About Us
We’re Climate Ride—a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that turns sweat into action for a greener world.
We organize charitable rides, runs, hikes and events that put the ‘fun’ in fundraising for sustainability, active transportation, and environmental causes.
The Cause
Have you been asking what can I do for the planet?
Get ready to be part of something that’s not just cool, it’s transformative! When you ride, run, or hike with us, you’re taking on something way bigger than yourself. You’re empowering others to join you in doing good. Non-profits all over the United States and around the world are already working hard on our behalf–but their resources are way too limited. The solution is you!
Join a movement to save the planet one pedal, step, or stride at a time. Joining our events means you are stepping up to inspire your friends, your families, and your coworkers to help our planet. You’ll raise funds, awareness, and your heart rate. We offer a way to take a stand, make friends, and connect with an action focused movement.
The Mission
Climate Ride mobilizes people to protect our planet through life-changing adventures.
Climate Ride empowers participants to actively engage in the fight against climate change by joining our bicycling, hiking, running, and self-designed events to fundraise for the organizations they value most. Together, we get active and take action for the planet. Our immersive outdoor experiences and personal challenges are powerful tools for generating behavioral change to help ignite activism on climate policy, raise critical funds, and influence public opinion.
At a glance
Climate Ride Has:
Our Team
Our Board
Our Story
We kicked off with a NYC-DC cycling odyssey and haven’t hit the brakes since. 7,000+ adventurers, 1,020 grants, over $13 million, and countless miles later, we’re still on the roll. That’s over 150 events and 1.2 million miles for the cause.
How We Roll
Ever wonder what happens when you mix tire tracks with activism? That’s us—Climate Ride. Founded in 2008, we turn adventures into advocacy and philanthropy into pedal power. We use sport as a means to change lives and build an effective, citizen-based sustainability movement.
The Problem: 3% is not enough
Our planet needs us more than it ever has. Yet the environment is one of the least funded sectors in American philanthropy, receiving less than 3% of all charitable giving. From land conservation to clean energy, we’re rolling out to increase funding where it’s most needed.
THE SOLUTION: YOU
Your fundraising effects real change via the Climate Ride grants program. Participants fundraise for projects and organizations working on climate change, clean energy, active transportation, conservation, sustainability, and public health. From preventing fracking in Patagonia to building your local bike trail, we’re rallying for urgent action on the world’s most critical issues. Your raised funds translate into meaningful, unrestricted grants for amazing, underfunded organizations.
How Your Fundraising Becomes Grants
Financial prudence is a top priority at Climate Ride, and we take great care of donors’ contributions. We’re a 501(c)3, and we know how to stretch a dollar—from underwriting events to providing scholarships for community leaders to funding Environmental Justice Action Grants. Want the deep dive?
What Your Fundraising Goes To
When you register for a Climate Ride event, you’re doing more than traveling through and learning about gorgeous areas on bike/foot — even doing more than making meaningful new connections with like-minded people. You’re making planet-saving moves.
A portion of the funds you raise will go out as grants to the organization(s) you choose. After event costs, 80% of your fundraising goes to your chosen Beneficiaries and 20% goes to support Climate Ride. The beneficiaries don’t have to take on any of the costs of running events.
Event costs vary by event and length. We run a tight ship and keep the fundraising minimums lower so that more people can participate. Then, we work hard to help you raise over the fundraising minimum, leading to even bigger grants. We set our fundraising minimums so that every participant makes an impact. If you can raise even more, it all goes to the nonprofits you love.
Thanks to our Annual Fund Donors
100% of Dollars Raised on our Green Fondos BECOME Grants.
Some participants choose to make a self-pledge (a donation to one’s own fundraising goal) so that even more of their donors’ dollars go directly to supporting Climate Ride and our Beneficiary grants program. But not everyone can.
We want everyone who wants to do good for our planet to be able to join our events! To that end, we keep the fundraising minimums lower than comparable events. Additionally, we work hard to help participants fundraise as much as they can. We bring a kit of unique fundraising tools and offer one-on-one coaching to boost your fundraising. We do it to increase resources for all our stellar Beneficiary Partners so they can keep conserving land, increasing access to renewable energy, and fighting the environmental crisis.
Why Fundraising for Climate Ride Matters
This isn’t your average charity event. It’s activism on wheels—or hiking boots.
Each participant turns their passion into outreach, touching 100+ lives on average with a message that they can take action on climate change. And the grants? They have real impacts – from enriching climate change education to reintroducing bison into Glacier National Park, from protecting sacred lands in Bears Ears to connecting vital land passages for wildlife, from funding groups pushing active transportation legislation through local governments to getting more youth in underserved communities on bikes. Our events inspire more bicycle advocacy, environmental justice action, and activists of all ages to shift our government. We handle all the nitty-gritty so our partner organizations can benefit without having to add another fundraiser or grant application to their workload.
A Different Gear: As an organization, we are indie in spirit, largely fueled by small donations. No mega corp calling the shots. And considering less than 3% of charity dollars go to environmental causes, our collective power here makes a massive difference. As of 2023, we’ve spun out nearly $13 million in grants, and we’re doing it with a lean, mean, green team of five.
Still curious? Dive into our Grants & Impact page:
Annual Fund
You can help us to bring positive, lasting change.
Together, we can grow Climate Ride’s global community and provide transformative experiences that inspire people to become environmental advocates and engaged citizens.
Climate Ride has inspired over 7,000 people who have biked, ran, and hiked over one million miles. The collective impact of these participants raising funds and spreading awareness to hundreds of thousands of people while promoting the Climate Ride cause is huge.
Our Annual Fund campaign helps accelerate our work. Annual Fund donors fund scholarships, help underwrite events so we can give a whopping 100%, support Climate Ride’s lean operations, and contribute to action grants. When you support the Climate Ride cause, you are unlocking unmatched opportunities for citizens to engage themselves in solutions to the environmental crisis.
Climate Ride (Tax ID # 27-1777457), is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation recognized as tax-exempt under IRS Code Section 501(c)(3). Donations to Climate Ride are deductible for income tax purposes to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
Committed to Sustainability
We’re about that low-impact life. From reducing single-use plastics to rocking eco-conscious bike jerseys, we’re all-in.
Less Waste
Say bye to disposable junk. We’re all about reusables, from water bottles to coffee mugs. Please bring your own!
Plant-Based Grub
Vegan or vegetarian? Your wish is our meal plan command.
TAILWINDS FUND
Looking for a way to offset your travel or other carbon impacts?
Well, we hate to be the bearers of bad news, but with industry giants manipulating a well-intentioned system for “zeroing out” emissions that ideally wouldn’t have burned in the first place, carbon offsets have become an unreliable solution to this enormous issue. That said, we created a new fund to do some sustainable good!
