Fundraising, Accountability & Becoming a Registered Charity

There has been a lot of talk going around regarding a man named Myles MacDonald and his fundraising endeavours. Myles has a private foundation called ourwoundedwarriors.org he funds it from items he sells that he creates from art he has created. He also accepts donations from the general public.

Because his is a private foundation, there is no real accountability.
It's not illegal what he's doing, but it is questionable. The Legion is looking into his use of the poppy and there are many who are going after the man viscously because they believe him to be a user.
I spoke with the man, I was curious and wary because of the whole ourwoundedwarriors.org thing.

I'm not so sure the man is a con, or that he's doing anything wrong, but there's no way to prove that he's doing the good things he states unless you want to spend hours on the phone. It's easy to surmise he's doing something wrong just based on the name he chose to use. His way of doing things makes accountability tough and in the non profit and charity world, accountability is everything.

I've experienced people complaining about me and where do the funds I/we raise go, our non profit has never made a ton of money but when it has raised anything, the donations were given very publicly to ensure people knew we were helping out in our community.  Like the over $4K we raised for Kate MacEachern, we donated it to her at the Royal Canadian Legion in Leduc - in cash the day after our event at a public presentation and had pictures to prove it.  Some of the people we helped, like a man in southern Alberta 18 months ago or so, whose wife just recently passed - we were donated an electric scooter, she had need of it, we did the driving from Kamloops to Calgary to deliver it. We never made anything out of it, because he and his wife are private people, it just felt good to make a difference.

Right now we have a donation that just came in, the Jouse 2 controller one of those tools that allows people to use their breath to do many things for them when they are paralyzed and we have a lift for a handi-van that can be used for converting a van into a wheel chair accessible van to donate.
The veteran we had intended to support with it did not want it. We were $25,000 short in our fundraising efforts to build him a wheelchair accessible scooter and instead acquired this lift that is in amazing shape. Sadly, the veteran felt so deflated that he's all but quit talking to us.  It's a hard bitter pill to swallow when you can't make something a reality. That doesn't happen to me often, especially when I am working to help someone else.

We have made one huge project a reality and because of our hard work, the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association has just taken over the Afghanistan War Monument & Veterans Memorial Gardens Project here in Grande Prairie officially.

Our Peace Arch, memorials, monument and concrete pad and solar street lights are ALL 100% PAID FOR!  As project lead that is something I am very proud of.  Phase 1 of this enormous project is in the ground and paid for, on time and on budget!

Now that Veterans Affairs has accepted the Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association as keeper of the project, we have registered and are waiting on approvals to become an Alberta Registered Charity. It does not give us CRA status, but what it does do is: ensure our board goes through a criminal record checks and helps the public feel better about supporting us because they will be able to find us on the Service Alberta Website as a Charity.  It means that our fundraising materials have been vetted and that we are "cleared" essentially to ask for people to donate.

It also helps us learn about governance and charitable reporting and helps us grow as we work towards CRA status.

It's not hard to register, but many organizations don't know that if they plan on hitting $25,000+ in donations that they need to be a registered charity business in Alberta.

It's $60 for the fee, some paperwork and you mail in the application. It takes about 3 weeks for the process.

We hope that our registered charitable status in Alberta is finalized around the end of the first week in February.

Raising money for charitable causes/projects is a big responsibility.

You need to make sure you do the reporting the way people want you to - like the donations we got from the Legion's Poppy Fund (several Legions contributed).  We were given $16,500 towards our monument project that needed to be paid to the monument maker in one lump sum to ensure that the Legion's knew their money went to the right place.

It is very important that one takes care of those things the way the donors ask and so...

This photo proves that we made one payment of $16,500 to Sunset Monument & Stone in Calgary.

Our donor, the Royal Canadian Legion's of northern Alberta (District 1) are happy, and so is our monument maker!

Our project has grown to involve more than gardens and points of interest, it will involve a small museum, a gift shop etc...

It will hopefully be completed by 2020-2021 and then we intend to enter the Communities in Bloom Contest for Memorial Gardens.  We are going to put our gardens and monument on the map and ensure that every veteran who rides WANTS to come to Grande Prairie to experience our little piece of sacred ground.

www.motorcycletourism.ca is our new website.
You can watch there for all kinds of things our organization has decided to become part of!

In the meantime, Community Futures, the Rider friendly Business Association and the  Canadian Motorcycle Tourism Association are proud to present Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Contest - we are looking to find the community that treated the riding community the best last year. (2017)

Nominate your favourite community to ride to, to live in as a rider...

