By Arline Welty

From time to time, I have the great fortune of encountering these opaque envelopes in my mailbox at the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. These promising morsels provoke the same vertiginous sensation that many fundraisers feel when they see letters from individuals, foundations or companies.

I lift the envelope, swiftly break the seal, and then reach in to pluck out the most precious gift tucked away in a duofold letter: a donation to support bicycling advocacy.

Donations from members, partners and friends are particularly invigorating to the CBF staff, because these personal donations speak to the value with which individuals regard our work. Each is a testament to how CBF’s advocacy has affected their lives.

During the wave of giving that swept the nation after Hurricane Katrina, a new member, William MacBeth, organized a bicycle ride/pub crawl for charity. When it was finished, he sent an opaque envelope to CBF, full of the proceeds. Why? “When the pub crawl developed into a fund raiser, I looked for a local charity to support,” MacBeth explained. “A bicycle advocacy group seemed most logical since the (pub) crawl was on bicycles. I did a Web search and found the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.”

Bicycling advocacy, as it turns out, has a direct and personal impact on MacBeth’s life. He commutes by bike year-round since the summer of 2004, after the engine in his truck blew up.

Potter Nancy Coffin donated some of her work to promote healthy transportation options. (photo: courtesy of Nancy Coffin)

Sally Olds is 20-year member of CBF and she has donated annually to the organization “since Randy Neufeld was working for free.” Fond of cold snowy walks and the refreshingly human speed of bicycling, Olds has contributed to CBF for years through a charitable gift fund because “I see it as an organization that helps enhance my riding experiences.

“I suspect CBF’s activities in terms of education and focusing attention on cyclists and their rights is having an impact,” she said.

A studio potter, Nancy Coffin donated her hand-thrown pottery for CBF’s upcoming Bike Town Bash in spring 2006, because, “with cycling, people get to experience their neighborhoods on a more intimate level, and hopefully, will become active within their community and neighborhood by knowing their neighbors.” She said she hopes her contribution will “promote healthy transportation options and to help raise community awareness.”

If you’re considering donating, we offer a variety of methods. In addition to accepting matching gifts, gifts of stock, bond, and real estate, and donations that arrive in opaque envelopes, we can funnel contributions toward a specific program like Safe Routes to School, to any of CBF’s Top 10 Initiatives, or to the new Healthy Streets Campaign.

So if you’re the cyclist who loves autumnal walks in the forest preserve; who commutes to work in the glistening sleet; whose identity includes “pedestrian”; who rides centuries on weekends; who carries his children and gallons of milk by bicycle; who brokers political leverage for bicycling, walking and transit legislation; who supports her local bike shop; who has train schedules memorized; who walks and rides buses as daily exercise; who believes no bike is virtuous without a respectable basket; or who believes no bike is respectable without a virtuous carbon fiber fork; then you, dear reader, are living the mission. You are critical to helping build a vocal and flourishing constituency of donors.

As member Sally Olds would say, “the more members, the stronger the organization and the better job it can do to improve the cycling experience for everyone.”

Arline J. Welty is the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation’s director of development