The Great Gorilla Run

We ask our donors to do (and put up with) a lot... but have you ever asked them to dress up as a gorilla and run 4.3 miles?

According to The Sunday Telegraph, this past Saturday's sixth annual 7K Great Gorilla Run in London featured 750 runners raising money for the Gorilla Organization. Some say the race had over 1,000.

Participants in London had to pay 75 pounds and promise to raise another 400 pounds in sponsorships.

Race spokeswoman Jillian Miller, estimated the race would raise nearly $400,000 in London... but the event has quickly spread to a worldwide phenomenon. In San Francisco last year, the event drew an equally crazy crowd.



Here is a cute video from the San Francisco event in 2006.

400 Santas running for charity

The 2007 Santa Run attracted more than 400 people dressed as Santa to run the annual charity fund raiser in Newtown, Powys (located in Wales).

“We still had up to 400 santas running the four-and-a-half-mile course which was marvellous,” said organiser Michael Jones.

Event organizers are disputing reports that bad weather kept more people away. To check out more photos from past events, go here... and be sure to check out this story about the Santas arrested for starting a street brawl in 2004.

$714 million raised by road runners and walkers

Marking a trend of continued growth, road runners and walkers raised $714 million for charity in 2006, USA Track & Field (USATF) announced Monday. The figure marks a nearly 9 percent increase over 2005 and shows continued, steady increases since USATF began its annual charity survey in 2002.

USATF highlights a Charitable Race of the Year. Here are the winners for the past several years: 2006, Nike Women's Marathon; 2005, J.P. Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge Series; 2004, Rock & Roll Marathon; 2003, Marine Corps Marathon; 2002, Boston Marathon

The USATF also awards a Charitable Organization of the Year. The past winners include: 2006, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; 2005, Arthritis Foundation; 2004, American Heart Association Heart Walk; 2003, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Race for the Cure; 2002, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training

Finally, if you're interested in the previous annual totals since the USATF began tracking totals: 2006, $714 million; 2005, $656 million; 2004, $575 million; 2003, $560 million; 2002, $520 million.

Turf battle erupts in Vermont over autism fundraising walk

Last year, Autism Speaks organized its first fundraising walk in Burlington, Vermont. The walk attracted more than 400 participants and raised nearly $35,000. By many accounts the event was a success, however some parents began to question why they were raising money for national research when local families in Vermont needed immediate assistance.

As a result, one of last year's community sponsors - a group called Autism Support Daily - decided to organize their own walk and call it the Second Annual Vermont Walk on Saturday, September 29th. Rather than give up the event they helped organize - Autism Speaks is fighting back by organizing their own walk on Sunday, September 30th at the same park!

As a result of this dispute, it's likely both groups will only raise a fraction of what was raised last year. While both groups have maintained an amicable relationship in public - some of the messages in private message boards have expressed frustration and confusion.

In response to an email from this blog, Lynn George, the President of Autism Support Daily had this to say:

We appreciate that Autism Speaks raises money for much needed research, however, the families in our area are struggling and need as much support as we can provide for their children now.

While the total amount of money at stake in this "turf battle" is not major - it remains to be seen whether pressure from local groups will potentially erode the fundraising base for large national groups like Autism Speaks.

Autism Speaks was founded in February 2005 by Bob Wright, Vice Chairman of General Electric, and his wife Suzanne, to improve public awareness about autism and to promote autism research. In 2006 the organization merged with National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) and with Cure Autism Now, a 10-year-old organization based in Los Angeles that is primarily involved fund-raising for a variety of autism research.

Kerry sends fundraising email for The Jimmy Fund

I have friends who are democrats and leading up to the 2004 presidential election they got more email from John Kerry than they did from their own families. While the subjects were always a different "hot" issue - the campaign always asked for money.

Today, my friend said he got yet another email from John Kerry. The e-mailed request bears the heading "Because I was lucky," but the real surprise was the subject of the note.

The former presidential candidate said, "help John Kerry support the Jimmy Fund." He writes that he'll be among the 200 or so riders who are cancer survivors. "At the fund-raising training sessions for the event, they tell you to e-mail your friends for their help. But I don't suppose they realized I had 3 million friends in my e-mail address book."

He told Bella English at the Boston Globe:

"It's a good feeling," said Kerry, 63, who spoke on his way to Belmont Wheelworks, the bike store he frequents. He needed a new wheel for his custom-built Serotta and had to get his bicycle cleats fixed before this weekend's Pan-Massachusetts Challenge. He'll join 4,300 other cyclists to benefit cancer research and treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Kerry, an avid cyclist, has participated in the fund-raiser three times before, raising $12,475. He's also biked for cancer research in Iowa with Lance Armstrong, a two-time survivor, and wears on his left wrist the yellow rubber "Livestrong" bracelet worn by millions of Armstrong fans.

This year, for the first time, he sent a charitable pledge plea to his database of 3 million supporters. You can see the email here.

Or you can sponsor John Kerry at this website.

2007 Ride for Life XX raises over $1 million

Last Sunday, over 2,400 motorcyclists from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, New York and Virginia took part in a fundraiser put on by the Eastern Harley-Davidson Dealers Association.

The bikers raised a record-setting $1,006,185, up from last year’s total of $853,089.

This is the 20th anniversary of the event that benefits the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I'm impressed with the nonprofits marketing efforts to create the website www.mdarides.org in order to provide a resource for Harley-Davidson enthusiasts to learn of other events.

A press release from the company says the partnership began with MDA in 1980 with a program called Bikers Fight MD. Since 1980, Harley-Davidson’s family of dealers, customers, employees, suppliers and HOG chapters have raised more than $60 million for “Jerry’s kids.”

...and here you probably thought all Harley riders were big mean ugly thugs.

Sore feet end fundraising attempt

The Los Angeles Times reports:

An 18-year-old Orange County man who vowed to run 200 miles in 48 hours to raise money for a children's hospital cut short his effort Saturday because, he said, his feet hurt. Jesse Zweig had started running about 2:30 p.m. Thursday to earn $20,000 in pledges for Children's Hospital of Orange County.

Early Friday, as he reached the 90-mile mark after 22 hours of running, Zweig said his feet began to hurt from the pavement. He managed to continue his mission for nearly another day by running laps around the softer track at his alma mater.

By 1 a.m. Saturday, though, he said he had reached his limit. "I wanted to finish, but my body wouldn't let me do it," Zweig said. "I'm hurting. I feel an aching pain in my leg and foot."

Some donors have said that Zweig's early finish wouldn't affect their pledges. Usually we would make some kind of joke here about Jesse's foot pain... but I'm pretty impressed that he ran around a track for nearly a full day to try and complete the mission. So instead, we offer our best wishes for a speedy recovery.