indyfabz

The chapter still has costs it needs to cover. Office space. Utilities. Salaries. Insurance. (Big one.) Postage. It may also have been paying for policing. Permits? There are a lot of hidden costs involved with even relatively small events. (My local club moved the start of its century outside the city because of hidden costs like having to pay for a city electrician to be on location since an electric coffee pot was plugged into an outlet at city-owned building.)

You sure things like signage and rider numbers were donated? What about T-shirts and other incentives?

In any event, it's about the efficient use of resources and generating an acceptable ROI, if you will, and bike fundraisers are on the more costly end of the spectrum compared to things like walks.

My old friend who used to run the City to Shore back when there were maybe fewer than 2,000 riders raising a combined $2 million once joked that if the chapter had its way, the event would consists of one person raising that amount. That brings me back to my point about events like that not wanting people like the OP, who simply want to cover costs. No different than a restaurant not wanting a diner who only wants to pay the establishment's cost of supplying a meal. The events are expressly designed to be "profitable." If there is not sufficient profit to justify the effort, the organization, unlike a private business, which can operate at a loss if it so chooses, has an obligation to devote its resources to more profitable ventures.