Three free bike events for small charities
Howard Lake | 11 August 2014 | News
Bike Events, Britain’s biggest organiser of charity and recreational mass rides, is opening up three of its September rides to enable smaller charities to take advantage of them at no cost.
The Bristol-based company runs up to 30 sponsored day rides a year on behalf of charities such as Age UK, the British Heart Foundation, Breakthrough, Coppafeel, The Christie in Manchester, NSPCC and Stroke Association.
Open rides
Bike Event’s Blackpool fundraising event
Bike Events charges charities for these events. However, this September it will run three ‘open’ rides where individual entrants or teams can choose to fundraise for their own favourite good causes through sponsorship. The charities chosen will not have to pay.
Bike Events Managing Director Paul Hobbs explained that it is the company’s aim to open up bike fundraising events to smaller charities.
He said:
“For organisations with big support bases having their very own bike ride is a highly effective way to raise both money and awareness. But we are aware that some equally-worthy national or local causes simply don’t have the capacity to run a ride of their own. So this autumn, we’re offering them, and their individual supporters, the chance to make fund-raising use of three ‘open’ rides we’ll be running – the London to Windsor, Wiltshire Big Wheel, and a four-route New Forest ride – safe in the knowledge that we’ll be taking care of all the pre-event preparations, safety checks, sign-posting and on-the-day logistics.”
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As usual, these rides will use quiet, safe and scenic routes carefully researched by the Bike Events team. They will be supported by marshals at regular intervals, with sign-posting, travelling mechanics and medics, insurance, a pick-up vehicle and pre-arranged refreshment stops.
Each also ends with a festival-style event featuring music, entertainment, sports massage area, food/drink stalls and spaces where charities can put up displays or hand out information, if they wish.
How to get involved
Some individuals and company teams have already signed up and chosen their beneficiary charity. Charities too can promote the events to their supporters to enter as individuals. In addition, charities can choose to pay for a block of places for their supporters, which gives them enhanced promotion before and during the event.
The three open rides
Plenty of teams take part in Bike Events rides – although not all like this!
London to Windsor (Sunday 7 September) – starts from Richmond Green, off Kew Row, TW9 1LX; ends, Alexandra Gardens, Windsor, SL4 5HZ; offers a choice of 37 and 55 mile routes along leafy lanes through the pretty villages of the Thames Valley plus a family-friendly 29 mile route using the traffic-free Thames Towpath and Windsor Great Park.
Wiltshire Big Wheel (Sunday 7 September) – starts/ends at The Small Green, Nurstead Road, Devizes, SN10 3AG; offers 12 mile, 45 mile and 100 mile options, all taking in the beautiful Vale of Pewsey and with the longer rides also passing through Savernake Forest.
New Forest (Sunday 14 September) – starts/ends Brockenhurst Sixth Form College campus, Lyndhurst Road, Brockenhurst, SO42 7ZE; offers a 15 mile woodland route for families plus 35, 45 and 60 mile routes for more experienced cyclists.
Is it really free to charities?
We asked Bike Events this and they confirmed that it is. There is, of course, a fee for individuals to each ride – this covers the cost of putting on the event. The only time a charity might wish to pay is to buy a block of places to gain the group booking discount for their riders, plus other benefits, such as Bike Events handling all the admin, issuing logo-headed sponsorship forms, and gaining access to the company’s online donations system.
In short, “if a charity just wants to encourage its supporters to use one of our open rides, they are welcome and it won’t cost them a penny”.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.