Volunteer with Bikes for the World

Volunteer Opportunities with Bikes for the World

Volunteering with Bikes for the World is fun, productive, and satisfying, offering opportunities for:

• personal growth
• physical and mental exercise
• building a team
• learning about business, economics, and transportation policy
• recycling
• assisting the poor in other countries to become more productive
• fulfilling school, scout, and other community service requirements, and
• simply being around bicycles.

Volunteering can be one-time or on a regular basis. It can be alone or in a group. Each volunteer receives guidance in designing his or her participation in building this innovative helping program.

Bikes for the World is a simple, people-centered project that puts unwanted American bicycles to productive use overseas.

Bikes for the World was founded in January 2005 as a sponsored project of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. Staff and volunteers formerly participated in the Washington DC-Baltimore-Delaware-North Carolina activities of Pedals for Progress, with experience going back to 1995. BfW builds on this experience and that of other efforts dating to the mid-1980s, such as Bikes Not Bombs and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

Over the years, volunteers in the greater Washington DC region have collected and shipped nearly 30,000 bicycles to selected non-profit economic development programs in over 20 nations in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific. Countries benefited through 2004 by these predecessor programs include Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Barbados, Eritrea, Ghana, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Moldova, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. Partners in recipient countries recondition donated bicycles, providing employment and building management and repair skills, and subsequently sell them at cost, often on credit, to help low-income individuals access jobs, markets, and services. In diverse ways, the bicycle becomes a low-cost tool for self-help and personal development.

Volunteers in the United States gets this “bike capital” from donors to its final destination. Volunteers manage and staff bike drives in their communities preparing donated bikes for shipment, recruit new collection sponsors, serve as “drop-off” points to receive donated bikes, pack parts; raise funds for shipping and administrative expenses, load 40-foot shipping containers with bikes and parts, and do many other things. These are explained in greater detail below.

Used bike collections. The principal means by which Bikes for the World obtains bicycles, and a major source of income, is the used bicycle collection. A typical collection is a one-time event, held on a Saturday or Sunday morning or afternoon in the spring or fall, and sponsored by a local service organization. As part of a collection, volunteers compact donated bikes for storage and shipping--pedals taken off and tied to the frame, handlebars turned, seats lowered, and baskets removed. Typical collection sponsors include churches and other communities of faith, Rotary and other service clubs, schools and service learning programs, youth groups including Boy and Girl Scout troops (collections make great Eagle Scout projects!), and environmental clubs. A well-publicized collection by a reputable organization can easily net 100, 150, or more bicycles (although a collection of 50-75 is fully satisfying and manageable). BfW provides a detailed written guide and regular consultation to first-time collection sponsors, along with literature, tools, and supplies.

Recruit new collection sponsors. BfW offers a proven methodology, a charitable destination for collected bikes, and the backing of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, a 28-year-old, 7,000-member educational and advocacy organization. A BfW bike collection is an attractive and satisfying group activity (and the great majority of local sponsors end up making bike collections an annual event).

Area drop-off point. Often, a person wishing to donate a bicycle cannot wait for the next area collection. Wherever possible, BfW refers prospective donors to a local network of individuals willing to field calls and visits, provide literature and a receipt, and store bikes as they come in. Subsequently, bikes are collected by, or delivered to, the local BfW coordinator. Although less efficient than a collection, this network has expanded BfW’s outreach and production capacity.

Load shipping containers. During the spring and fall collecting seasons, BfW uses work crews supplied by schools and other community service groups to transfer bikes and parts out of BfW storage trailers into 40- and 45-foot overseas shipping containers. Physical requirements range from heavy lifting of bikes and boxes, to walking bikes from storage into the container, to merely lifting a pencil taking simple inventory. A loading typically takes from three to five hours depending on the size, experience, and endurance of the crew. What seems impossible to fill, ultimately fills; what seems impossible to fit, ultimately fits.

Office support. BfW anticipates establishing a part-time storefront office to accept bicycle donations and provide administrative and logistical support to BfW’s director, volunteers, and collection sponsors. We are looking for volunteers to dedicate several hours weekly.

Raise funds. The fact that BfW is a simple, concrete idea facilitates raising funds for shipping and basic administration. Volunteers come up with new fundraising approaches all the time. A Boy Scout sold donuts at his bike collection, and got a national retailer to match all funds raised. Still another sourced bicycles at area apartment buildings, raised “sponsorship funds” from neighbors and businesses for shipping the bicycles, and put the entrepreneurial experience on his college application and employment resume.

Special projects. BfW will consider special projects suggested by volunteers, whether research, publicity and marketing, sourcing in-kind resources such as transport (of bikes), used 4’ x 8’ plywood or flakeboard (for loading containers), parts and accessories from retailers, etc. Let us know your interests and ideas!

For further information on volunteering with Bikes for the World, see our Contacts web page.