October 2008

Vol. 1, Issue 9

Contents:
1. Economics & Tourism Debut
2. Resources Highlights - Fun, Creative, Inspiring
3. Hot Topics - "My board won't fundraise!"

Economics & Tourism Debut

We are continuously adding to the Resources area of One Street's web site and improving its features to better serve leaders of organizations working to increase bicycling. This month we have a whole new page to offer: Economics & Tourism www.onestreet.org/EconomicsTourism.htm

Each of our Resources pages addresses specific issues for increasing bicycling. For Economics & Tourism, we've found that much of the issue centers around misconceptions:

  • The bike industry plays no significant role in the world market - yet bicycle sales continue to outpace car sales: in the '70s and '80s twice as many bikes were sold as cars; in the past 20 years the ratio has broadened to nearly three times as many bikes sold as cars.
  • In developed countries, bicycles are only used for sport - yet demand for quality, affordable transportation bicycles for new riders continues to rise with the only response from the bike industry being boutique-level commuter bikes priced over 500€, catering only to high-income, current riders.
  • In developed countries, the vast majority of people expect to travel by car and would never shift car trips for bicycle trips - yet households in the U.S. (where fewer than 1% of trips are made by bicycle) spend, on average, one of every five dollars they spend, on transportation. By shifting even a fraction of these trips from the most expensive mode (the car) to the least expensive (bicycling and walking), Americans would slash their transportation budgets, unlocking untold wealth to lift their local economies rather than burning this money as gasoline.
  • Cycle tourists are poor - In fact, cycle tourists generally come from higher income brackets than other tourism sectors, making cycle tourism one of the great, untapped economic opportunities.

Find out more on our new Economics & Tourism page by visiting the link above. And make sure to check back as we will continue to add new resources to this page just as we do with all of our Resources pages.

Resources Highlights - Fun, Creative, Inspiring

Besides the unveiling our new Economics & Tourism page, this month we'd like to point you towards two resources that made us gasp with joy when we discovered them:

Hot Topics - "My board won't fundraise!"

This is one of the most common complaints we hear from executive directors. As we inquire further into their particular situation we usually find a common core of the problem - as the nonprofit sector has evolved, the important concept that board members must assist in fundraising has been perverted into: Board members are responsible for fundraising. We have found countless examples of board policies, letters of commitment, and articles that focus entirely on board members bringing in set amounts of funding, void of any mention of how or even why. This pressure, so detached from the reason these volunteers agreed to serve, leads to guilt and ultimate failure.

At One Street, we always guide these frustrated executive directors (and sometimes board members) who call, to start again at the beginning by asking: Why do they need this funding? If their answer involves budgets, paying staff, or other administrative needs, we reword the question to: Why do they need this administration? The "aha" moment usually comes when they finally get back to the mission and people served by their organization.

Instead of fundraising ultimatums, executive directors of nonprofits must stay focused on their organization's mission and the people their programs serve. They need to work with their board members as a team to set attainable goals for gradually increasing the number of people served and the quality of their services. In the case of most of the nonprofits that One Street serves, this would directly equate to a measurable increase in bicycling in the communities served by that organization.

Okay, so how will that leadership team - executive director and board members working together - increase bicycling? In fact, funding is only a small component of the answer and an indirect one at that.

What if executive directors and board members focused entirely on their goals for increasing bicycling? When those goals required funding, they'd go out and get that funding. As the top staff member, the executive director would create a system for raising the needed funds that included finite, ease-to-achieve tasks for their busy, volunteer board members as part of the team. The executive director must take responsibility for this system of tasks and, as the main face of the organization, make the big, high-profile funding asks so board members will see they are part of the team.

If the goals required partners and volunteers, they'd all work as a team to engage those people. And this team, with its broad vision and focused goals, would understand that by bringing more people to their organization they are building their funding base because the easiest way for people to support an organization is to donate funds.

Then the problem would change from: My board won't fundraise!, to: We need to increase bicycling even more!

That's when the team effort hits the ground and the team charges ahead for more!