Each year Bikemore hosts our annual member meeting. This is our version of an annual report. Instead of spending resources designing and printing something, we ask everyone to come hang out, drink a beer, and ask questions in person. We discuss our organization’s success, challenges, and where we stand financially. This year we thanked members by providing a drink ticket and a hot off the presses edition of our Illustrated Guide to Biking in Baltimore.
On Tuesday over 100 folks gathered to hear about our year in review. The past twelve months have been an incredible year for bikes and Bikemore! The City of Baltimore finally began construction on the Downtown Bicycle Network, including the long awaited Maryland Avenue Cycletrack. Last fall the city also launched bike share. Biking in Baltimore now looks and feels incredibly different.
Bikemore also grew significantly. We added two new staff, Danielle Parnes and Jed Weeks, growing our organization from one full time staff to three. We added new programs like the Mobile Bike Shop and Bike to Market that encourage people to incorporate biking into their everyday lives. We also advocated for the passage of the Separated Bike Lane Network, ensuring that future investments in protected bike infrastructure are equitably distributed throughout the city.
We celebrated our volunteer of the year, Alex Gebhart for his leadership and commitment as our volunteer bike mechanic at our Mobile Bike Shop. His leadership and skills have helped take the program to new heights, and we are so lucky to have him serving a second year alongside our youth employee Dominique Thorne.
One of the highlights of the evening was pointing out how critical our individual members have been in our success. This year we planned to raise around $40K in individual donations. We have surpassed that and have raised nearly $60K in individual donations, with an average gift size of $100. That accounts for 25% of our overall operating budget, and has paid for 40% of our operating expenses to date. We literally couldn’t have done it without you!
When it comes to larger grants, we are so grateful for the support from key local foundations like Goldseker and Clayton Baker Trust, whose donations have allowed us to add staff, fight on more policy fronts, and serve more neighborhoods.
What our financial picture tells us is that on the expense side we are tracking right on budget. Our spending is also not out pacing our revenue. On the revenue side, we are currently not on track to meet our revenue goals. We need to raise an additional $55K by July first to finish in the black, or $77K to meet our revenue goals with cash reserves. While we have a plan in place to get there, we cannot do it without your support. If you haven’t considered supporting our work with a personal donation before, but feel our advocacy has been of benefit to you, we ask you to consider making a gift today to ensure our organization remains fiscally strong to be able to continue to build a force for biking in Baltimore.
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