On Thursday, Julie Howson (my sister) pointed out an article in The New York Times that discusses the growing tendency of non-athletes to participate in endurance sporting events while raising money for charity. Julie wrote:

{Here's an} interesting article that cites the "Lance effect" as one of the motivating factors behind doing this.

The article suggests that the success of the LiveStrong Yellow Wristband Program has caused a lot of people to consider making a larger commitment to a charity to which they feel personally connected. These endurance training programs certainly are popular channels for people to demonstrate that commitment. The article goes on to make a number of statistical and philosophical points that I hadn't seen elsewhere:

• "...not everyone thinks charity endurance events are the best way for out-of-shape do-gooders to give back..." {i.e., some people may develop chronic injuries by doing the minimum recommended training in a few of these programs}
• Team in Training, a program of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society "raised $85 million last year, or 32 percent of revenue for the society, which supports blood cancer research, education and patient services. The figure was up from $3.7 million raised a decade earlier."
• Charities require fundraisers to raise as much as $4,000 each to participate in events with the charity's endorsement, and many of the events that the fundraisers participate in are neither financed nor organized by the charities themselves.

A couple of the things that I particularly like about the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Washington DC Fundraising Ride that I participated in last year were that the minimum amount raised by each participant was only $500 and that the Lance Armstrong Foundation had a significant role in organizing it. If what this article says is true, participation in the DC Fundraising Ride is a lot less onerous on the participants than many other fundraising programs.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope, Lance Armstrong