Weekly Fundraising and Training Update - We're Past the "Finish" Line!

We passed our fundraising goal this week, which is important for many reasons. But, we're just getting started! Details about this milestone week in my fundraising and training update...

Yes, we raised over $700 this week to achieve our fundraising goal! We're now at $5,073. Highlights and shout-outs for the week:

• Thank you so much to the Harasimowicz family (Rami, Beth, and kids) for pushing us across the goal line this week! Facebook and blog followers probably recognize the names - Rami is my partner-in-crime in most of my mountain biking photos. Rami and Beth are two of my oldest and dearest friends in Boise, and their "milestone" donation is very appreciated!
• I received my largest individual donation of the year last week! Not sure the donors would be comfortable with me calling them out here, but I'll just say - the donation was touching, and it really motivated me this weekend to work hard on my rides so that I can ride the maximum distance possible (175 miles) during Bike MS.
• Once again, my friend Doug Bierman stepped up to help with a donation. You may remember Doug and his family from the Wiseguy Pizza Pie fundraiser...
• And thank you to Matt & Julie Bell, and Wade & Coral Dorrell for the generous donations last week!

So...hitting the fundraising goal of $5,000 is tremendous, and really does take a lot of pressure off. But, I mentioned that we're just getting started...I believe that we can exceed last year's fundraising total of $7,745. This is not based on blind optimism, but is rooted in data. Here's why I think this is possible.

• Last year, I had a total of 91 donors
• This year, I have 54 donors so far
• If I were to equal last year's donor count, that tells me that I can expect 37 more donations to come in
• If those 37 donors each contribute this year's average donation amount of $89, that is an additional $3,293 - which would give me total of $8,366
• If those 27 donors each contribute this year's median donation amount of $50, that is an additional $1,850 - which would give me a total of $6,923

To wrap up this long-winded explanation, if I can equal last year's number of donors, each donating at or near this year's average donation size, we'll exceed last year's total of $7,745. (This really cries out for a table - come on Blogger, where's your table tools?) So, where are these 37 additional donors going to come from? You're out there! I have 81 remaining donors on my "pipeline" list of historic and potential donors. So, I need to convert just under 50% of them to exceed last year's total. 

Having said all of that, if the conversion rate was 100%, we'd raise a whopping total of $12,181! Not realistic, I know, but something to aspire to!

Now, some reasonable questions would be - why didn't you just set your goal this year to be $7,745? Did you set your goal too low? Are you sand-bagging us, Parker? I did put a lot of thought into setting the goal this year - but I'm afraid I'm already losing you with all of this data talk - so if you'd like to know what went into this goal, shoot me a comment and I'll be happy to explain!

Training

We're plugging away on training as well! Had a great week of climbing training - covering 155 miles with 17,000 feet of elevation gain. For some context - the Bike MS course covers 175 miles with 3,151 feet of elevation gain in two days. Last week's rides included the Wild Rockies Ride to Idaho City - and I'll be publishing an overview of that awesome ride later in the week.

Rami and me on the ride from Idaho City to Boise

As always, feel free to check out any of my rides by clicking on the Strava widget on the right-hand side of this blog.

Thanks for sharing this milestone week with me, and here's to a great last two weeks before Bike MS!