The 88Bikes Foundation has a very simple goal: to provide a sustainable, joyful, empowering form of transportation to young people in developing countries, in situations where these children have been challenged to be their own heroes due to war, conflict, poverty, disease, or other regional hardships. 88Bikes was started in 2006 by Dan Austin, Nicolas Arauz, and Jared Austin. In November 2006, 88Bikes started its first project in partnership with the Friends of Cambodian Children, to raise funds for 88 bikes. After exceeding its fundraising goal in just 2 weeks, the organization gave 88 bikes to 88 kids at the Palm Tree Orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in January 2007. In January of 2008, 88bikes completed its second project with the Global Youth Partnership for Africa in Patongo, Uganda, donating 200 bikes to children at a refugee camp in this war-torn region of Northern Uganda. 88Bikes has received press coverage by CNN International, Optimist World [www.optimistword.com], Lazy Enviromentalist (Sirius Radio), and was also a Typepad Featured Blog in 2007.

How it works

Each year, 88bikes chooses a destination. We’ve chosen sites with great advice from friends at National Geographic, Banff Mountain film festival and MountainFilm in Telluride, and networks of past partners such as the Global Youth Partnership for Africa and Andean Outreach. While it is difficult to find a perfect fit each year, our goal is to select places where 88bikes can have the most powerful impact, and likelihood for success; where the bikes can be reasonably accommodated, safely stored and kept in good repair; and where there is strong leadership in the school or orphanage receptive to the project.

Once a location is selected, 88bikes reaches out using e-mail, social networking sites, and the personal networks of the founders, and collects donations from sponsors through its web site. Each donation is $88 dollars, the approximate cost of a bike in most developing countries. Each sponsor also provides their name (or the name of a friend, if it is a gift), along with a photo of the donor. A list of all Sponsors is posted to the web site.

After the donations are raised, 88bikes travels to the project site in person. New bikes are purchased in-country from local merchants. Any required labor for transportation, assembly, or assistance is also hired locally, so that the project funds are used to benefit the local economy. All Sponsor bicycle donations are used to purchase and assemble the bikes, and for local transportation, so that 100% of the donated money goes directly to the local economy and to the bike donation. All other costs, such as setting up on-site 88bikeshops in various countries, running bike repair workshops, orchestrating bike repair apprenticeships, IT, travel, 88bikes volunteer programs, administrative costs and overhead are paid for by the Endowment Fund. Additional costs are paid for by the founders. 88bikes is entirely volunteer-staffed; no one, including the founders, receives salary or compensation of any kind; 88bikes does not maintain an office.

Each child is given their bike in person from the founders, on behalf of the individual Sponsor who donated their bike, along with a postcard that shows the Sponsor, a world map, and the Sponsor’s hometown. Photos and film of the project are made available to the Sponsors, and each Sponsor receives a thank-you letter with a photo of the child who received their bike.

Accountability

We don't take any salaries, and we don't maintain an office or staff. Every $88 dollar donation given to purchase a bike is used to purchase bikes. If we can drive a good bargain with the local merchants, extra money is used to defray the cost of assembling the bikes, transporting the bikes locally, and for purchasing spare parts. We work hard to ensure that every penny donated is a direct contribution to the purpose of the project– buying bikes for kids in challenging places, and supporting the ongoing bike culture that we leave behind so that it can continue to be a source of joy and inspiration for the kids as they grow up. In 2008, we became a registered 501(c)3 organization and started an endowment fund to support past projects and to defray some of the expenses related to accounting and project implementation that are a part of our success. Every donation to 88bikes is fully tax deductable.

 To learn more visit 88bikes.org website