Have a great day everyone...
Belt Drive Betty,
Editor & Rider


Here is the Powerpoint for our Project - Veteran's Memorial Gardens

URGENT NEWS for Western HOG Rally Goers

Dear rally participants, it is with a very heavy heart that HOG Canada has decided to cancel our rally. 

I am beyond despair. 

Barnes right now is working out a plan of some kind to have a fund raising event at the shop for the evacuees and the riders that are committed already to attend. Stay tuned for more information.

Good morning,

Thank you all for taking the time to be a part of the phone call yesterday afternoon to discuss the H.O.G.® Western Regional Rally. Your comments and feedback were very much appreciated and were all very much taken into consideration when making this decision.

Regretfully, due to the tragic fires currently blazing in British Columbia, Harley-Davidson Canada is cancelling the H.O.G. Western Regional Rally scheduled to take place in Kamloops, B.C. this weekend (July 13 – 15).

Although the fires are presently located a fair distance from Kamloops, the air quality rating in Kamloops is very poor, and therefore dangerous for many people. There is also significant risk posed to those traveling from outside of the region due to the volatility of wildfire and poor air quality throughout the greater region.

To Barnes Harley-Davidson Kamloops, the Rally Coordinator Margaret and to the entire Rally Committee, please know that this decision was not an easy one to make. The extensive time and effort you have contributed to the rally planning and promotion are widely acknowledged and although not to take place this weekend, we certainly hope that there is an opportunity to postpone the rally until after the fires have ceased.

Harley-Davidson has a responsibility to protect our customers and we take the safety and security of each and every one very seriously.

Noting that some riders are already enroute to Kamloops, we would like to suggest that in place of rally events as planned, a fundraiser be organized instead, to take place on what would have been the opening ceremony night. Hopefully this will mean that dollars invested for that particular function can instead be used to support those affected by the fires and that riders whom have chosen to travel to Kamloops, can at least be received and provided an opportunity to support. Harley-Davidson Canada will continue to work closely with the Rally Committee to support further plans as necessary – both with planning and financial resources. Funds raised by H.O.G. members on this evening will be matched by Harley-Davidson Canada.

Barnes Harley-Davidson has generously offered to cover the cost of the catering and band if those services are unable to be cancelled and will utilize those elements to host an open-door community fundraiser, with all donations going to the Red Cross.

Although it is very unfortunate that the Rally will be postponed, we hope that this will serve to keep our H.O.G. members as safe as possible and that for those who do make the choice to travel to Kamloops, that much charity and support for the communities of B.C. will be generated as a result of the fundraisers.

Thank you for utilizing all communication channels to inform rally registrants as immediately as possible.

We will provide a further update on registration reimbursement, cancellation communications, etc. as quickly as possible this morning.

Sincerely,
Karen Mayberry

Fundraising - Where the Money has Gone.

For those not up to speed, a number of veterans and military groups are up in arms and are trying to discredit me because of the offence I took over a MEME that was made public by a group called Military Minds.

Now, because I said "Hey - Civilians, this is what Military Minds thinks of you and I"....they are attempting to smear my name and slander me - accusing me of making money off of the backs of our military...this is the meme that I took offence to...

This is not the Vietnam era when friends of mine like Captain Ed Ballinger were being spit on and called disgusting rude names at every turn.

This is 2016, a time when we, the majority of the civilians of the world have an appreciation of our military like never before.

We are more likely to buy a person in uniform a cup of coffee or shake their hand and thank them for the job they do.

We advocate loudly to our MP's, to other civilians to educate them about the New Veteran's Charter and the inadequacies in the veteran's support systems within VAC.  We work hard to fill the voids that are created because no matter how hard our Government may try to be everything to everyone, they fall short.

We fundraise, we proclaim our support at events like the Hero's Highway Ride, Red Friday and oh so many hundreds more.

We work to raise funds for all sorts of military related charities.

Here is my fundraising history - the condensed version.

I have been donating free advertising in my newspaper to the riding clubs and the charities they support for over 13 years, many of them military or veteran. The average ad is worth $85, now multiply that number by an average of 350 events that we sponsor with an average of 4 free ads per event. Now multiply that number by 13 years.

Since day one of my business I promised to pay it forward and I always have.
Corporate events pay for their advertising but the riding clubs and their charities get free marketing.

My efforts on behalf of our veterans and military are many.

