paddling for charity

[Blane]

I'm recently retired and have plans to canoe several major rivers on the east coast this year. I hope this turns into at least 1K miles.
As I've been working on my plans I started thinking about needy non-profits that could benefit from donations by donors for every mile, hour or day paddled. Does anyone have any experience with this or has this forum ever been involved with anything like this before. I don't want to reinvent the wheel and hope to keep this as simple as possible and not get involved with handling currency.

 

[recped]

You might want to check out GoFundMe, no personal experience and no idea how it works but there is some information on this page that might give you some insights.

The New Charity Fundraising Experience is Here

The new charity fundraising experience will put your nonprofit at the heart of the GoFundMe experience. Sign up for the new experience today.

www.gofundme.com

 

[Woodpuppy]

Gofundme has a history of withholding funds when it suits them. In a recent case, they informed donors that their donations would be distributed to other “approved” causes since they were not going to fulfill the original purpose. That didn’t go well for gofundme, and they had to refund the money. After that I will never send funds through, or use that organization for anything, ever.

Consider selecting some charities you prioritize and ask people to pledge donations directly to them. I’m sure many of the charities have an online donation form that’s easy to use.

Please also try to avoid charity middlemen like United Way. Their overhead is absurd, and your selected charities get dimes on the dollars.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

has this forum ever been involved with anything like this before

Not that I recall.

Nor do I have any personal experience or knowledge of how to solicit charitable donations for something like a canoe trip. To be honest, it sounds sort of unlikely to me unless the trip were something heroic like Verlen Kruger's 28,000 Mile Canoe Challenge, a trans-ocean crossing, or a circumnavigation of Australia. Virtually everything canoeable in the U.S. has been canoed many times. But I could be completely wrong.

 

[lowangle al]

I think it's a great idea, I hope you can get it together. Will we be able to follow your progress?

 

[Blane]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll keep ya'll post as things evolve.

 

[billconner]

I've thought it would require the support of the beneficiary, a charitable organization. They need to set up the web page/mechanism and you'd need to help with contacts - friends, family, business associates, etc. So much per mile or whatever.