Start a Team!

Climate Ride welcomes team participation! Read on to find out why forming a team has great benefits for you or your organization.

1. Is your company or organization a sustainability leader? Showcase your sustainability/Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Your company can share its CSR/sustainability leadership by joining the growing Climate Ride community. This grass-roots network includes event participants (approx. 300 in 2011--both rides), their supporters at home (more than 15,000 people have donated to Climate Ride), and beyond the actual event (18 million media hits in 2008, 20 million media hits in 2009 and 250,000 aggregated mailing list).

2. Increase team building among employees. Shared experiences work to the benefit of companies by increasing performance, wellness, and productivity among your team members, their co-workers, and supporters.

3. Build your fanbase through extraordinary experiences. Climate Ride is an intimate adventure. Teams associated with Climate Ride have a chance to build lasting relationships during the experience of riding 300 miles in 5 days. The Climate Ride community and the Climate Ride organization choose to include and promote organizations that are environmentally-conscious, focused on sustainability, or making an honest effort to improve their corporate social responsibility. Additionally, your team can enroll other Climate Riders in meaningful and personal ways during the ride.

4. Make a measurable difference in your CSR efforts. By partnering with Climate Ride, your company can not only measure the audiences reached (riders, donors, supporters), but can directly point to the impact made by the funds raised, and how Climate Ride's non-profit beneficiaries utilized the money to make a lasting difference.

5. Keep content fresh and enjoy positive public relations. Keeping content current for the media and internal communications can be challenging. Climate Ride provides a way to follow your team on their journey of fundraising (on the team fundraising page), as well as on the ride (on the Climate Ride Live! website). Team members could also utilize your corporate blog, internal communications, Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness of the Team and share your dedication to CSR/sustainability.

6. Give employees another option to make a positive change toward a healthy lifestyle through cycling. Climate Ride is an exciting addition to employee wellness initiatives and programs. Cycling is not only a healthy and viable form of transportation, but it's also carbon-free!

7. Achieve increased visibility from NYC to Washington DC and in California. Climate Ride NYC-DC travels 300 miles from NYC to DC via New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Climate Ride California travels 320 miles from Fortuna, CA along Highway 101, and then south along Highway Ft Bragg, Guerneville, Sebastopol, San Anselmo, Corte Madera, Mill Valley, and San Francisco. A strong team with highly visible jerseys would not fail to make an impact among local residents. Your employees and customers could also be recruited to cheer on the team along the route.

8. Be associated with the nation’s largest environmental charitable sporting event. In merely two years, Climate Ride has become a inspiring event in the eco-community. Supporting Climate Ride builds good will among a large audience of sustainably-minded individuals.

9. Partner with an organization that understands and matches your organization's vision to accelerate the shift toward a low-carbon economy. Climate Ride believes in changing companies from the inside through leadership in environmental, socially responsible, and ethical business practices. Join the ride to learn best practices from other riders and raise the bar for all companies.


Frequently Asked Questions:

How do I start a Climate Ride team? Forming a team for an upcoming Climate Ride event is easy! One person should designate themselves as the Team Captain, and can be the first person to register. Teammates can register any time thereafter, and elect to join the team that was created. There’s no minimum or maximum number of participants per team.

What is the fundraising minimum for a team? The fundraising minimum for teams is based on the number of team members. Teams should multiply the number of participants by the individual fundraising minimum ($2400) to calculate the team goal.

Does everyone on the team need to reach the individual fundraising minimum? No, all donations to team members count toward the overall team minimum. Individuals on teams do not need to raise the minimum of $2400 to participate, as long as the team meets the team goal. If some team members raise more than their individual minimum, their donations can ‘make up the difference’ for other team members.

How does Climate Ride handle corporate matching? Climate Ride accepts and encourages riders and their donors to take advantage of corporate matching. Companies typically require a minimum amount of paperwork to be completed in order to process the matching donation. When matching donations are received by Climate Ride, they are posted to that rider’s fundraising minimum. Please be aware that some companies only process matching donations quarterly; matching donations need to be received before the ride in order to be attributed to a rider’s minimum.

Can we create and wear our own jerseys? Yes, we encourage you to! Many teams on Climate Rides in the past have worn custom-made jerseys. We ask all participants to wear their Climate Ride jersey (included in registration) on Days 1 and 5, but the other days of the trip are fair game for team jerseys.

Does Climate Ride have any special team offers for registration? Yes, we often offer discounted registration fees for teams. Please contact Geraldine at geraldine@climateride.org for current promotions.

I’m interested in becoming a team captain. How does that work? Team Captains manage their teams and keep track of overall team fundraising via our online fundraising software. Team Captains can also support and encourage team members, organize training rides, arrange for team transportation, and serve as the main point of contact with Climate Ride staff.