Hill Country Ride for AIDS depends on a lot of sweat equity and it is committed to not letting that energy evaporate into thin air. The Austin, Texas-based Ride returns an average of seventy-six percent of funds raised to its benefitting agencies. That’s above and beyond the sixty percent suggested by The Wise Giving Alliance, a program of the Better Business Bureau.

Breaking away
Its dedication to this return on investment all started by breaking away from Pallotta TeamWorks’ Texas AIDS Ride. David C. Smith started Hill Country Ride for AIDS twelve years ago when he saw that the beneficiaries of the Texas AIDS Ride could take a different route.

“Leading up to the first Texas AIDS Ride, we would have meetings with people from Pallotta TeamWorks,” says Smith, who at the time headed-up one of that ride’s benefitting agencies. “And we were saying that it doesn’t seem like the [fund amount] numbers are adding up, and they’re definitely not what we projected.” Smith and others suggested to Pallotta that they work together to “grow” the ride, but the organizers said they knew best, didn’t require that kind of input, and encouraged their trust in them.

Pallotta’s ride was only able to return fifteen percent of the funds to the agencies. Even though Pallotta was promising to make changes for the second year, Smith convinced his board that this ride was not for them. All of the Austin-area agencies, except one, backed out.

His instinct was on the money. In the second year, the Texas AIDS Ride only returned thirteen percent—two percent less than the first year!

Smith was convinced the Austin community could mount their own ride; his colleagues agreed. “I don’t know how we ever thought we could—I really don’t!” says Smith, laughing. “What was really beautiful about that was that everybody who had been involved at all in that first ride came forward and were so committed and worked so hard. It was truly a community effort. Very much a grass-roots effort.”

Stretching dollars like Spandex
Voted Best Bike Ride in the 2010 Annual Austin Chronicle Readers Poll, Hill Country Ride for AIDS was a success from the start. While the Texas AIDS Ride had hundreds and hundreds of riders, Hill Country Ride had only seventy-nine the first year. “I remember thinking, ‘Well, we gave it our best shot.’ But those seventy-nine riders raised $100,000, and we were still able to return about seventy-five percent of the money. We hadn’t had to spend that much money [on overhead] thanks to our great volunteers,” notes Smith, who serves as executive director of the ride.

In addition, the overhead has remained low because the Ride has been able to draw the attention of top sponsors, such as national advertising firm nFusion, who donates its services to the cause (and has won awards for its Ride campaigns in the process). The materials produced by nFusion are also printed and distributed free-of-charge by two local companies. Other sponsors, from local radio stations to stores like Whole Foods, contribute as well.

Three years ago, Smith went to nFusion and asked them to create a campaign to attract the younger generation, who, Smith realized, didn’t understand the urgency of AIDS, or thought of HIV/AIDS as a manageable disease. The agency came up with Spandex Saves, a style-conscious re-branding of a fabric mostly worn by the likes of hardcore athletes. By cheekily making Spandex into a fashion essential—the Austin City Council and the mayor even declared a “Wear Spandex to Work Day”—the campaign was able to encourage younger folks to get into Spandex, get on a bike, and ride for the hills—and for AIDS awareness. And it has worked.

Emotions and expectations
The Ride has grown every year, raising over $4 million so far. Last year, 615 riders ventured out on the Central Texas routes of varying

miles through rolling farmland and country roads and they raised about $600,000, but fell short of the goal that had been set. Smith blames the downturn in the economy, which affected Austin later than some other places.

For this year’s ride, which takes place on April 30, organizers decided to set a more modest goal. “Last year was such a hard year. We didn’t make our goal of $750,000. Psychologically, it’s hard for a group to raise that much money and feel like they didn’t quite make it. It was so amazing that we raised that much last year, but disappointing knowing that many felt that they hadn’t done their part,” says Smith, knowing that emotions are tied to expectations. “So, I wanted to set the goal at a number I’m absolutely sure we’re going to make, and perhaps surpass, even if the economy is still [suffering].” Smith would rather that riders link their personal fundraising goal to the goal of providing services than an arbitrary, abstract number.

Those services are provided by ten local nonprofits, all in Central Texas, which have come to be the same beneficiaries every year. Adds Smith about the constancy, “It’s been great. Because of the system, they’re set up to compete with each other for [the same] funds. This is an opportunity for them to come together to raise funds, and I think they’ve all experienced that a-rising-tide-lifts-all-boats phenomenon.”

By coming together, each agency also learns about the challenges faced by the others and these meetings of the mind have sparked collaborations.

The coalition creates another effect as well. Austin, one of the most progressive and accepting communities in Texas, as Smith reminds, becomes a safe hub for agencies, and the people they serve, in the outlying counties that are facing the lion’s share of stigma and discrimination related to AIDS. “They know they have a place to go where no one is going to judge them, or worse, just because they’re HIV-positive. It’s a reminder for all of us living here of what it was like, and how far we’ve come, and how far we still have to go.”

Hundreds of names
Raising funds is important—but it’s not the bottom line. The ultimate objective is community health. Physical health, yes, but also mental, spiritual, and emotional health.

The community reponse to the Ride has been “so powerful,” says Smith as he struggles to find the words to describe its unifying quality. “It’s been life-changing for pretty much everyone involved,” he says, whether that means someone unconvinced they could raise $500 until they do, and then twice-over, or someone reconnecting with old friends and learning for the first time that their son died of AIDS, or someone unsure they can make it over the first hill until they are crossing the finish line, flush with confidence to shift gears and make positive changes in other aspects of their life. It’s a ripple effect. “That’s what I mean about life-changing. It’s not just the lives of the people receiving the help; it’s the lives of all the participants.”

Adds Smith, about why he loves to be a part of the Ride community: “To me, every single rider is a thread in this beautiful quilt that we’re all creating, all the time. Every one of their donors, and every story that’s affected by the fact that they’re riding, is part of that quilt as well. They’re all creating their own quilts at the same time they’re creating the larger Ride quilt.

“And as AIDS is not in the headlines anymore, and fewer and fewer people feel like they have a personal connection [to it], for the people who did lose siblings, kids, uncles, whoever, to know that someone is still remembering their loved one through this cause is so healing. We have a ceremony every year on our Ride where we remember people that we’ve lost, and they’re mentioned by name. Everybody’s allowed to say a name. We ask in advance for people to give us names. We get hundreds and hundreds of names, and we read them constantly throughout the ceremony. This happens every single year: People come up and say—and I could cry just even saying this—‘I had never heard my uncle’s name, or my brother’s name, or my sister’s name, uttered at a place of love. It was always whispered. It was always in a context of shame, and this is the first time it was honored,’” he says.

“What I love about this community is that they have kept this ride a hell of a lot of fun! It’s for a serious cause, a lot of people are out there maybe because they have lost a loved one, but it’s a lot of fun,” says Smith, mentioning last year’s themed pitstops, from Dollywood to Alice in Wonderland.

“And then I love that this ride is a true represenation of this community. Young people, old people; black, white, brown; rich, poor; HIV-positive, HIV-negative; people who are in shape and people who are not in shape—what I love is that none of that matters out there. Everybody is really united, all for the cause. It’s the most beautiful experience of community I’ve ever seen.”

For more information, visit www.hillcountryride.org.

Chael Needle

March 2011