What I am In the Running for: September 23, 2006

Try this for bar conversation: “Hi Erin, what have you been up to?” To which I would reply, “Not much…just running 7 marathons on 7 continents in the next year and a half.” The world record goal was a bit of a shocker, especially my “yes there is a marathon on Antarctica” speech. My young professional friends put down their Blackberries (or at least looked up from them) and either said “cool” or “you’re insane.” If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are telling people something that elicits “cool” and/or “you’re insane”…it means you have a good, provocative idea on your hands…or feet in my case.

Like any athlete, I knew I would need an all-star team if I wanted to produce winning results. I teamed up right away with eventual In the Running co-founder Dana Worth to figure out how to emulate the global reach of the marathons in some sort of charitable fundraising model. Initially, Dana and I did not want to start a new organization, as there are so many existing nonprofits doing great work and we both already have more than full time jobs. We toyed with the idea of donating to one large international organization, but our research revealed that there is such good work being done at the grassroots level, and this work is both under-funded and under-appreciated. We quickly realized that there is a real nonprofit business model behind generating support for grassroots organizations that are ingrained in local culture, and can affect a more immediate and informed impact with access to the right resources. Several weeks of intellectual gymnastics later (cross training!) we came up with In the Running.

In the Running is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the founding of which has involved more legwork than my marathon training, mostly late at night and on weekends. As you probably understand by now, the purpose of In the Running is to raise money and awareness for seven grassroots charitable organizations on seven continents, representing causes that are essential challenges on each continent. Dana and I (and fellow officers or Board members such as Dave, Mahmoud and Celene) spent months finding the right charities- calling people, reading books, comparing websites, reading press articles, meeting the founders of various organizations, and Googling things such as “effective microfinance organizations in areas of South America with desperate poverty conditions.” Other areas of the webpage describe the selection process and sponsored organizations in more detail, but it was great fun figuring out good grassroots organizations all over the world, and then calling or visiting them to pledge In the Running’s support.

We are convinced that what nonprofits need most today are new ideas to avoid donor fatigue, and that’s what we want In the Running to be- an idea that will start with my marathon mission and then provide funds and awareness for seven awesome local organizations all over the world. In the Running is intended to be a dynamic middleman, to move available resources to effective local activists. One hundred percent of all donations are passed through to the seven selected organizations, and along with my fellow officers, we are using the privilege of being salaried young professionals to personally fund our travel and operations.