News: Crowdfunding for Podium Ambition

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Women’s team Podium Ambition launch their path to Podium with a crowdfunding plan

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News: Crowdfunding for Podium Ambition

As part of their commitment to sourcing and supplying the very best opportunities for the riders on their programmes, Podium Ambition have launched an ambitious crowdfunding target to try and assist in the growing costs associated with the provision of their pathway in elite women’s cycling.

Working on a “keep what you raise” basis, the not-for-profit company hope to find a new income stream that will further assist them to add to their growing organisation, as well as offering new ways for fans of the sport to engage with a team embarking on a new and exciting journey. The 14-strong professional team and 6-strong scholarship team rely heavily on volunteers to run their programme and are often required to sell bikes to make ends meet during the season. The dream of paying all riders and staff a living wage remains on the horizon and in addition to this plans for 2017 are already underway.

Speaking of the campaign, Dame Sarah Storey explained the sentiments behind the idea, “We are frequently asked if fans can make a monetary donation to the team as they love what we are trying to achieve and want to play a part.”

 

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“Obviously we want to repay their generosity and so it made sense to create a campaign with clear but simple rewards that we know the team can fulfil. Many people have spoken of the financial commitment the new UCI Women’s World Tour creates for teams who wish to be a part of it and as we look to climb the rankings to gain this status for 2017 we need to ensure we are providing the very best opportunities for our riders this year. We have secured much of our budget through superb partnerships with our sponsors and by involving our fans and other interested parties we can create the kind of financial sustainability that sees full-time staff as well.”

“In addition we have identified a number of additional possibilities we would like to action for our Scholarship Team who are all either in full or part-time work or education. These riders are planning gap years and in some cases working towards multi-discipline careers so we would like to create a fund that allows them to have the financial backing that can keep up with their ambitions.”

The campaign will run for 6 weeks after which the team at Signs Express Manchester [www.signsexpress.co.uk] will update the design on the rear of the Motorhome with the names of the contributors and Podium Ambition will announce the first race at which people can come to visit the finished product. The names of the contributors will displayed for the entire season and there will be numerous opportunities for people to visit the team and see what they are a part of.

Anyone with questions or further information should contact PodiumAmbition@talktalk.net and visit the crowdfunding site at http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/podium-ambition/ to view the pledge options. The team also welcome anyone with further ideas to contact them and suggest other rewards they would like to see.

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