Originally Posted by
indyfabz
It almost certainly did not pay for the event. We used to have two two-day MS rides in the Philly area. One eventually go cancelled because of declining participation. The effort to put on one of the rides is HUGE. Transportation. Lodging for riders and volunteers. Food. (When there were far fewer charity rides it was easy to get a lot of free stuff from companies. Not any more.) Signage. All the administrative work, including coordination with multiple municipalities. Many people work full time on events for months. The organizations cannot continue events that don't have a decent return on investment. It's a waste of resources to do so. Not-for-profits cannot waste resources lest they be criticized. Imagine trying to explain spending $100,000 to put on an event that only takes in $110,000 when that event required 20 employees to work full time for 5 months on it. THAT is why there is a minimum fundraising amount. Also lost on the OP is that MOST PEOPLE would not participate if they were forces to fork over the costs themselves. The OP would, but MOST PEOPLE would not. The notion has been looked at and rejected.
Sorry you lost your ride, but you have to understand the "behind the scenes" issues. It's not about greed.
In that large of a scale I get that it can be very costly! I have no doubts, but ours was not near that size. I was part of the planning and our costs were seriously low to plan the event. I can guarantee you we made money on the entry fee's. But our ride was also a one day event and we had tons of local support that didn't cost MS anything.
We were just bummed we lost ours of course. BUT yes the multi day events and large scale versions I am sure are insanely costly and a giant nightmare to plan and pull off.
bottom line in our case was we didn't raise enough, we were told that straight from the MS office. If fundraising wasn't 65K or more we were out. I understand that its a way to make money for them and that is critical but to put a straight profit number on it? No longer a charity fun ride and simply put its a money thing....
I have a very close friend with MS, hate it, she struggles every day and it breaks my heart! I have a very personal interest in getting MS resolved or getting closer to it.