this on the front page – looks like a good idea. Surely £7500 isn’t too big a target??

Ride Sheffield Launch Crowd Funding Initiative for New Trails

Looks good. Payday on Monday so will donate.

My only concern is keeping the MXers and dog walkers off the trails.

I think it’s an ace idea, and will be chucking them a few quid (possibly not a lot of quid due to looming redundancy :() and hopefully getting along to a few dig days when I have more free time…

Great idea for those who live locally or just want to support MTB in general. I note that they’re using the old “just bung us a tenner” method rather than doing it via kickstarter so it will be interesting to see how this pans out!

Great idea for those who live locally or just want to support MTB in general. I note that they’re using the old “just bung us a tenner” method rather than doing it via kickstarter so it will be interesting to see how this pans out!

Happy to send them a tenner, though rarely ride up that way anymore, but agree that kickstarter might have been a bit more transparent..

Apologies – but a bit ignorant to kickstarter – But will have a look

Just thought it was for making things – people invested in what you did etc

We didn’t feel the need for using any third party crowd funding tools because Ride Sheffield is an officially sanctioned, insured and constituted foundation with it’s own independent bank account. Those crowd funding websites are generally for individuals or companies where giving them money might be a bit less kosha unless backed up by kickstarter or similar. We felt it was better and quicker to get the money to us directly.

Those crowd funding websites are generally for individuals or companies where giving them money might be a bit less kosha unless backed up by kickstarter or similar.

That’s not true at all if you look at the companies that are using Kickstarter these days (and I was not implying that you guys are not kosher! 😆 ).

The reason for using it is that it’s been proven as a more effective method of separating people from their dosh by offering different “reward levels”. Eg, in your case you could have offered: £10 – warm glow of satisfaction, £20 – warm glow + official sticker set, £100 – segment named after you on Strava, etc.

The fact that it offers accountability & motivation to the people/companies involved is a nice side bonus, of course! Wish you luck in reaching your goal though! 8)

I think the benefit of Kickstarter is that the money is initially pledged and not taken until the target budget is reached so worst case you don’t get to your target then what do you do ???

Better for all as no money is taken initially.

Its not really a question of whether someone is legitimate as Kickstarter can still be abused more just making life easier for all .. plus as previously stated allows people to offer up more money .. ‘Donate £7500 and get the trail named after you’ 🙂

That’s very interesting, its something I had thought about previously as a model worth exploring… Shall watch with interest.

My only concern is keeping the MXers and dog walkers off the trails.

Agree re the MXers but we should expect and accept walkers and dogs on trails such as these. If you can’t stop in time for a dog or a walker then you can’t stop for a fallen rider either. Plus we want to prove we can co-exist with walkers.

I’ve got a great idea. Help a northerner ride bling again:

HORA RIDE
64-21-54
6789521

Account is with Barclays.

For every donation I’ll knock an MX rider out.*

*Thats a joke before you start crying over your keyboard.

The thing here is that every single penny of the money donated will get an extra bit of time for the diggers in the woods even if we don’t raise £7,500. To be quite honest we’d like to raise way more than this so the trails can be built more quickly with less requirement for lots and lots of volunteer dig days. It’s not a matter of the project not happening without getting to £7,500, it will, it’s just the build will take longer. We don’t want to be stopped because we don’t get to some arbitary target. All the money donated will go into the trails.

As for incentives – stickers, really?!! How about putting in £10/£20/£50 gets you some awesome new trails quicker. How much more incentive do you want?

If only there was some local businessman with a cycling brand that could sponsor this 🙂

As for incentives – stickers, really?!! How about putting in £10/£20/£50 gets you some awesome new trails quicker. How much more incentive do you want?

Mock it if you will, but it’s been proven time and time again that this approach works. People will do anything for stickers, why do you think MBUK is still going? Just trying to help you out with some ideas. Good luck anyway! 🙂

Pieface – Brant is in Finland at the moment;-)

I’ve recently put quite a bit Cotic’s money into getting a pump track built at a park local to me, which is in build right now. I think putting a couple of thousand into that is enough philanthropy for one man’s small company to put in for one year. Can you spare a tenner?

I think it’s a great idea, and had a similar thought when reading The Chase Trails membership poster at Cannock t’other week.

Being transparent with monies, how they are handled ect does help with small donations. You might want to post something on your blog about that.

I’m in,even if I’m unlikely to ride there – just to see if it works.

I’m in finland

Surely there’s be no better form of advertising for one of the local bike shops; je James, langsetts, bike tree, butterworths or even Evans, ebc or decathlon to sponsor and have the trail named after it?