September 5, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
Riders who sign up for the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, a two-day charity bikeathon, agree to raise at least $1,000 for cancer care and research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston. This summer participants in the August ride got an electronic boost for their fund-raising efforts.
Organizers sent riders a 20-second e-mail advertisement about the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge that combined images from past rides with stirring music. Riders then could forward the advertisement to their friends and relatives, who could click on a link in the e-mail, go to the event’s Web site, and make an online contribution credited to the rider’s fund-raising goal.
Riders received the advertisement on July 11. In the week that followed, donors made gifts totaling $137,000 through the Web site, compared with $77,000 during the same period last year.
The Internet has become an increasingly important source of revenue for the ride. Last year, electronic donations accounted for $1-million of the $14-million that the ride raised, up from only $250,000 in Internet gifts in 2000.
Participants in this year’s ride are still sending in contributions, but organizers say that when they finish tallying the results this fall, online contributions will likely account for $2.5-million to $3-million of the $15-million they expect to raise.
To get there: Go to http://www.pmc.org.
