RRC Archives

Gotta make it easy. Online credit card payments.

I gave 100 back when you guys had the THERED.org website. I sure as hell didnt have any money at the time. I wouldnt have sent a check or made a cash donation or bought any sort of raffle ticket, but I didint even think twice about adding another $100 of debt to my credit card, from the convenience of my own home.

Also the idea of showing the goal and status of the goal is important. A good example is the www.seclimbers.org

If you donate to the RRGCC, simply ask for a receipt. Further, unless your charitable givings are pretty big, nobody wants to see your receipts, etc. - not even your accountant or the IRS (unless you get randomly selected for an audit).

AND, if you write a check to the RRGCC for that $75, you should have your own record of it should a receipt not make it to you in a timely manner.

AND, as a contributor to any non-profit organization, you can earmark your funds for specific purposes -

It should also be noted that the RRGCC has no paid staff, no rental office space, etc. - very little administrative costs (a website and a po box, not a big percentage of the organization's budget) - so we shouldn't get upset if 3% (a guess) of our contribution goes to help pay for those things - they're not sucking money away from the property. It isn't uncommon for non-profits to have as high as 30% of their donations going to "administrative" costs (salaries, etc.) - certainly we shouldn't be opposed to helping keep the PO Box open, the letterhead current, etc. I'm sure that the RRGCC exec board can provide you with the stats on the % of the budget that is used for administrative costs vs. programatic costs (i.e. paying for the property).

If you've ever climbed on the Coalition property, you should pony up what you can. We will, to be sure.

Thank you Artsay and everyone else for your thoughtful posts (and for your pledges to donate!). I am responding to Artsay's post because it seemed to be most comprehensive.

Artsay wrote:I don't think it's realistic to come to this board and ask it's members to take on a yearly donation to cover the annual mortgage costs of the Southern Region.

No it is not realistic, there are obviously other sources of funding that need to be and are being looked at. Part of my purpose in posting was to generate interest and input into the RRGCC Strategic Planning process from the climbing community. With the purchase of the PMRP, fundraising has become the RRGCC's greatest challenge. At the Access Fund summit that Bob, Charlie, and I attended, Steve Matous, Executive Director of the Access Fund, suggested to Bob that when we ask for money, we need to break it down into simple math.

Artsay wrote:If I were to donate money on a regular basis, I would want to know several things:
1. The amount needed to be raised annually (donation goal)
2. Regular updates on our goal status
3. Who the Treasurer is
4. Quarterly Treasurer reports

1. Approximately $30,000 per year to pay for the property.
2. We are working on putting up a goal thermometer on the rrgcc.org website and are currently at about 10% of our goal with the payment due in mid-June (i.e. when 100% of our goal needs to be met.)
3. The Treasurer is Ryan Adams.
4. I would agree that this is a reasonable expectation.

Artsay wrote:I am confused over why there isn't / has never been a PayPal donation option available on the rrgcc.org site? Additionally, I don't see any requests for donations on the site or anything stating the importance of this specific goal.

There was a PayPal option on thered.org site and we are working on reactivating a link to our PayPal account on the rrgcc.org site.

Artsay wrote:This board represents a fraction of the “Red River Gorge Climbing Community”. We've sold almost 2000 guidebooks since September. These people are the “Red River Gorge Climbing Community” and the goal should be to reach them. I don't have a guidebook in front of me....were donation requests emphasized in the Southern Region section? That is where this topic should've been raised along with a link to a donation site.

The information about the need for $30,000 a year, website information, etc. is all in the 2nd paragraph of the PMRP Introduction in the guidebook. I agree that the RRGCC would benefit from reaching a greater audience than the 500-600 climbers who are regulars on this site or who are or have been RRGCC members. The question is what is the best way to extend our reach to them? Perhaps just as important a question is how can the RRGCC recruit and motivate more volunteers to get involved in helping to do the work of the organization? It is easy to get climbers to show up for a trail day or attend an event. It is not as easy to get climbers motivated to attend meetings, do administrative work, etc.

captain static wrote:Perhaps just as important a question is how can the RRGCC recruit and motivate more volunteers to get involved in helping to do the work of the organization? It is easy to get climbers to show up for a trail day or attend an event. It is not as easy to get climbers motivated to attend meetings, do administrative work, etc.

The fact that most of the volunteers need to be from Lexington is a difficult requirement for some of us who would like to help out but live in a different area.

Now on the front page is an announcement asking for donations for the PMRP.
We created a PayPal account and will post updates as to how much money we are receiving as well as send monthly checks/transfers to the RRGCC. Click on the "Make a Donation button" on the front page of the site to send your donation.

Ray and I have our money in the pot... Anyone else? Let's show how kick ass *our* climbing community is here on this BBS by making an impressive donation to preserving climbing in the Red River Gorge!

Artsay, You guys rule. As does Bill, Ryan, Charlie and Mark. And Bob. Bob really, really rules. I will be donating as well.

Why wait until December to let the climbing community know that we need to raise 30,000 by June? I gladly donated money. I think that the Southern Region offers a unique blend of good climbing as well as tons of potential for new areas. But it seems odd to wait until half way through the year to start to really push to get this money. I am not really doing that much to help so I guess I should complain though.

Artsay wrote:Now on the front page is an announcement asking for donations for the PMRP.
We created a PayPal account and will post updates as to how much money we are receiving as well as send monthly checks/transfers to the RRGCC. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr

Ray and I have our money in the pot? Anyone else? Let's show how kick ass *our* climbing community is here on this BBS by making an impressive donation to preserving climbing in the Red River Gorge!

Thank you so much for putting the announcement & link up on the front page, and for doing that so quickly. You guys rock! The climbers on this BBS & all RRG climbers are the bomb. Working together, we can get 'er done.

The article in UCM about RRG has really got me psyched. Here are two very positive quotes on our "community" -

In the article: "Because Miguel's serves as its anchor point, the Red's climbing community is unusually tight-knit."

Quoted from this BBS in the Wolverine ad that accompanies the article: "What I really like & appreciate (...about the guidebook...) is the way I felt after putting it down. It made me feel proud to be a part of climbing in Red River Gorge."

Awesome idea Artsay and Ray.

I would suggest the announcement say "to pay this year's mortgage". Might cut down on some confusion when you ask again next year.

squeezindlemmon wrote:The fact that most of the volunteers need to be from Lexington is a difficult requirement for some of us who would like to help out but live in a different area.

Nobody told this Buckeye that . Certainly, with computer technology there is a lot of volunteer work that can be done or coordinated remotely.