The Bikers United in Remembrance Patch sells for $10 - they cost me about $3.60 a piece with shipping, duty, exchange and taxes. My new Canadian supplier charges me about the same when I buy in lots of 50 or 100.  If I am ordering for lots of groups all at once then we can drive the costs down considerably.  We had a good run on them when they first were designed, but now we sell the odd one here or there, but not many.

I have donated monies to several veterans causes and have sold these patches in batches of 100 at my dead cost and below to groups like the CVFR, Paws Fur Thought and other veterans Orgs for them to raise money with.  I have donated and given many of these patches away. I released my artwork under a creative commons license and have given a number of military groups permission to use the art for their fundraising purposes. Ask Smokey from the CVFR Ottawa, ask Jason Mullis, Medric Cousineau, Trapper of the CVFR Calgary....

On My Military Support Conga - we donated a bike to The Canadian Legion of Riders through a contest we hosted with Johnny Pag Canada, my company paid for that bike through contra advertising. I also raised and donated approx $7K that was divided up between Vets Canada, Paws Fur Thought and the Military Police National Relay Ride. At each ride of 20 - 30 bikers, and there were about 20 actual rides, the money that was collected was handled by the local riding club and we donated 25% of whatever we raised at the local ride back to their community. The money was always accounted for by someone local.
I funded 90% of the trip through my company - 92 days on the road in over 80 communities meeting with small groups of 1 - 30 riders, raising awareness. I had huge assistance from CAV, the Military Group I have belonged to for 12 years.

Please feel free to contact Jim Lawther at VETS Canada, Medric Cousineau of Paws Fur Thought and the Lamont French of the Military Police National Relay Ride to verify that donations were made.

Our first ever Wheels for Our Wounded Poker Run saw us donate over $4,000 to Kate MacEachern and the Long Way Home.  After expenses we had $1,600 left over and a ton of swag.

Here is the blog post outlining where we stood last May: http://beltdrivebetty.blogspot.ca/2015/06/wheels-for-our-wounded-inaugural-event.html

Rob Truscott handled all of the money for our Poker Run.  He is a solider who is actively serving.
He can vouch for the accounting and the fact that we did not meet our target of $9,999 to buy the bike. We had a deal for a bike, we had a veteran chosen but we could not get to our goal.

We were unable to purchase the bike from Mountainview Harley Davidson and I had to tell that to Peter Murie and I had to tell Brandie the marketing manager at Edmonton Harley Davidson that we were unable to meet our target and that we wouldn't be needing the riding gear after all. Kate MacEachern was the intended recipient of the bike and she was informed that we were not in a position to donate a bike. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.

We have only had one fundraiser and that was last May.

You see, I ended up with adrenal fatigue cause by tumours on my adrenaline glands in July of last year and was unable to do any other fundraising. I am still recovering from that and am told it could be another year or better before I am back to "normal".

We also had a number of our tee shirts go missing and when they arrived at the Greyhound Station the box was wet, destroyed, in a plastic bag. The contents inside were decimated - full of mildew.
Sadly the shipper did not buy insurance and so we have less swag to sell than we should, but again everything is documented including photos.

We donated swag to Mark Creamer and a group in PEI who held a Wheels for Our Wounded fundraiser last August to help a first responder in PEI to repair his side car. They purchased tee shirts for their event from our supplier and we supplied pins, patches, medallions and challenge coins at no cost to them. They still have swag and tee shirts and raised over $400 profit from their event for their first responder.

Did we do all we wanted to in our first year? NO - but we did something.

We helped two groups with funds.

This year we are raising funds for Eric Magill so that we can have a scooter modified to accept his wheelchair.  Although we will be holding a poker run, we will be fundraising until the scooter is paid for, we will be launching a crowd funding campaign to keep the fundraising going after the event.

We are working with Jon Burman from Classy Chassis in Lakefield Ontario as Eric lives in Trenton.

At our Poker Run this year, Rob Truscott is again our treasurer and he will make sure our paperwork is accurate. Backing him up will be Joey Carothers of the Brunch for Broads Group that is is our key volunteer group. I never handle the money at our charity events, I always put people in place who are stellar human beings to do that job. This way there is transparency.

I am also spearheading a project to build a war monument. It's going to cost between $55 and $70,000 to build.

ANAVETS will be handling the funds - the CAV is supporting us as I am leading this project as a CAV member.

Throughout the years there have been many, many other smaller things that I have done to contribute to the betterment of the world around me. 

