The BIG Idea!

HERE IT IS! The big post I promised!

In the past, I’ve signed up to complete in various races and events to raise money for one organization or another. I’ve run a marathon in Ireland and swam a 5k for the Arthritis Foundation and ridden the MS 150 to name a few.

Last year I was planning on running the KC marathon and thought, “you know what, since I’m doing it, I might as well sign up for a charity to sponsor”. I mean, I figure I was running it anyway, might as well help someone out. I looked into TNT (Team in Training) since they are just about everywhere now. The KC marathon was one of their events and that seemed to work out great. The problem was, they still required I raise the full participation amount even though I lived in KC and didn’t need the added expense of traveling and lodging. I naively thought I could sign up, raise a few hundred bucks and call it good. Unfortunately I would’ve been responsible for raising (or paying) $2800+ for the event. With a 2 year old, work, training and other responsibilities, I knew I couldn’t commit to that. Besides that, I ended up not running the marathon due to an abdominal strain (damn indoor soccer doesn’t treat us old farts very well).

That got me to thinking recently with the new season, I run all these events, wouldn’t it be great if I could raise money for charities somehow without being obligated to a certain amount. I was curious about what charities people race for and posted a few inquiries on some triathlon chat forums and got a rather large list of charities people race for. It was really impressive.

So I had a good idea of what was out there, and I was inspired and thought about tossing a little money to each charity but when it exceeded 25 charities, I didn’t have enough funds to contribute to make it worthwhile. Here’s where my idea comes in….

Some of you may have noticed I use Google Adsense and affiliates on my site. Basically the affiliates work by going through the link on my site and I get a commission if you buy an item through that link. They only way it tracks is if you go through the link on my site. If you go to the site directly, then I don’t get anything, which is a bummer but not a big deal since it’s not my livelihood. Google Adsense works by clicking the advertisements on my posts. Pretty straight forward.

So here’s the idea. I’ve decided to donate money to each charity I will list later based on the earnings I get from the commissions on my affiliates and ads from January 1, 2010, to October 31, 2010.

Here’s the breakdown:
28 Charities
$0 - $2799 earned on commissions, I will donate 20% equally split to each of the 28 charities.
$2800 - $4999 earned on commissions, I will donate 25% equally split to each of the 28 charities.
$5000 and up earned on commission, I will donate 30% equally split to each of the 28 charities.

Since I found 28 charities, I don’t have enough funds to contribute to each equally. The only way I can make a difference is by getting help. That’s where you guys come in.

By using my affiliate links to purchase great multisport gear (and other stuff), you can help me reach out to these charities. Don’t get me wrong, if you say, “why would I buy something just to enable you to donate?”, then by all means donate directly to the charity, that’s great! But, if you’re going to purchase the gear anyway, then why not help these charities out at the same time??

Below is a matrix of affiliates, commission rates, what I have earned to date, and the link. Remember, if you want to participate, you must use the below links and not go directly to the site.

AFFILIATES

Please understand, these are sales affiliates only, I simply list them out as a way to purchase items that create a commission pool that I can support this lofty goal. The affiliates in no way are associated with these charities. I will get the commission and based on that commission, I will personally pay the donation to the charities. The affiliates do NOT pay the charity directly. This is my own brain child. The affiliates in no way approve or support the charities listed. I do. =)

Here are the charities I found on my forum search.

LIST CHARITIES

So, that’s my idea. I’ll update the commissions each month (if I can) and keep everyone posted how it’s going. If all goes well, I’ll run it again next year and try to search out more charities to add. So, get out there and help support the economic recovery!!