Fundraising for Harbor to the Bay

Asking for donations is really easy for some and hard for others. Trust us when we say we have all been there. Sometimes you just need ideas to help you get started. Our experience has shown that the vast majority of our riders hit the suggested $500 minimum. We offer fun incentive prizes for participants raising $1500 or more.

Another great way to fundraise is working together as a team. Team members can pool their fundraising together. So, if 2 riders create a team and one rider raises $750 and the other $250 – since their suggested total is $1000 – they’ve made it!

We encourage crew to fundraise too. Crew members are eligible for all the fundraising incentives offered to the Riders.

We receive a few questions about our organization in terms of fundraising, donor info etc, so here are the facts.

• We DO NOT SHARE our donor information with anyone! Select members of the board and planning committee have access to our donor list because of their duties. They are not shared with the beneficiaries.
• Harbor to the Bay will only contact donors to send thank you letters or clarify a donation. Donors won’t be added to mailing lists or contacted further.
• Harbor to the Bay is an all-volunteer effort – we have no paid staff. We give 100% of the monies raised by riders and crew to the beneficiaries. If our donations to ride expenses exceed our needs, that money goes into the General Fund to be divided between the beneficiaries.
• Credit cards can only be processed by the donor at stage.harbortothebay.org. Our card processor does not permit us to enter any credit card info.
• Checks and cash can be sent to our PO box with a pledge form, so we know where to assign the donation. Feel free to make your own, but please look at ours to see the info we need.

Our mailing address is:
Harbor to the Bay Ride
P. O. Box 990243
Boston, MA 02199

Below are a variety of suggestions and sample letters, emails, and facebook/twitter posts to help you in your efforts. There are references to using your personal fundraising page link. That can be found on https://stage.harbortothebay.org/my-account/. Note: Make certain the URL you give out is https:// and not simply http:// – donations do not work correctly from the unsecure URL.

• H2B Media for Ride 21 (Images)
• Fundraising tips from current and former Riders from CRI (now called AccessHealth MA)
• Fundraising Notes from Philip Finch 
• Sample Facebook Posts for Fundraising
• Template Fundraising Letter for Harbor to the Bay.