Shameless Promotions. - MS150 Fund-raising

On April 16th and 17th, I will be joining 13,000 other cyclists riding 180 miles from Houston to Austin to help end the devastating effects of multiple sclerosis. By making a pledge on my behalf, you are supporting research and local services to those affected with this unpredictable disease.

MS is a crippling disease that affects the central nervous system. Some symptoms of MS may include loss of balance, impaired vision and hearing, fatigue, muscle weakness and, in some, paralysis. Even simple everyday living skills become increasingly difficult. Everyone diagnosed with MS is affected differently by these symptoms and there is no known cure. But, with your help we can do a lot to help find that cure and to touch the lives of so many that are affected by MS! This year's tour was merely a personal goal of mine, just to see if I could complete the 180 miles, now it is more personal because one of my wifes close friends was diagnosed with MS last month.

My goal is to raise at least $1,500 this year. Please help me reach that goal with your pledge. Any amount you feel comfortable with, even $1.00, will help! And, as always your donation is tax deductible.

You may donate to my account by following this link:

http://ms150.org/ms150/donate/donate.cfm?id=171853

Thank you in advance for your support and please help spread the word, I need all the help I can get!

Sincerely,
Rob

Fifteen views and not even $1.00 out of this heart felt post :(

You kind of have to understand that being a cycling forum there are a lot of people doing MS rides. I am considering posting a link to where people can donate to in my signature thingy for the MS ride I am doing, you might want to consider that. I have raised 1500 the last two years I have done the ride. Glad to hear you are doing the ride, my mom has MS and its pretty emotional each year seeing her at the finish line. Best of luck to you!

Yeah, I was just bumping it back up to the top ;)

It's all about exposure ya know...

Fifteen views and not even $1.00 out of this heart felt post :(

I'm not really surprised by the lack of views or supports. Funny how many views and complaints there are when people are not getting any new discount coupons from Performance or Nashbar, but they're too CHEAP to give a couple of bucks to a great cause. By the way, my wife and I are riding in the MS Top Hat Classic held in Pleasanton, California April 30.

I'm not surprised either. I've only gotten 5 people to donate to my cause so far and with those five I am a third of the way there.

I'm not surprised either; I had a very similar experience on another, non-cycling related forum.
My approach is to send a mailing to everyone I can think of, including a return envelope(unstamped). This way, I typically raise $4-5K each year for MS, and you don't have to run around collecting the donations after the ride. I also email friends overseas as they can donate over the wwweb. Good luck, anyway.

I donate money to the American Diabetes Association and the American Cancer Society (two diseases that have affected my life). I also support many charitible causes through my entry fee in organized rides. I've never participated in any dollars-per-mile event. I'd rather just pay my fee and be done with it, rather than asking other people for money.

Here's Sheldon Brown's take:

http://sheldonbrown.com/thons.html

Give it about a week and i get to join the fun and raise 2000 bucks.

I have kind of an idea of how im gonna do it, the nice thing is that my cousins have done it for 7 years+ and they are really nice helping make my letter to send to people. Now to find out all the people that i cansend a letter to and IM OFF!

Can't blame me for trying here can ya? I actually passed my goal today though so all is good! Good luck on your efforts!

Sheldon Brown is full of crap on this one...I read his take on it and find his view to be totally screwed.

robncindi congrats, hey it doesnt hurt to raise more!

any way how much do you guys have to raise for the ms-150? The pmc raised it from 1750 to 2000 so last night ni got a list of 114 people that i will send a letter to about fund raising and if they can contribute.

The minimum is $300 for the MS150

Are you kidding thats nothing!

Are you kidding thats nothing!

Well, I guess it depends on how you want to look at it; maybe you can get a lot more people who will raise $300+ than you will get people who will raise +$2000. It seems more accesible to everyone I guess. I know someone who did the PMC a few years ago and there's just that one ride if I'm correct so they have to get all their money raised there, whereas the MS rides are happening all over the country over several months so they can probably raise more with a smaller minimum donation.

It also seems to me that most people shoot for well above that minimum. Robncindi says his minimum goal is $1500. I plan on doing one of the two MS150s being held in the state of Virginia and as it is my first and I'm really not sure what kind of response I'll get when I try to raise money my minimum goal is probably going to be around $750-$1000, but of course I'd like to shoot for a lot more than that if I can.

Thinking about it didnt really mean what i may hav meant i meant thats nothing because i ahve to get my ass out and raise 2000+ bucks. I was putting it in that perspective, really any money raised is really great! :beer:

Are you kidding thats nothing!

True, it's not much until you add up 13,000 riders x $300 + $50 entry fee, then it is quite a lot. Plus like has been said most raise more than the minimum. If the minimum were $2000 they would definately have to reduce the amount of riders. Can you imagine a family of four having to raise $8000, that would be tough to do!