I am not looking for a hero cookie, nor am I tooting my own horn. I am simply stating the facts and providing you with the names of organizations and people that you can ask - did she ever really donate to you? And you will get your answer.  

Now on to my lawsuit, it is well documented as well.

It was, what is termed a shotgun suit. 7 defendants including the Mayor of Sicamous, the City of Sicamous, Steve Hammer of Summer Stomp, Bernie Aubin of the Headpins, Vince Lewis a land owner and the Sicamous Chamber of Commerce, a non profit plus myself. 

My lawyer termed it a nuisance suit.

The lawsuit was dropped a couple of months ago. We had quit taking donations for my defence after about the first six months. The page still exists for posterity's sake as there is information and documents that may be of assistance to small business and charities. 

That page is in an ARCHIVED STATE.  The lawsuit cost far more than the monies that were raised as we had to force the case to court. I stood for my community, I did everything I could to educate people and I did my investigation thoroughly. That chapter is over.

These are the facts of what I have done to serve my community, veteran, military or civilian, riders all.

I do not get dark humour, that's what my friend Rob Truscott called the Meme that I take offence to. 

But as I expressed to him and others, they are expecting civilians to understand something that they have no context or reference for.

Even I with a military mother and father, a cousin in the 22nd Regiment and uncles retired from the RCMP - had never experienced this "DARK HUMOUR", if this is humour then I am sorry I do not get it.

My saying that I will not support Military Minds Inc if that is how they feel about civilians is just that - MY STAND - I will not support them and not just because of the MEME either - Because when I spoke out about it I was called and continue to be called horrid, horrid names.

I was treated like I was a Vietnam Vet and this was 40 years ago...the dialogue was disgusting and disturbing.

Had they shared this Meme with their members only and not made it public - they could have had their good old laugh at us - we the civilians who try to understand, who try to support...we would have been none the wiser.

But no, they made it public, to civilians who don't understand the ART OF WAR.

It was in my mind ill advised and I will never support the organization called Military Minds Inc., and especially not now that they and their supporters have launched a massive smear campaign against me.  

There are many, many veterans organizations that can use a hand and I will continue to do what I can, where I can, because I can. 

I will put my support where it is wanted.  

After all I am just a civilian and my opinion on a warriors service is not appreciated by Military Minds Inc.

Me, 1963

My mother, far left

My Father at 8 Wing Trenton

Belt Drive Betty

Editor & Rider

A new adventure, one I am very excited about!

It's been a long time since the Biker Coffee Company closed it's doors because of partnership disagreements. When they closed up shop, my private label coffee supply was cut off and the people who were enjoying our Fair Trade coffee blend were a tad pissed that they could no longer get their fix.

I wanted to remedy that, but I knew nothing about the coffee business except that I really love a good cup of coffee.

The Company Logo

For the last couple of years, I have been researching, building partnerships and getting my ducks in a row to once again be able to have my own private label coffee.

Along with two silent partners, we have formed Motor Sports Brewz, our trademark is almost ready to be filed and we partners are formalizing the last of the details.

We anticipate that we will be launching in early 2015.

Before we do, I wanted to share with you the concept behind the company and some of the artwork that has been done to date to get your feedback.

 The company, Motor Sports Brewz, is a beverage company that provides private label coffee, hot chocolate and over time, other beverages to the Motor Sports Industry.

We are starting with our first line - Biker Brewz

Various "Celebrities", businesses and charities within the Motor Sports world will be able to have their own private label blend at an affordable price that they can sell through their own networks, and their blend will also be available in our online store.

The roaster we are using is a 100 year old family run company. Our blends will be made from the finest beans available and will follow our own recipes!

We will have sample packages that people can buy to decide which blend they like the best and we will offer the larger 1 pound bags.

We have much done and ready, but there are many small details that still have to be ironed out.

We are starting small, but we have big dreams!

As I said, we are looking for feedback on the logo and labels, these do not have the Fair Trade logos or legal verbiage on them yet, these are just the samples.

So, tell me, what do you like about them? What don't you like about them?

Your comments and observations will help us make our labels and logo distinctive and appealing.

Our roaster will make the coffee as delicious as any out there and hopefully that combination will make the coffees and other beverages we offer a great way of fund raising, branding and awareness raising for businesses, people and charities.

On a personal note, we are leaving for Montreal and my mother in-law's funeral in the morning, so I'll be off the grid for a bit.

Have a great day, stay safe, warm and remember to tell the people you love, just how much you love them EVERY DAY!

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider