I keep telling people how the Green Fondo Climate Ride felt subtly different from other charity bike rides I've participated in, and that the whole thing merits "a blog post" to give all the details. So here are Many Details.
Specifically, a friend of mine declared such cycling events to be "bougie" (e.g. bourgouis, inaccessible and/or alienating to those without a lot of wealth) and a lot of these differences contributed to the Green Fondo feeling less so.
For purposes of this discussion I'll be using Bike MS: Waves to Wine as the main comparison, because its format most closely matches that of the Green Fondo. Their similarities are numerous:
Most charity rides are organized by and for a single organization dedicated to a particular cause. In the case of Bike MS, that's the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. All money raised by participants goes to that organization, and any expenses involved with organizing the ride (the ride itself, prizes for participants, etc.) are simply counted as fundraising expenses for the organization.
This allows such charities to subsidize riders' participation to some degree, at the cost of fundraising efficiency. The signup cost can be relatively low, perhaps less than $100. As long as each rider meets some reasonable fundraising minimum, some of that can get "eaten" to pay for the cost of the venue and catering, their participation T-shirt, finisher medal, and jerseys for top fundraisers. These charity rides are generally also bolstered by corporate sponsors. It may be that someone in leadership at those companies genuinely supports the cause, but having their logo on the jerseys they pay for is the real draw for them.
The Climate Ride, by contrast, raises money for many organizations focused on combatting climate change and promoting active transportation. It was specifically founded as a way to drum up support for organizations that are already doing good work. Each rider chooses up to three to which their fundraising will be allocated. Many of these are very small, local groups, working within the bounds of a single county or even city (e.g. local bike coalitions). The Climate Ride itself thus has to keep its own funding separate from the fundraising that riders perform for its grantees. Corporate sponsership is largely absent, except for a few in-kind donations like gel snacks.
To that end, riders are asked to cover 100% of the cost of their own participation when signing up, which is a few hundred dollars. That's on top of the fundraising minimum that makes a rider's participation actually count for their chosen cause(s). But it does mean that riders can truthfully tell their supporters that 100% of fundraising will go towards the cause, not towards prizes or other overhead. It also means that the Climate Ride might keep emailing you invitations to attend more of their actual fundraising rides and hikes...but you won't get invitations to the kinds of congratulatory dinners so many charities hold for their top fundraisers. You didn't spend your money for that; you don't need them; they don't happen.
Accommodations are the next subtle contrast. Each of these rides offers the option of camping on the lawn at the event venue on the night between riding days. But the Green Fondo goes a step farther, explicitly starting the event on Friday and allowing riders to stay that night as well.
This is partly a practical consideration. The Green Fondo uses Walker Creek Ranch as its central venue, which is farther out in rural Sonoma than the SOMO Event Center that Waves to Wine uses. To have everyone drive in on the morning of Day 1 would be far more of a hassle. Walker Creek Ranch also includes a wider range of on-site accommodations. Shared bunkhouses (bring a sleeping bag) and lodges (linens provided) are both available for appropriate prices, lower than a hotel would charge, so one can get the benefits of staying on-site without having to commit to full-on camping. Even the tent campers get access to showers in a permanent building, rather than the shower truck that Waves to Wine brings in for the occasion. (Walker Creek Ranch also holds you to green principles in those showers: you have to bring your own towel, rather than using the disposable ones from the shower truck!)
Waves to Wine generally partners with some nearby hotels to get special rates for those who don't want to camp, but if your needs don't quite line up with the discount (like if you want to stay the evening of Day 0 in Rohnert Park for easy entry to short routes) then those won't work. The middle-of-the-road, not-quite-camping options aren't present at all.
Because there's a greater emphasis on staying together, the Green Fondo encourages a lot more bonding between participants. For better or worse, it also probably plays some part in the attendance cap of the event: I've never heard of a Bike MS ride "selling out", but Climate Ride events definitely do. But then, because the full group attending is a relatively small one, that also encourages a more close-knit atmosphere.
Big charities like to reward their donors with logo'ed prizes, e.g. "swag". This was discussed a bit above, but it's worth coming back to.
Bike MS comes with a lot of swag. Everyone who participates gets a T-shirt and a finisher medal (which is the same regardless of whether you're on the easiest or the hardest route). Anyone who raises more than $1000 gets a jersey specific to that ride and that year. Corporate sponsors set up tents during the afternoon of Day 1, and often hand out their own doodads. Top fundraisers can receive even more items, some of which might be shipped to one's house without warning or the option to opt out.
Swag is hit-or-miss in terms of how useful it really is. I genuinely enjoy souvenir jerseys, but they can be difficult to manage, simply because it can be so hard to offer a wide enough range of sizes to be inclusive. Anyone not shaped like a stereotypical pro cyclist will suffer. Making them "to order" can help with this, but that means they must be ordered well in advance.
The Climate Ride has a lot of swag too, and I saw a lot of people proudly using it, but it's rarely handed out for free. You can pay separately for it at a merch table at the venue. You don't get a T-shirt just for showing up, nor a finisher medal just for finishing. If you want one of their jerseys "for free", you have to fundraise $1500 (a relatively high amount) and must do so a couple months before the event. They won't have a bunch extra in many sizes at the event for those who crossed the threshold just a few days prior, and there won't be separate ones for each ride of the year. That means less overhead that your signup fee has to pay for. It also means that the only people who consume swag will be the ones who are willing to actually pay for it. The Climate Ride thus has an incentive to only provide items that are worth paying for: both useful and high quality. (Insulated cups for hot beverages seemed especially popular. They also took the opportunity to sell some nonbranded but maybe-forgot-to-pack items like charging cables and holders to attach a smartphone to handlebars.)
It's fitting that a climate-focused event would consciously avoid producing items that might just end up being "collected", and not truly used and appreciated.
Waves to Wine and the Green Fondo both provide a similar spread of food and other features at the venue. Both have a DJ on site, and both offer some form of luxurious recovery on the afternoon of Day 1. Waves to Wine generally brings in some massage therapists; this is a common feature of charity rides in general. The Green Fondo's answer to this was an hour-long "Recovery Yoga" session on the grass.
My aforementioned friend noted either of these recovery options as an indicator of charity rides' "bougie" status, and it's hard to argue with this. (It's also hard to pass up either of these perks when you've just done a lot of hill-climbing and will be back in the saddle the next day.) But the Green Fondo's use of yoga definitely felt more egalitarian than massage.
For one thing, massage always has a scheduling problem. There are only so many therapists available for so many time slots, so you have to sign up early and hope they don't get backed up. Sometimes access is restricted or prioritized to the highest fundraisers because there just isn't enough bandwidth for everyone. A need to wait nearby may pull people away from other events or socializing. Riders on the longest routes may finish too late to claim a slot, despite probably having the most need of recovery assistance.
The Green Fondo's yoga session did not have this problem, because there was one session for everyone, late enough in the afternoon that just about everyone would have made it back in time. Only one instructor was needed. Everyone who wanted to join came out to the lawn together, and there was space on the grass, if not on mats, for everyone (and those planning ahead brought their own mats anyway). It was always emphasized that if any position was just not doable, relaxing and waiting for the next one was an option. The only issue was that it was perhaps difficult to hear the instructor from a far distance, but that wasn't a big problem because we could all see what others were doing. Besides being communal, yoga is also more participatory: you're actually doing the movements yourself, not simply having something done to you. It was another thing that day that we were all doing together.
