Tailwinds Fund
Among cyclists, it’s nice to nod and wish one another tailwinds. It’s a hope for smooth sailing out on rough roads. We established the Tailwinds Fund to share that spirit and make a lasting positive impact.
Looking for a way to offset your travel or other carbon impacts?
Well, we hate to be the bearers of bad news, but with industry giants manipulating a well-intentioned system for “zeroing out” emissions that ideally wouldn’t have burned in the first place, carbon offsets have become an unreliable solution to this enormous issue.
In struggling to find the impossible one-to-one solution for “offsetting” the emissions generated from putting on our events (food, flights, support vehicles, etc.), we’ve found that our greatest net-positive impact lies in what we can do to support local efforts in our communities — efforts that might not move forward without our funding assistance.
If you’re looking for a way to “offset” your participation in one of our Climate Ride adventures (aside from the funds you’re raising for other amazing climate-positive organizations), we encourage you to contribute to our Tailwinds Fund.
BRING ON THE SUN: LINKING AFFORDABLE HOUSING + SOLAR
For our first Tailwinds Fund project in the Summer of 2024, we partnered with Climate Smart Missoula through their Footprint Fund (a Climate Ride Beneficiary organization) to support solar for an affordable housing project that helps low-income homeowners in Montana (a significant coal state). The budget to repair the existing solar panels was non-existent, and we’re thrilled that we could step in to help Climate Smart Missoula by empowering this amazing program — to create even greater lasting impacts in our community.
We know there’s a carbon cost created by running our events. We aim to create a measurable community impact that we think outweighs the emissions contributed by being on a Climate Ride.
A FINAL NOTE
For most of our participants, travel to and from Climate Ride events happens in place of personal travel. By joining us on a Climate Ride instead of taking a vacation, they are raising funds for NGOs fighting for climate action, resilience, and active transportation. Once on the event, they rely less on carbon-burning transportation by choosing zero-carbon bicycle or foot travel instead of driving.
We’re all about protecting the planet for future adventurers and the amazing places we explore. With your help, we can tackle the climate emergency.
Orchard Gardens Solar:
The first Tailwinds project
When two of the four solar inverters failed at Orchard Gardens, an affordable housing project in Missoula, Montana, the cost to fix them was outside of what managing nonprofit, Homeword, could afford. Climate Ride connected with Climate Smart Missoula and Homeword to help fund the repairs and get these solar panels up and running again. See the full story below!