LFGSS Donations Tithe... 10% of all donations to cycling causes

good point Fox

will amend the list in a day or so when other people have commented

If we are looking for consensus then the easiest way to do that is to limit it to cycling charities and causes.

Personally, I'd like to see the money to go a cycling specific charity rather than a cancer/children/animal welfare one.

All those big charities have enough publicity to do well. Obscure, cycling related ones, will be for example avoided by all those Daily Mail readers who are more than happy to sponsor a giraffe.

Snap!

I agree with keeping it cycling-related.

As it's a proportion of the money donated to the forum, which is itself a cycling-related thing (so I heard), donating to stuff which clearly benefits London Cyclists in general, as well as pooling for smaller charities/causes I might only have heard of on the forum makes sense to me. Whereas if I wanted to donate to eg. Red Cross I would probably be doing so as a separate thing.

+1
I too have personal cause to be grateful to the work that Cancer Research do, but when I am donating I want to feel that the money will make a real difference.

I remember well that on the easter egg run every hospital was amazed and grateful that we had brought them all that chocolate, as were the kids at the children's home, but Gt Ormond St just said "put it over there" pointing to a truckload of chocolate from other sponsors.

It's for that reason that I like the idea of sponsoring a future track star, or of course to donating to Emilie.
Similarly as far as cycling-related goes, I would not support money going to big, political or 'establishment' charities like LCC or Sustrans. Keep it grass-roots.

This is the 2010 top 10 of the charity brand index produced by PR Week and ThirdSector:

1 (2) Cancer Research UK
2 (5) BBC Children in Need
3 (4) RSPCA
4 (1) Macmillan Cancer Support
5 (12) Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity
6 (8) Marie Curie Cancer Care
7 (6) British Heart Foundation
7 (19) Royal British Legion
9 (3) NSPCC
10 (9) British Red Cross

While these aren't necessarily the biggest charities, size does roughly correlate.

I absolutely support the work these charities do, especially the cancer ones, sadly for reasons very close to my heart, but their marketing prowess means that many excellent charities and very worthwhile causes struggle to get heard (and your cash). If you donate money to what grabs you first, likely to be the charity that has the greatest marketing budget or the most skilled viral marketeers, then you're unlikely to donate money to a cause that you feel more strongly about or that is closer to your heart.

On this basis, can we avoid any on this list please?

This is so important, I totally agree.

For my personal monthly tithe I shoot for charities like Computers 4 Africa because I know that by and large they do struggle compared to others, and because it's an area I care about. I also care about Medicins Sans Frontiers, but I realise that's one of my subjective views which is complex and related to the politics of the Red Cross as much as anything.

The only area that I could sweepingly say everyone on here cares about is cycling, and it's not like we're short of a lot of good causes for which even a small donation can make a difference.

I'm basically setting myself up as the last word on who gets the money, but I'll say right now... it will only be cycling related unless there is overwhelming and unanimous agreement to make an exception.

With that in mind... the current list would be:

1. LCEF: http://lcef.wordpress.com/
   
2. Emilie Gossiaux: http://www.emiliegossiaux.com/
   
3. Sustrans: http://www.sustrans.org.uk/
   
4. Herne Hill: Sponsor one or more young cyclists
   
5. Re-Cycle: http://www.re-cycle.org/
   
6. Wheels for Wellbeing: http://www.wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk/
   

talking about charity initiatives, this bike:
http://theaquaduct.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-mvfjyiao

really deserves to be picked up by someone. Its a fucking genius idea.
needs something like that kona africabike:
for every 2 sold 1 is donated.....or something.

genius
add it to the list

This is all a great idea, (or series of ideas)
I would like to suggest a rider down fund, administered by the forum. The Emilie and Veronika at Marble Arch are good examples.

that bike is brilliant! I would happily put in a yearly donation for these causes (over and above what I currently do)

i feel largely indifferent if a percentage of money i donate to the forum goes to charity. but if it does, then i think it should be a cycling related charity, or to help like in that gossiaux scenario.

+1.

Ok so we have a bike charity only list. With a view to contributing to smaller, community and London based charities rather than the big hitters sustrans too is off the list. (Last word with Velocio though)

1. LCEF: http://lcef.wordpress.com/
   
2. Emilie Gossiaux: http://www.emiliegossiaux.com/
   
3. Pedal power (http://www.hackney-cyclists.org.uk/pedalpower.htm)
   
4. Herne Hill: Sponsor one or more young cyclists
   
5. Re-Cycle: http://www.re-cycle.org/
   
6. Wheels for Wellbeing: http://www.wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk/
   
7. http://theaquaduct.blogspot.com/
   

A lot of us aren't in/from London.

LONDON Fixed gear and single speed though, innit.

I'm sure if there is a local charity to you, that excepions will be made if the cause is deemed worthwhile.

I know, and I fully appreciate that it's probably 90% Londoncentric, and no offence intended.
Velocio said keep the money in cycling, not in London, as the money (in my case) is coming from elsewhere I was just piping up.
Piped down again now, I've been too vocal in this thread anyway.

Non taken.

#wavesfromtheirishsea

Void. Add any small local bike charity to the list wherever it is.
Nothing is excluded at the moment

Any bike cause is fine... bias towards London and our wider community, and individuals. That said, national and international is perfectly fine too, I'll just have bias towards LCEF, Herne Hill, people like Emilie, etc.

Things like Sustrans and CTC do help London too, so I'll not exclude them... and on the same note LFGSS members do cycle elsewhere so I'm in support of those.

Let's just keep it simple:

Any cycling cause is fine (registered charity or not), though bias will be shown to things close to the community at the time the money is divvied up (whatever and wherever those causes may be).

The 1st divvying up will be done at the end of the financial year, which is 31st March.

So the 1st slice will be 10% of donations made between January 1st 2011 through to March 31st 2011.

Only when the value of that is known will I look at the list and consult with the community at that time.

All sorted?

Sounds good velocio.

I think it a good idea to build up this list of small bike charities. Local, National and International. I don't think a comprehensive list exists (Google didn't help much). It would be a useful reference resource,

also fascinating to see the extent bikes benefit people

what's the name of that Bristol based bicycle rrecycling charity? the one jonnyrau ripped off?

This one
http://thebristolbikeproject.blogspot.com/

yeah that's it. difficult searching on my phone. worthy of going on the list?

1. LCEF: http://lcef.wordpress.com/
   
2. Emilie Gossiaux: http://www.emiliegossiaux.com/
   
3. Pedal power (http://www.hackney-cyclists.org.uk/pedalpower.htm)
   
4. Herne Hill: Sponsor one or more young cyclists
   
5. Re-Cycle: http://www.re-cycle.org/
   
6. Wheels for Wellbeing: http://www.wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk/
   
7. http://theaquaduct.blogspot.com/
   8. http://thebristolbikeproject.blogspot.com/
   

1. LCEF: http://lcef.wordpress.com/
   
2. Emilie Gossiaux: http://www.emiliegossiaux.com/
   
3. Pedal power (http://www.hackney-cyclists.org.uk/pedalpower.htm)
   
4. Herne Hill: Sponsor one or more young cyclists
   
5. Re-Cycle: http://www.re-cycle.org/
   
6. Wheels for Wellbeing: http://www.wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk/
   
7. http://theaquaduct.blogspot.com/
   8. http://thebristolbikeproject.blogspot.com/
   
8. Sustrans: http://www.sustrans.org.uk/