The scheduling of food and other events was also handled with a stronger emphasis on community at the Green Fondo. Just about every charity ride will offer a meal back at base at the end of Day 1, whether there's a Day 2 or not. When there is a Day 2, breakfast and lunch that day is also generally provided. Waves To Wine uses the typical strategy of making the Day 1 mean a "late lunch/early dinner" recovery meal during the afternoon. This might constitute a "second lunch" for anyone who was on a long route, since one of their rest stops provides a more substantial meal than just snacks. (Not everyone wants to have that kind of meal in the middle of a ride; I generally don't. But that's up to the individual to decide and manage.) People don't generally eat all at the same time together because they pick up food as they trickle in over the course of the day.
At the Green Fondo, the Day 1 meal was dinner, later in the evening. This made sense given the greater assumption that everyone was sleeping on-site, and made it easier for everyone to eat together regardless of how long it took to reach the finish line, shower, do yoga, et cetera. Lunch had been provided at the second-to-last rest stop, which was shared by all routes, even the shortest. That did mean I was more in charge of my own "recovery eating" immediately after the ride, but again, that's something to be managed individually anyway. Snacks were always available.
And then, of course, there's the question of how to schedule speeches and other such events. Waves to Wine always has some itinerary of thanking top fundraisers and doing a team jersey design contest. (Note the assumption that multiple teams have gone to the expense of making custom jerseys; some, but not all of these, are corporate teams.) At most charity rides, these kinds of things are done during the afternoon, which means riders on long routes may get back too late to attend any of them, or people may be stuck in line for lunch or other perks. The Green Fondo's only such event was held after dinner, at an easy time for everyone to attend. More on its content later.
Many charity rides seem to strive for a vibe of feeling like it's a race, even when it's really not. Especially for those on long routes, they want the event to feel prestigious. The Green Fondo definitely offered a challenging spread of routes, but there were also far fewer of the usual trappings of such an event: fewer signs, fewer banners, no big balloon arch with extra volunteers posted to cheer for people as they returned, and no hired photographer to get finishing photos.
Bib numbers are a standard feature on organized rides and runs. The number may be significant. Bike MS numbers indicate one's place on the fundraising leaderboard a few days prior to the ride, and thus serve as fundraiser recognition. Even when the number means nothing, the bib may indicate which route one signed up for. Some people save their bib numbers as space-efficient souvenirs, so these can count as swag.
The Green Fondo didn't use bib numbers. Bikes got tags, labeled with their owners' names and with the length of ride they were scheduled for on Day 1. But the only nametags we wore on our clothing were magnetic buttons, on which we wrote our names with Sharpies. These were easy to transfer to whatever our current outer layer of clothing might be at all times, without fiddling around with safety pins. At the end of the event, many of us threw our buttons in a bin to re-use at a future ride because our names could be wiped off afterward. They were things to wear for the whole event, even while socializing in our camping clothes, and then reused, not things to just to be pinned to a jersey and thrown away.
There were also no arrows posted along the course, which is quite unusual. Instead, Climate Ride published their routes to Ride With GPS in such a way that we could access them without a subscription, with the full event itinerary included. That meant there was no extra paper or plastic used for making arrows, no extra time (and gas) spent posting them or cleaning them up, and no extra signs that might escape and become litter. It's a method that directly respects the core mission of the ride. It does assume that everyone has a phone or cycling computer, but that's not too outlandish an assumption at these events, at this point. Every ride publishes their routes to Ride With GPS these days; making it an outright replacement for course arrows is the unusual thing.
Without corporate sponsors, including corporate-funded teams, team jerseys were also relatively rare. Teams, in general, were downplayed at the Green Fondo; large teams did not have dedicated hangout tents. People of all teams and organizations were thus more encouraged to mingle and meet each other, rather than staying cloistered within themselves.
