung her in the eye, her eye closed up and she had to quit.

the only problem is I hate having to ask people to sponsor me, I don't like asking people for money. It is hard for me to do. Does anyone have any tips on how to ask people without making them angry? I have never ridden on this ride before. It is 148 KM, what kind of training do I need? The ride is on August 26th 27th 2006

What happens if I don't raise a certain amount? Will I not be able to ride in the event? What happens to the money I have already raised?

The Riding Mountain tour is on September 9th & 10th

Plenty of time to get fit for the ride- just get in the milage. No need to get in the full distance, but work up to a 4 hour ride with a few severe hills, and then try a metric century in mid summer. It is not only riding that will get you fit- so if you work in an office block- use the stairs, walk around the local area at a fast enough pace to get you out of breath for 20 minutes or so, join a gym- lose the car keys-get a dog. Then get the diet right- lose a bit of weight through cycling but try to keep the Carbo-hydrayte intake up. You need this for riding- cut out sugars and fat, and if your weight goes up- cycle more. Then a week before the ride- every meal to be carbo loaded with some protein such as Pasta- rice- bread- potatoes- sticky buns- Irma's pies.(They work wonders)

On the sponsorship- I do several rides a year and all I do for most of them is donate from my wallet on top of the entry fee. Not such a high sponsorship amount as yours but £25 is better than nothing- which is what they'd get if I did not do the ride, and I always get invited back the next year. Then there is my big one- and I talk to people about my riding-This is a heart foundation ride and I play on their health. I post a sponsorship form on my notice board and let people donate- The best though is to have a few friends round for beers on a hot summer evening- once they have had a few, and they have noted that I have only had 1 to their 3 or more, I tell them I am in training and out comes the form- Works every time.

I did the Tour de Cure a few years back. I found raising money very easy, and (like you) I HATE asking people for donations. $250 shouldn't be difficult--in fact, I think you'll find it happens very quickly.

One thing the TdC does is to provide is a web site where people can donate via credit card and you can post pictures and updates. This ride doesn't seem to have that feature, but lots of free web sites will let you create blogs. You can post updates, keep people involved, let them know how you're doing, how much money you've raised, etc. My family, all of whom live far from here, loved seeing the pictures and getting the updates.

If you know someone with MS, you could include their name (usual warnings apply) on your requests for donations and say you're "riding for them". The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society does a lot of fund-raising rides, and each of their riders is given a person to ride for. It gives you a lot of motivation to keep training, and really helps personalize the donations.

I am thinking about riding in the following charity event: [url]

the only problem is I hate having to ask people to sponsor me, I don't like asking people for money. It is hard for me to do. Does anyone have any tips on how to ask people without making them angry? I have never ridden on this ride before. It is 148 KM, what kind of training do I need? The ride is on August 26th 27th 2006

What happens if I don't raise a certain amount? Will I not be able to ride in the event? What happens to the money I have already raised?

The Riding Mountain tour is on September 9th & 10th

The MS site where I sign up here in Va. has a way of sending out emails from their site to your freinds with your personal message. That way you don't have to actually ask them yourself and if they don't want to they don't feel bad because you're not their in front of them.

You'll have to make up any difference, but it usually not a problem to make the min. It seems that there are enough people that have a friend or relative with MS that they ask me if I'm riding so they can donate.

Good luck!

Joe

Sorry to Hi-Jack - -

I rode the MS150 twice in high school around 1990. The high fund-raising requirements caused a huge ammount of stress to me. I did everything I could and I always found a way to get what I needed, but it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I make it a point to no longer do pledge type charity rides.

I did one last year as a alumni for my fraternity's philanthropy. While I will continue to do that ride because of personal reasons I have to say that raising the funds has brought back some of those old MS150 feelings and situations.

