Washington Blade - August 9, 2002
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Whitman-Walker and Food & Friends disclosed the financial figures for the ride in a statement released Wednesday, Aug. 7. The statement shows that the ride yielded a return of 13.9 cents on every dollar raised, with 86.1 cents on the dollar going to overhead costs. The costs included a $225,000 fee to the Los Angeles fund-raising company Pallotta TeamWorks, which produced the ride under contract with Whitman-Walker and Food & Friends. The outcome represented the lowest return since the Pallotta firm began producing the D.C. AIDS Ride in 1996.

Officials with Whitman-Walker and Food & Friends announced in May that the 2002 ride would be the last one in which the two groups would retain Pallotta TeamWorks, a for-profit company, to produce the event. Food & Friends said it would produce its own Washington AIDS ride in 2003. Whitman-Walker said it would not participate, saying it would pursue other fund-raising activities to recoup the money it has received from the AIDS rides since 1996.

Officials with the two groups predicted the return would be lower this year when it became clear in May that far fewer riders signed up to participate in the 2002 ride compared to last year's ride. The 2002 ride, which traveled from Norfolk, Va., to D.C., attracted 1,117 riders, a thousand fewer than the 2,118 riders participating in the 2001 ride.

The 2001 ride pulled in $6,968,282 in gross revenue and incurred expenses of $3,425,890, yielding $3,542,382 in net proceeds. The return for the 2001 ride came to 50.5 cents on the dollar, with 49.5 cents going to expenses and fees. The Wise Giving Alliance of the Better Business Bureau has established the standard that beneficiaries should receive at least 60 percent of money from a fund-raising event.

Pallotta officials have said the cost for arranging the logistics for a caravan of bicyclists traveling 330 miles from Norfolk to D.C. over a four-day period is nearly the same whether there are 1,000 riders or the more than 2,000 that turned out in 2001. In addition to the riders, a crew of 323 people traveled with the riders this year to help provide food, sleeping facilities, first aid and arrangements for safety precautions. Although most of the crew consisted of volunteers, officials said the overall profitability of the ride is dependent upon how many riders sign up and recruit contributors from their friends, co-workers and family members to offset the overhead costs.

Whitman-Walker and Food & Friends attributed the shortfall in riders this year to a number of developments, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which occurred at the time of year that AIDS Ride organizers recruit riders.

"Sept. 11 had a very suppressing effect on our fall registration drive," said Craig Shniderman, executive director of Food & Friends. "People were preoccupied with 9/11."

Shniderman said negative publicity surrounding Pallotta TeamWorks, which faced harsh criticism from some AIDS activists for its high fund-raising costs, also played a role in discouraging riders from participating this year. He said the Pallotta firm also reduced the size of its D.C. staff this year, which Shniderman said had an adverse effect on rider recruitment and fund raising.

In addition, Shniderman and A. Cornelius Baker, Whitman-Walker's executive director, said the Pallotta firm alienated riders last year by inundating riders and spectators with promotional messages for other Pallotta-sponsored events. Critics said the promotional signs and announcements appeared to detract from the AIDS ride and prompted some riders to sit out this year's event.

Janis Sidley, Pallotta TeamWorks spokesperson, said the firm reduced its D.C. staff as part of a cost-cutting move that consolidated support staff for all Pallotta events in the firm's Los Angeles office. Sidley said the staff consolidation did not have an adverse effect on other Pallotta-produced events.

"We did everything we could to save money," Sidley said.

In their Aug. 7 statement, Whitman-Walker and Food & Friends said the D.C. AIDS Rides netted a total of more than $15 million for the two groups over the seven years the rides have taken place. The average cost of putting on the rides over the seven-year period has been 49.2 cents on every dollar raised, the statement said.

"We are torn between our enormous gratitude to the thousands of men and women who raised more than $15 million net to provide HIV and AIDS services locally over the last seven years and our disappointment in the low net return on this year's ride," said Baker, Whitman Walker's executive director.

Shniderman said Food & Friends expects the return from next year's ride to be "much larger" than this year's, although he declined to predict what it would be. He said Food & Friends is taking steps to create a separate, non-profit corporation to produce the 2003 AIDS ride and future AIDS rides.

He said Mickie Ballotta, who has worked as the Food & Friends development director for nine years, and who has served as managing director of D.C.'s Avon Breast Cancer Walk in the late 1990s, has been named to head the new corporate entity.

"The time has come to examine changes in our overall strategy and approach to fund raising and create local solutions to local client needs," Shniderman said.

Whitman-Walker spokesperson Michael Cover said the clinic had anticipated a significant drop in funds from this year's AIDS ride and has already made adjustments to its budget. He said the clinic's share of the net proceeds this year, which comes to $250,000 - a drop from more than $1.7 million in net proceeds from last year's ride - would not result in staff layoffs or a reduction in services to clients.

But he said the clinic must now rely more on other fund-raising events, especially the upcoming AIDS Walk and the AIDS marathon run, set to take place in October.

"We are putting this chapter behind us and moving forward," he said of the AIDS Ride.

News reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. can be reached at lchibbaro@washblade.com.

FOR MORE INFO:

Pallotta TeamWorks. 2709 Media Center Dr.. Los Angeles, CA 90065. 800-825-1000. www.pallottateamworks.com

FOR MORE INFO:

Food & Friends. 58 L St., SE. Washington, DC 20003. 202-488-8278. www.foodandfriends.org.

Whitman-Walker Clinic. 1407 S St., NW. Washington, DC 20009. (202)797-3500. www.wwc.org

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