crowd funding for racing

Yes? No? Ethical? Shameful?

 

Is it an investment or charity?

 

Who is the rider and what's the payoff to the investor?

 

They take a percentage of the donations to the rider to run their show and attract more people to run their campaigns. One example is a group called Dark Horse, they concentrate on motorsports. Rider gets exposure, sell t-shirts and promo stuff. They sponsor some.. T-shirts and promo's are offered free to sell..

 

Crowd sourcing to fund your play time is offensive.

Crowd sourcing to fund your kids dream is a little less so, but still kind of distasteful.

 

Yeah it felt that way again as soon as we were approached. I did run a go fund me campaign for awhile, dumped it, never felt "right"..

 

I would not do it. It would feel too much like a poorly run charity. Rider gets money, middle man gets money and the person donating gets nothing.

If done on a personal level I could maybe see it but the middle man thing makes it feel dirty to me.

 

You are in a really tough place Scott. Funding racing is extremely difficult and finding sponsorship has not be exactly easy, even if your racer is a dynamo. I really hope the new steps being taken increase access and give kids with talent a real chance. We have basically thrown away a generation of racing talent over the last few years.

 

Asking for money to fund my kid's racing just feels like begging to me. A middle man taking a cut is even worse. A few people have done stuff for him on their own initiative.
I am eternally grateful for the help.

 

Yeah we really have thrown away a whole generation. I am in this for my kid of course but believe it or not more so for the sport and all the kids. My kid thinks the same way. I still keep a list of passionate capable kids for a USA dream team if it ever gets launched.

 

Have seen some racers web sites with a donation tab. Same or a grey area?

 

I have to be honest, I laugh when I see those.

But they were for adults. I might feel differently about a kid.

 

I think the donation tab is a more subtle way for people to contribute on a personal level. My feeling with crowd funding is, as above has been said, a desperate cry and frankly a sort of lazy effort. Someone who takes the time to develop a media kit and sponsorship package/proposal looks like they are actually making a go at being professional about it, and if someone can't contribute product or a company name, maybe they want to contribute something small.
Again, I think the crowd sourcing is lazy.

But, to each his own. Some work quite well, and I know a couple racers who have funded entries and tires off it alone.

One of the really popular things I've been seeing in the UK racing scene is auctions and fundraiser events. Something to think about there.

 

IMO, the donation tab is far less distasteful. A person can choose not to click on the tab and if you do donate all of the $ goes to the racer you choose to support.

 

So I have a theory about this.....
1) If you are giving something away such as..... Donate 50.00 to the team through crowd funding and get a free widget from the team sponsors and the person donating gets the widget for less than retail whats the harm? Whats the rub there?
2) If you are doing it through crowd funding then isn't that good exposure for your sponsors? Isn't that why they are giving you money or product?

I think the answer is if you are saying give me money and I will send you a thank you that is a little rough, but if you are saying give me money and I will give you something in return like a T-Shirt, Hat, Widget, private instruction, whatever then that is a bit different,

Yes?
No?

 

I see UK riders on Facebook often with Donation links set up to help them after big crashes etc, and the UK fans do get in behind them.

Side note, I also have just watched a guy promotoe the holiday he went on over seas recently on facebook whilst on a bike web site set up a charity pledge site for his racing:wow: F-kin amazing