There was also no separate "VIP area" for top fundraisers at the Green Fondo. This is a conspicuous absence among charity rides. Bike MS especially makes it a staple, with multiple tiers of VIP status. The highest of these must be earned during the previous year, which encourages riders to keep coming back so they can actually enjoy the benefits they earned. Some of those benefits are genuinely useful, but some are apt to just separate high-rollers from other people they might otherwise associate with. What do you do if your friends can't all follow you into the VIP area? By contrast, no one at the Green Fondo had access to any special food or activities based on how much money they had raised. The Green Fondo sells out every year, and all costs of the ride itself are already covered by signup fees, so the ride is less dependent on gimmicks to keep riders engaged at a high level just for status' sake.
There was a short recognition at the after-dinner event of some people who had participated in many rides, and one speech from an especially active cycling advocate, but that was about it in terms of individual recognition. Consistently showing up was given much more emphasis than one's ability to bring in more money than someone else. Most of that after-dinner event was a "Pitchfest", in which many small grantees described their missions so that we could anonymously vote on which one should receive some extra funding dedicated for that purpose.
There is, of course, an elephant in the room when it comes to cycling events in general. Recreational cycling, with or without a cause to ride for, very often presents as an activity for those who are Privileged, on mutiple axes.
Not every bike is expensive, but bikes specifically designed for long, strenuous rides often are. All the accessories are expensive too. Staying in a tent at the venue may be cheap...but then you have to have a tent, sleeping bag, and other camping supplies, and those are not cheap either if you don't have them already from a lifetime in Scouting. Not everyone at these events has a custom team jersey, but most people on all but the shortest routes do have a jersey, and bike shorts--and you really do want bike shorts if you're going on a ride of any significant length. Bike clothing is notoriously difficult to size properly, and depending on your body shape, finding something that fits may be a perpetual uphill battle.
However, the privileged-cyclist vibe was mitigated somewhat at the Green Fondo, if only because of the high presence of cycling-as-transportation advocates. The Pitchfest included at least four county- and city-level bike coalitions whose main goal is to advance cycling as an everyday transportation solution. The climate movement in general contains a high percentage of people who want cycling to be more accessible, and not just a sport, so that's who shows up. There were a lot of women present--again, because that's who's in this movement.
Now, I would say that there was no true "beginner" route option at the Green Fondo, at least not on Day 1. A 36-mile route may sound reasonable, but two thousand feet of hill-climbing, with an 11.4% uphill grade near the end of the route after you're already tired, is not trivial. Even the shortest second day option, with no truly nasty climbs, had a steep downhill that required some skill to navigate.
But this was also a ride where people were willing to admit if they had to walk at least part of the way up the nasty hills. This is a very rare sentiment on other rides. Since there were no finisher medals, there was no opportunity for anyone to feel that they (or someone else) hadn't "earned" theirs if they had to do a little walking, ride the SAG shuttle home, or showed up on an e-bike to begin with.
Ultimately, we could all send our money toward worthy causes without going on bike rides together, holding auctions, buying cookies, or otherwise congratulating ourselves for our generosity, if we wanted to. We could just get people the money they need to do the real work, and remember that performing some unrelated challenge has no direct effect on the problem we're trying to solve, however good it may feel to do something rather than just send a check.
The cynical response would be to acknowledge that, well, not everyone wants to, and to some degree, we may have to work with that instead of wishing that humans were different.
On the other hand, the experience itself is valuable. Getting together for a bike ride with people who are all facing the same challenge, or supporting the same cause, is a great thing. It's a vehicle to bring together people who face that challenge from different angles. Trappings or no, these rides do build community.
I probably wouldn't bother to ride much beyond my daily commute if I didn't have some Good Reason to push myself a little harder, so these rides provide one. I definitely wouldn't bother to take the steep hill home from work unless I had hills at an event to train for. That's some amount of exercise I'm getting that I wouldn't otherwise, and that's a good thing too.
I like the Climate Ride's emphasis on running a leaner operation and holding the event to high standards of sustainability. It was specifically meant to unify and amplify a lot of small but crucial efforts, and that shows. If the "charity shindig" aspect of these rides has made you shy away from them, the Climate Ride is a good place to be.