It’s frustrating how far behind other cities Baltimore has fallen in building walkable, bikeable, transit friendly neighborhoods. It’s often difficult to believe change is possible, that we can actually expand opportunity for residents while encouraging investment and growth.
But change is possible, and now is the time to act.
This coming fall we will elect a new mayor and majority new city council. We need your support to ensure that they understand that Baltimoreans want a more livable city, and that we will turn up to vote for a livable city agenda.
We have the opportunity to press these incoming elected officials to appoint visionary leadership and staff at city agencies like DOT and Planning, but we need your support to loudly voice our recommendations.
Right now, City Council is working to pass Transform Baltimore, a much needed update to our antiquated zoning code that will promote walkable, bikeable, mixed use neighborhoods. We need your support to ensure harmful amendments that will set back our neighborhoods don’t make it into the final bill.
All of these issues are pressing, and all of these issues are political. That’s why Bikemore has formed an advocacy arm that will allow us to engage in direct advocacy and lobbying to promote our livable city agenda.
Please support Bikemore with a donation significant to you, ensuring that we will be able to act swiftly and effectively to advance our agenda at this critical point in time.
Our New Advocacy Arm
Our #IBikeIVote campaign was a tremendous success this primary season. But our members wanted more. You asked for candidate score cards, endorsements, and direct, critical or complimentary feedback on candidates and their platforms. Our 501(c)(3) status limited our ability to deliver on those requests. Now we can.
Your financial support of Bikemore’s new 501(c)(4) advocacy arm won’t be tax-deductible, but it will allow Bikemore to be more direct in our influence. Our advocacy work will be far more effective, and our victories will be easier to obtain.
We are moving away from the traditional membership model at Bikemore. Anyone invested in our mission will be considered a stakeholder in our work. Rather than spending staff time and resources tracking down member perks and schwag, we’ll focus on policy and infrastructure wins—which we believe to be the core reason anyone invests in Bikemore’s work. In turn, we’ll need people invested in our work to give, and to give significantly, to ensure we have the resources to deliver those wins.
We’ve analyzed our average donor and their donation size, and have determined that tax-deductibility is likely not a factor to the majority of our donors. Bikemore’s donation page will now default to our non tax-deductible advocacy work—the work most likely to deliver the livable city wins we need right now.
Bikemore will continue to accept charitable donations of any size through its 501(c)(3). There will be an opt-in on the donation page if you wish to receive a receipt for your donation for tax-deductibility purposes, and we will continue to use those donations to fund Bikemore’s research, programming, and educational efforts.
What's to Come
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be launching several campaigns that will amplify our constituents’ voices in asking for and organizing around a more livable, bikeable Baltimore. We’ll be recruiting you to serve on neighborhood associations, asking you to share a campaign to hire a visionary DOT Director, be vocal about #IBikeIVote, and more. We’ll ask you to be physically involved in our work in many ways—and your time and voice will be critical to the success of our movement.
But today, we ask that you financially sign on to Bikemore’s livable city agenda and our new focused direct advocacy push with a gift significant to you.
