General Cycling Discussion - Northeast AIDSRide

'sup all!

Don't know if you guys have heard of this charity event.

I am trying to raise funds in order for me to participate in the Northeast AIDSRide that will take place on June 20, 2002 and ends on the 23rd. I signed up this week and have until May 24th to meet my goal. This is a 4 day ride with 350 miles total and over 100 hills to be conquered. This will be my first ever charity ride. Was hoping if some of you would be kind enough to donate $5 or $10 towards this cause. I would really like to make this happen and hope that you could check out my progress. check my link out.

homepage.bethepeople.com (http://homepage.bethepeople.com/display/mp_page.php?page_id=9153)

Thanks a lot all!

7ripp3r

I'd like to help, but unfortunately, this is a Palotta Teamworks event. That means that a full 75% of the money raised is used to run the event.
My local Aids charity sends a full 94% of every dollar they earn towards the running of research and toward funding hospices, as well as community outreach. The 25% forwarded by Palotta toward these charities borders on being criminal.
I really wish you well, but you won't be getting any of my money. People are still dying from this disease while Dan Palotta gets rich off the fundraising. I hope he get run over by a sag wagon some day soon.

omg, I did not know this was the case. the reason i joined was to experience an organized ride and at the same time do something good. would you know a similar event that would provide something like this? what is your charity? do they set something up like rides and such? if so, please do advise.

thanks.

Unfortunately, that is the downfall of these big events. Locally, the MS society has a yearly 100 mile event, where abpout 90% of the money raised actually goes to the charity. My local Aids charity sponsors a walkathon, etc.
When you raise the $5,000 needed to ride in a Palotta event, something like $3,500 of it is being used to pay for the support wagons, tents, security, food, etc. Then, another big chunk goes toward the pocket of Dan Palotta, who has become a millionaire through sponsoring these events.
The major west-coast Aids charities have recently revoked their sponsorship of his events, and have instituted their own 'lifecycle' events. Ever the altruist, Mr. Palotta has sued them in court for doing so.
In short, I hope there is a specially nasty place in h3ll for people like Mr. Palotta, and I sincerely hope his empire crumbles very quickly, leaving him destitute. Perhaps then, he will understand what charity is supposed to be.

So local MS societies are good including their rides. hear of anything else in the east coast area? near nyc that is? thanks.

Just wanted to update all on the latest:

Palotta Teamworks has cancelled this ride, and all future rides.

Palotta's fundraising with AIDS charities will end with the current european ride.

(Good riddance)

Wow! I have worked mech support on a number of "disease rides" and had no idea that there were parasitic sponsors like that--although there was an online SF Weekly article some months ago to the theme of, if you want to go on a bike ride that improves the world, do Critical Mass instead of AIDS ride--the skim factor in the promotion of the ride was the reason, not the cause that the ride raises money for. That'd be a good Bicycling article, if they really want to change their image!

D*Alex, do you have any more info about this? I noticed there website is still up and running, and there "be the people" website is still collecting money...

Well, I don't know if the numbers are really as low as 25%, but they are still pretty bad. In 2001 AidsRides the breakdown is;
$29M in donations
$30M Total income (donations plus other income, doesn't specify)

$8.7M in participant expenses.
$7M in Admin/Marketing/Aids Awareness
$1.4M for Pallotta's Teamworks Production fee

Total given to charity is only about 46% or $13M. That's for 5 rides in 2001 through out the US.

What I don't quite understand are all the admin expenses, especially the double fee's, admin fees and production fees.

Of course these numbers are from their website, but it would be hard to change them around to much without having people raise an eyebrow or two. Even so, 46% is still a small percentage for a charity event.

Andrew