Setting up a Charity Cycle

pauro 76

My mum sadly passed away last week and I decided to do a charity cycle from Armagh where's she from to Longford.. What's the best way of setting up a charity cycle? Any websites you'd recommend and tips are all welcome!

TheZohanS

Sorry to hear about your loss.

For donations try www.mycharity.ie and maybe set up a Facebook page with a link to your donation page.

foxinsox

I'm sorry to hear about your mum, my thoughts are with you.

My brother did a cycle for charity a few years ago.

I think he had a facebook page, and contacted schools, social groups etc. that were based in the towns he was passing through.

Basically try and let as many people as possible know when you are doing it and try and get as much free publicity as possible. Contact as many people as you possibly can.

Fair play to you and best of luck with your planning.

Trog

I did a charity thing for ARC Cancer support before because they helped my mam out, they were very helpful. If you contact whichever charity you're doing it for they should help you. You'll need to get a letter of authentication from them anyway so I'd contact them nice and early.

One very good idea is to contact local businesses (ask for managers directly, never harms to check their websites for names if possible) and ask if you can collect outside/ leave a box inside. Another idea is to assk for sponsorship in return for advertising- logo on a t-shirt while cycling, logo on collection buckets, logo on sponsor cards etc. (can be very cheap to get these printed, and the business might even shell out for it). A good place to start is the larger Irish cycle shops. Don't know about outside dublin but euro cycle for example.

A definite must is to ask your friends and family if they know anyone in a good position to provide the above kind of help. I ended up with so many spot prizes I was practically begging people to take poker sets and t-shirts, just from my family's input.

See if any pubs will let you host a fundraiser for free-table quiz type deeley or something. If you were doing something like that, you would be able to ask businesses for sponsorship, then if they say no (which quite a few will, but keep plugging away and you'll get there), you can ask if they'd like to give you a spot prize- small voucher, or some product which they can afford to give. Most will oblige.

Hope this is helpful, good luck with the organising, and eventually the cycling. I'm sorry for your loss, and I hope you find the energy to complete this project. For me it was tough, but well worth the end result when you ultimately give the cheque to the charity.

pauro 76

Thanks folks, I should've added that the charity it's for is the Longford Palliative Care team, they did a hell of a lot to help look after Mum in her final months. She died from lung cancer also. I'll contact the Palliative team and chat to them as well. Was never really too pushed on these sort of things before now, but when something like this happens to you, it makes you want to help out much more.

Mint Sauce

Check to see if they have a fundraising department, they might be able to point you in the right direction or assist you with your plans. Maybe also check with some local cycling clubs who may have done some thing similar, and finally, get training.

Good luck with your cycle, am sure your Mum will be watching over you for it.

Trog

pauro 76 wrote: »

Thanks folks, I should've added that the charity it's for is the Longford Palliative Care team, they did a hell of a lot to help look after Mum in her final months. She died from lung cancer also. I'll contact the Palliative team and chat to them as well. Was never really too pushed on these sort of things before now, but when something like this happens to you, it makes you want to help out much more.

It's good that you're being constructive about it and trying to do something to make a difference.

Maybe try posting a thread in http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=21 the humanities forum too, or possibly event management: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1374

They don't get the same volume of traffic, but probably have more people with good advice.

biko

Since AH isn't really a good place for this I have moved thread to Cycling. Hope that works.
Sorry for your loss.

Captain Havoc

First of all, condolences on the loss of your mother. A few people here have done cycles for charities. I myself did one for a Hospice Fund in Kilkenny last year but all the online donations were done through mycharity.ie. I recommend you look at this thread. It's through a boardsie who raised money for St. Francis Hospice. Also maybe explore the possibility of setting up a paypal account for the hospice so the money would go directly to them. Then the obvious avenues like setting up a facebook page, having a link to a method of payment as your signature on boards.
Best of luck.

pauro 76

First of all, thanks to everyone for the condolences. Thought it'd be fitting for mum as she cycled everywhere. Chatting to the Longford Palliative Team soon for their information. The publicity drive will come from Facebook as well as mycharity.ie... I'll definitely keep you all updated as you've been so helpful. Cycle route from Keady where my mum's from to Longford. Hilly to start off with and to the flatlands of Longford will be a piece of p!ss... Thinking of starting a blog to raise awareness as well.

CramCycle

First of all, sorry for your loss, from Longford myself and have heard they do great work in there.

pauro 76 wrote: »

Hilly to start off with and to the flatlands of Longford will be a piece of p!ss... Thinking of starting a blog to raise awareness as well.

If your coming into Longford and its flat, your doing it wrong If you'd like any help with the cycle in North Longford, drop me a PM.

pauro 76

CramCycle wrote: »

First of all, sorry for your loss, from Longford myself and have heard they do great work in there.



If your coming into Longford and its flat, your doing it wrong If you'd like any help with the cycle in North Longford, drop me a PM.

Absolutely mate, I'll let you know.

Would I have to notify the guards by the way? I know the route might need the odd steward, but if someone knows the route well enough...

Also bikes might be a problem. Had one years ago and living in London so might need a bike for a day. Anyone know any bike hiring facilities in the Midlands?

CramCycle

pauro 76 wrote: »

Would I have to notify the guards by the way? I know the route might need the odd steward, but if someone knows the route well enough...

You will definitely need to contact the Gardai along the route, I helped out on one a few years ago and this was a necessity. Even if you do not need them, it's usually a requirement mainly at the start and going through towns, they will provide escorts and road blocks if necessary as well as giving you any information/recommendations about times and routes that they may recommend or insist on.

Once the route is finalised contact the Gardai at the stations along the route.

vektarman

Sorry to hear about your loss, my brother and I are organising a charity cycle from Navan to Galway in April, what we've found to be very successful so far is going in to local businesses armed with a letter from the charity involved and selling their business logos on our designed cycling jerseys, you can ask for varying sponsorship amounts depending on the prominence of their logo/name, it's also a good idea to bring an old sportive jersey if you have one to give them an idea of what it might look like.

mo_bhicycle

Are loops not a better idea for a charity cycle than point A to point B?
I'd have thought that you'd get more people interested if they didn't have the hassle of getting back to the start point once the cycle was over.