My own experience of 20+ years in development is that any special events
program has to be looked at very carefully and thoroughly. Usually the cost
of the program in terms of capital investment, staff time, opportunity cost,
etc. gives a marginal return. My first serious special events program was a
3-day festival that attracted over 30,000 paid attendees (and involved over
2,000 volunteers) but it took six months to prepare and about a month of
that was total staff involvement.

A bike riding fundraiser, while a wonderful idea, has the additional problem
of significant insurance costs and the problem of permit acquisitions. My
advice would go as follows (if you don't hire a consultant to do the search
for you):

1) Establish a Board Exploratory Committee (hopefully headed by a biking
enthusiast that has funds to give)
2) Talk frankly and honestly with any organization that has a biking
fundraiser (if they are willing to talk to you)
3) If you cannot find such try talking to organizations that sponsor walks
and runs to get a good idea of commitments needed
4) If you decide to go ahead after making there inquiries then try to have
someone give you adequate initial capitalization with the understanding that
it would be for a three year commitment
5) Run the program for three years and then decide whether to continue it or
to cut. There are good reasons why these kinds of events are normally done
by "majors."

Local organizations can succeed, but they need to plan and look for payback
in pr and community standing as much as in funds generated to justify the
costs. The cheapest way to determine if this is a feasible avenue for your
organization to achieve its ends is by hiring an outside consultant.

For more specific information contact me off line.
nburlakoff

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf
Of Barbara "Bobbie" Scott
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 3:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: fundraising

Hi-

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with bike rides as fundraisers or
just as events. The idea would be to set the route so we would have stops at
various historic sites in the county. This might appeal to an audience that
we don't ususally attract, but it might also be way too much work for a
small historical society, so we're wondering if anyone else has experience
with rides.

Thanks.

Bobbie

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