Posted on 05.20.11

2011 NYC - DC Climate Ride: Highlights and Take-Aways

by mightybytes

Team Mightybytes (Tim, Joy, and Steve) recently returned from the 2011 NYC - DC Climate Ride, biking 300 miles over five days to support sustainable solutions and eight environmental organizations.

Yes, our legs and butts are sore, but we have some great take-aways from the trip. Before and during the ride, we learned a lot about each other, how to effectively raise funds using social media tools, and met dozens of sustainability experts who shared their wisdom with us. Here were some of the take-aways.

Creative Social Fundraising Works

Each rider is required to raise a minimum of $2,400 to participate, but we ended up raising over $9,200 as a team! Most of this was achieved through online social fundraising (and promising A LOT of people beer this summer when they visit Chicago).

Finding creative ways via social networks to persuade friends, family, and colleagues to hand over hard earned money for our bike trip was definitely a challenge. Simple tweets and status updates were not up to the task, so we had to get creative. Joy made a Climate Ride rhyme video and posted it to YouTube and her Facebook wall. Tim regularly posted training updates via the MapMyRide iPhone app and fundraising updates using DonorDrive’s Facebook app. We all sent individual and personalized messages to friends and family as well as an email to key Mightybytes clients. Steve even reached out to teachers from high school. These strategies took time, but showed great results.

Once the ride started, we kept donors in the loop by posting regular Facebook and Twitter messages, photos, and videos. We responded quickly to people who wished us good luck and thanked them for making a donation. And most importantly, we kept promoting the ride—to people we met along the route and via social networks—which led to several donations during the ride as well. In fact, if you would still like to donate, you can do so on the Team Mightybytes DonorDrive page for Climate Ride.

Get Fit, Get Smart

Climate Ride is a great opportunity to learn from sustainability experts as well. Many riders also work for and with environmental organizations, including the eight beneficiaries. Each evening individuals from these organizations and others shared knowledge on their great work, new innovations, and how they approach improving sustainability at their workplaces and in their personal lives. From wind farms to environmental policy lobbying, these presentations were informative, enlightening and fun. For more information about the various speakers on the trip, check out some of the posts that Tim wrote from the road for the Climate Ride blog.

Co-Worker Camaraderie

The trip was also awesome because it allowed us to bond in ways that a typical day at the office doesn’t really facilitate. You can’t help but get close to people when sharing a small dorm room, camping side-by-side, or watching them put on goofy (and sometimes smelly) bike shorts. It’s only been a couple days since our return but hopefully the camaraderie will extend itself into our daily work lives as well.

From seeing the beautiful American countryside to bonding with other riders from around the country to learning more about various sustainability efforts, this was an adventure we won’t soon forget.

Also, check out our Flickr feed from the trip. We will be continually adding photos in the days to come. Here’s a slideshow:

Would you and some of your co-workers be interested in participating in the Climate Ride? The next one will be in California in October. For more information, check out the Climate Ride website.