Dave and Jen For Oxfam

From this point on we are about the leave the comfort of double figures for the number of weeks left to go. Ten of them now rolling downhill with an increasing momentum and a threat of crushing our self imposed deadlines for fundraising efforts. Within the next ten weeks Jen and I will have raised our target amount of $11,000. If I had not of worked with Not For Profit and Non Government Organisations for some time and seen the ease of which an intent fundraiser can achieve their goals I would be going something like this:

“Arrrggghhh!!!!”

It is certainly a large amount and it has certainly been a topic of constant discussion between Jen and I. One of the reasons we chose to participate in the challenge was the fact that our friendship seems to lead to situations where we push each other in interesting and positive directions. I think raising money for one of our favourite NGO’s, undertaking training for a ride across two Southeast Asian counties and getting the chance to actually see the outcomes of the work of Oxfam is an interesting and positive direction.

The topic and question of raising such a sum of money is certainly the central premise to this actual form of fundraising. At a later date I will be discussing the methods Jen and I have undertaken to raise this sum of money and after the trip we will even be publishing our experiences and learnings whilst doing so. It’s slightly ambitious to think that this would be of interest but the aim is to sum up the experience. All of it. This means in the lead up to the trip we will be posting on the topics of our training efforts, of our thoughts on countdown waypoints, on our sponsors and notable fundraising outcomes and anything else that might be relevant to the pre-trip period. For the geeks out there this will also include some testing of gear and ideas for technology mashing such as a camera mount for the mountain bike and some form of robust portable computing.

After this comes the actual trip itself, which we will document care of whatever portable computing solution we settle on, our trusty cameras and a video camera. Much of this is well tread ground from my experiences touring as a musician, travelling for work and backpacking as yet another Australian far from home. Never before have I attempted it whilst on a mountain biking trip however. We hope to capture memories for ourselves and indeed for the people who have supported us, to share in our experience. Also it would be nice to be able to leave a lasting record for future participants if they so choose to dip into whatever we capture in our adventures.

Upon our return comes a chance for us to open the doors on the other part of our experience. The fundraising process itself. The “Challenge” form of fundraising is a fantastic and novel way for an organisation to engage its supporter base and I can happily share my unqualified opinions and theories and draw some graphs with crayons until you excuse yourself and go stand next to someone else, telling them “that guy… that guy just drew a pie chart with a crayon”. Something to look forward to. The point here is to possibly offer some insight into the mechanics of this process and how we found it.

This will also hopefully give Oxfam and other organisations a peak inside the demographic that is drawn to the Challenge style of fundraising tools. Working with NGO’s and NFP’s myself i know that it can be difficult at all levels of fundraising to know just who is getting your message, let alone a little bit about them.

I will recap this hasty post in terms of the purpose of this site in a more concise form for reference on the site itself, but there lies a glimpse of where we stand with 10 weeks to go. Things are happening, we have some momentum and we are starting to turn nerves and trepidation into action and outcome. The scales are tipped more towards the action side than the outcome side at present but we have 10 weeks to change all of that. Ten weeks to reach our goal of $11,000. Ten weeks to help Oxfam make the world a better place, see their work in Cambodia and sweat our way along some dusty roads. I cant wait!