Finance Ponderings...

Since the Sea To Sea kicks off this weekend in Seattle, it seemed a good idea to come back and revisit the issue of finances. Even though I am not joining the tour until Mid-August, I still feel that "it's really beginning" excitement.

Back in November/December of '07, when I first started down the road of fundraising, I set the goal of having my funding in place by the end of March. It seemed like a good idea at the time! I wanted to get the funding out of the way as soon as possible, so that I could then just focus on the physical training when the spring arrived.

Well, here we are in June, and the financial aspect of the ride is still ongoing.

This has been an education, of course, in so many ways. I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't about me and my fun biking trip. I've said it before: the cause is the key. I've had to humble myself a bit and admit that my earlier goal was kind of naive. I now realize that I had best be prepared to talk about this cause, and yes, fundraise, all the way through to the end of the tour.

(as an aside, all riders who are going from sea to sea were asked to raise $10,000. All riders who were going to ride just one segment of the tour were asked to raise $4,000.)

This grand project has been an education in the challenges of fundraising as well. This was all new to me, as I'm sure it was to the other riders. I really didn't think it would be as hard as it has been. And it has been hard.

So, where do we stand?

Back in the fall, 8 local riders, mostly based out of our church, formed a group and covenanted to fundraise together. And some of us, were very good at it. As a group, our goal was $50,000 to cover the commitments of each of the 8 riders. To date, we're are at about $52-53,000 which is amazing news. Praise God!

Still, not all of us have achieved our personal goals. The group may have hit the goal, but individually, most of us would still like to achieve our own individual goals. Call it a bit of pride, or competitiveness, or a DIY attitude, or just plain determination to see things through to the end.

I have raised just over $3100 toward my own goal of $4000. It would be nice to cover that before I start the tour in Mid-August... seven short weeks from now. We'll see.

Blessings,
...art