Fundraising Tips for all the New Riders!

The little lovely Anne Taylor (RWT Class of '10: Pacific Route) sent me a message asking for some fundraising ideas. I went a bit overboard and sent this as a response. I figured I could share it with everyone:

Anyways, I definitely have a few fundraising ideas. First, I got another job (serving at Chili's) and picked up absolutely as many shifts as I could; I paid about $700 of the fundraising money myself.

Second, at that time, I had over 2,000 friends on facebook and therefore had a pretty big outlet for letting lots of people know what I was doing. I individually sent each of them a message telling them about ride:well. (Yes, this took FOREVER, but I am a substitute teacher and had lots of time at school while kids were working on classwork by themselves.) I also sent an individual message to every single person in my gmail contact list, including people I had never met in my life ever.

This was also right when Facebook started doing newsfeeds and included ALL friends posts; this was also when the Status Update was not as popular as it is now and not many people updated their statuses every 5 seconds. My dad actually gave me the idea: to update my facebook status every hour or as much as I could saying something like: "Jessica Abt has raised $3,276.37.... only $1,723.63 to go!" and then I attached a link to my fundraising page for people to donate online. People like to keep up with the money and see how it went down every hour. Actually, when I only had $50 left to raise, 3 people all donated at once so they could be that last one to see the balance go to zero! It was so epic.

I sent fundraising letters to every single person I had an address for... including friends from middle school and old pen pals I hadn't written since I was 12. I also had the address for about 200 people I had worked with at a summer camp, and I sent letters to each of them as well (even though I hadn't met many of them... this summer camp was HUGE). I also sent letters to about 40 of my parents friends. I also sent a letter to a foreign exchange student that lived with us when I was in middle school.

I also printed up little cards and (about twice the size of a business card, full color, with a picture of me on it) and gave them to EVERYONE. (People in my spinning class at the gym, my-coworkers at Chili's, left them on teacher's desks, gave them to students, friends at church, put a stack at every bike shop in town). I would also go sit at coffeeshops and read this very intriguing looking book (It was called Disposable People by Kevin Bales... freetheslaves.net) and SO many people would come up and ask me about it. And I would start telling them about modern day slavery, and then sneakily tell them about the bike ride, and then give them card. This was very successful because I look MUCH younger than I am (I'm 26 but when I sub at Middle Schools the teacher thinks I'm a new student, even when I dress professionally), and so adult businessmen felt the freedom to talk to me without seeming like a creeper. (You know how its okay for adults to randomly talk to kids but not adults in our society? Yeah, I think its weird, too) They were impressed to see a seemingly high school girl caring about modern day slavery (which they, invariably, had never heard of) and so they'd ask how someone like me got involved with caring about it, and of course I work in the whole blood:water and bike ride thing into the conversation. In the end, I think one of these guys gave me a $20 bill right there.

I had a Cinco de Mayo party. My momma is Mexican and so we made some killer Burritos, bought some Coronas and Sombreros, pulled out some of those records from when she was a kid.... and Voila! Fiesta! It only raised $100 bucks, but we had fun.

Lastly, I joined a bike club and they made e-mail announcements to their entire listserv (500-ish people) about the bike ride. I also posted my "Batmobile" blog to numerous cycling club sites with a link to donate money...I think 4 people that were cyclists donated 25 - 50 bucks each... every penny counts.

What else? I had to step out of my comfort zone A LOT. But I continuously had to remember that the world does not revolve around me. What I mean is that after I feel really uncomfortable asking people for money for a few minutes, they probably forget about it a few minutes later even though I go on feeling weird and vulnerable. The world does not continue to think that I am weird even if I do. We can connect with others because we realize that everyone has an insecurity, just like us, and generally speaking, people appreciate connection and vulnerability.

And most importantly, just like I wrote in that "reflections" blog... I KNEW without any doubt whatsoever when I stumbled across the ridewelltour.org site that this was EXACTLY what I was supposed to do. I prayed for discernment and God's direction, and he definitely lead me there. I was SO scared about the money and even more about training.... but he provided. I think there should be a dose of rational thinking/ very prayerful consideration about fundraising before you commit, but I trust that God will lead people with certainty that are supposed to be on the ride.

My sister works for a missionary organization, and she helped me designed my flashy and awesome support letters and cards... I can email them to you if you want. She said the most important thing is a picture to make it personal. I think your current profile picture would be perfect. Not many people donated as a result of the letters but... every penny counts.

If you make the calculations, I probably informed (or at least tried to inform) about 2,700 people about the ride and only 191 donated. I think I’d never met about 45 of them. Its not a great return rate I suppose, but it got the job done in the end. Most people donated just $5.

My final piece of advise is to get SPD’s. Only two or three of us on my ride had them but they are FAR superior to any other type of clipless pedal. You can walk in them and never have to replace them the whole ride. Criselda probably wouldn’t have broken her butt bone if she had SPD’s... the plastic clip thingys are super slippery.

Riders, will you send me a copy of your support letter? I’d love to read it! Jessica.abt@gmail.com

In the end, The ride was the greatest adventure I've ever been a part of. People go on missions trips or study abroad or some sort of adventure and say "That trip changed my life" all of the time. I mostly go on adventures/trips/etc and say things like "That was fun," because in reality, nothing about my life changed at all. But when I returned from ride:well, I knew my life really had changed. I decided to really and finally pursue what I know I was made to do for the first time. I'm going to graduate school next fall to get a Master's in Outdoor Recreation and College Student Development, and I also went on a 30 day mountaineering and rock climbing trip and spent last summer in Hawaii teaching kids to surf, hike, camp, etc etc last summer. I tell you all of this for you to see and know that it will awaken your mind and body and you will have a really incredible trip and it really could change your life - and thats not just words. Its true.

Good luck!

Jess