I don't have a solution, just issues.... :o . There I said it...i have lots of issues :p

I've been thinking about doing that same tour in Utah this summer. I was disappointed that a search of "charity rides", "charity bike tours" etc etc only yielded up the MS150. Not that I don't care about the fact that people have MS, but I thought it would cough up a dozen tours, with causes ranging from HIV/AIDS to the Humane Society to Socialized Healthcare. (The latter is something I would bike for anytime!) The only result I found was the MS150. Now granted, this is Utah, and deep red states aren't so much for social programs, but I must say I was disappointed. Does anyone know of any other good tours?

Sorry, that was a minor derailment, if not an outright hijack. I don't have good fundraising ideas, save for ask your employer. Corporations like to "appear" philanthropic. (Emphasis on the "appear".)

I will be riding in the AIDS/LifeCycle San Francisco to Los Angeles ride for the second time this year in June. Each rider has to raise $2500. I raised $4300 last year and am already at $2375 this year. I sent nice letters to everyone in my address book, telling them what I was doing, why, what kind of training I was doing, etc. Everyone has been very generous and complimentary on my commitment. A friend has even to decide to ride with me this year after reading about last year's ride. Go to www.aidslifecycle.org and click on "fundraising". There are 125 tips there. But I think you will be amazed at how willing your friends and family will be to donate. While you're at the website, check out the training tips and "experience the event". It will give you and idea what you are in for. Good luck.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I will let everyone know if I decide to ride in the event. It is still kind of a long way off.

Approach your family and close friends first, or whomever you trust the most, and practice on them. Tell them the truth, you've never raised money for charity before, you're really excited about doing this (both the fundraising and the ride) and they'll usually respond quite well. Tell them something about the charity and why you are interested in it (be sincere) give them a brochure so they can look at it later, then tell them how you are raising money for it by taking donations for it by riding. Tell them about your training, your plans, and let them ask you lots of questions. They'll like the idea of somehow being involved with it by watching you train. They'll probably ask you how much you are donating--fair question--and tell them a loonie a km or a toonie a km, or all the loonies and toonies you get in change between now and then, or whatever you decide to do.
Just remember that not everybody has spare money to give you for it, they might forget that they promised you something, or maybe even made a false promise. If somebody says no, its OK, they're still your friend, relative, whatever. Don't worry about it, just have fun with it. That's your job. Let somebody else do the worrying.

I've done a couple of ms150's and the webpage and emails work great. Also I contacted people that I have donated to for various things like school/sports/church fundraisers and just simply said that I was doing the ride and since I had sponsored them in the past maybe they could return the favor. Most people were more than happy because it meant that they next time they were looking for a few bucks they could come to me.

I've done a couple of ms150's and the webpage and emails work great.

So far the webpage option is working great for me. I'm gearing up for the Houston to Austin MS150. My father-in-law has been the biggest help, he covered the minimum. He also set up a can at a bar. The bar is in the town where our beach houses are. I was worried how it was going to be received. The patrons/locals have taken to it well. They even had an announcement in the local paper about me doing the ride/ the can being in that bar.

All I can say is don't stress too hard, and good luck.

They'll probably ask you how much you are donating--fair question--and tell them a loonie a km or a toonie a km, or all the loonies and toonies you get in change between now and then, or whatever you decide to do.
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Umm, this poster sounds Canadian. A loonie is a Canadian Coin worth two of their currency units. A wild Bird on one side and the Queen on the other. I asked a Canadian once and he was not sure which was the loon.

Umm, this poster sounds Canadian. A loonie is a Canadian Coin worth two of their currency units. A wild Bird on one side and the Queen on the other. I asked a Canadian once and he was not sure which was the loon.


BZZZZZZT

Wrong :p

A loonie is 1$, a toonie is 2$ :D

Apologies for not directly addressing the OP's question, but I thought I'd add this: around here, companies often sponsor teams and pay the required $, and each rider just pays the entry fee; sometimes--but not always--you may have to pay for the "sponsor-team" jersey, but on some rides, the jersey is also paid for by the corporate sponsor.