This month we launched our biggest fundraising campaign to date. The aim is to raise £150,000 during 2020 to fund the planning phase of our project and get it construction ready. The campaign got off to a great start, with a significant investor coming forward and a successful social fundraising evening.

The Goal

It’s not an easy target. £150K is a big chunk of money! However, our venture has always been bold in its ambition and we see no reason to change now.  We have a dedicated and driven team behind the project combined with fantastic support from our members and backers. With the enthusiasm and momentum we currently have driving the project forward, we’re confident that if we pull together as a community, we’ll be able to make this happen! Money raised will be used to fund:

  • Project management costs
  • Community engagement and marketing
  • Legal costs for land access negotiation
  • Planning study coordination
  • Drainage study
  • Ecological study
  • Forestry study
  • Historic environment study
  • Landscape and visual impact assessment
  • Planning application fees
  • Community consultation

Once the above work is complete, we’ll then be in a position to move into the detailed design and construction phase. That’s when things get really exciting!

The Campaign

So how are we going to go about it and what does the campaign look like? We wanted to come up with a plan to get through 2020 with minimum grant dependency, so the fundraising team at Gravitate got our heads together and came up with a strategy. By breaking down the overall target into smaller bite size chunks, we believe we’ve come up with an approach that is both realistic and achievable. Here’s how we aim to achieve our £150,000 target:

 

 

Investors

£70,000

 

We have created 3 different investment packages of £1,000, £5,000 and £10,000, each with attractive associated benefits. We wanted to give them a quirky, bike related feel, so we’ve branded them as Raw Alloy, Polished Titanium and Carbon Fibre.

 

Corporate Donors

£34,000

 

For businesses and organisations that are looking to donate, but don’t necessarily require anything specific in return. The Gravitate project is a worthwhile cause for any businesse’s CSR or charitable giving programme.

 

Fundraisers

£20,000

 

An opportunity for our members and supporters to do their part. Become a fundraiser for Gravitate and earn yourself an invitation to our VIP pre-opening event. Be the first to experience the trails, facilities and activities.

 

Public Donations

£11,000

 

We’ll be using our Virgin Money Giving page and initiatives like our gold badge campaign to seek public donations. To invest in the future of the Aberdeen region you can donate by visiting our Virgin Money Giving page here.

 

Enterprise

£5,000

We’ve already had a great deal of success selling Gravitate jerseys and t-shirts over the years. We plan to increase our merchandise offerings during 2020 to allow you to show your support in even more ways.

 

Grants

£10,000

Although we are aiming to go predominantly grant free during 2020, we do believe there will be a benefit in seeking some local, small scale grant funding to help us achieve our target.

 

Current Investors

Our search for investors couldn’t have got off to a better start! when we soft launched the fundraising campaign to our newsletter subscribers last month, Tony from eGuide Scotland got in touch with us straight away, keen to see how he could support. A short conversation later and eGuide Scotland had signed up as our first Polished Titanium Investor!

eGuide Scotland offer guided ebike tours out of Aboyne into Royal Deeside and the Cairngorm National Park. Tony is a qualified mountain bike guide and offers fully customisable tours for all levels and abilities. Tours are for groups of up to 6 people, can be a full or half day and include lunch and coffee stops.

We’ll be writing a dedicated blog about eGude Scotland and their relationship with Gravitate North East soon, please keep an eye out for that. In the mean time, if you want to find out more about eGuide Scotland, please visit their website www.eguidescotland.com.

Or alternatively, if you’d like to get a bit of ebike action in during the festive period, why not sign up for eGuide Festive Frolics! Details are on their Eventbrite page here.

 

If you’ve been inspired by Tony and the team at eGuide Scotland and want to find out more about investing and become a partner of Gravitate North East, please feel free to drop us a note using the contact form on the home page. 

Fundraiser Social

Our fundraising campaign kicked off with a bang when we attended an amazing pre-Christmas event at Ride Coffee House. The evening, organised by 20Twenty Bike Clinic, was a chance for local MTB businesses and organisations to get together and engage with the Aberdeen region MTB and adventure sports community.

During the evening, we raised almost £500 from merchandise sales, raffles and donations. The launch of our new gold badge campaign got off to a great start raising over £200 alone! The idea behind the ‘Gravitate Gold’ initiative is simple. Make a £10 donation and we give you a gold mountain diamond sticker to display as a badge of honour. It’s a cool and easy way to let people know that you have given support to your local MTB charity. You can then post images of your badge out in the wild on social media using the hashtag #gravitategold, and we’ll share it to show the world how awesome you are!

Another success story from the evening was our bike raffle. We were extremely lucky to have been donated a Cannondale Trail 2 mountain bike by Cycle Highlands to raffle. Cycle Highlands have been a long-time supporter of our project and we continue to be blown away by their generosity! Make sure you pop into their shop next time you are in Ballater to show your appreciation. 

And finally, a shout out to the other organisations who came along to the evening and made it a huge success. We have a thriving and growing MTB scene in our region which has only been made possible by collaborative working and big picture thinking. Please check them out by hitting the links below: