FAQs and How to CONTRIBUTE

Your contribution, in any amount, will be appreciated. For FAQs and why contribute, please scroll down. 

1. Contribute via PayPal

To contribute by debit or credit card, click “Donate” button below.



2. Contribute by check

To contribute by check:
  • make payable to “Mari Lynch, Bicycling Monterey”
  • mail to Mari Lynch, Bicycling Monterey, PO Box 3041, Monterey, CA 93942-3041

    Thank you.

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F A Q s 

Feel free to phone anytime if you have other questions.
  1. May I view the total amount of money contributed, and who has contributed?” 
    Yes. See the Financial Contributors page (click here).
  2. “Can my contribution be listed as from Anonymous?” 
    Yes. When making your contribution, simply indicate that preference.

    If contributing via PayPal, there is an option to indicate a preference to be Anonymous.
    If contributing by check, include a note: “List me as an Anonymous contributor.”

  3. “Will the amount of my individual contribution be displayed on the Bicycling Monterey website?”
    No. Your individual contribution made via PayPal or by check is simply included in the total contributions figure on the Bicycling Monterey website’s Financial Contributors page.
  4. “May I set up an automatic monthly contribution?”
    Yes. PayPal has an option for setting up an automatic monthly contribution.

    Any amount is welcome and appreciated. Bicycling Monterey refers to our monthly contributors as Pedal Pushers! 

  5. “May I specify how I’d like my contribution to be used?”
    Yes. Contact Mari  if you’d like it used for a specific Bicycling Monterey project.
  6. “Is my contribution to Bicycling Monterey tax-deductible?”

    No, not at this time. Among our current projects is advocating for bike-friendly legislation, and—just as is the case with the California Bicycle Coalition—contributions are not tax-deductible. However, you may be interested to know that the Bicycling Monterey site and all projects have been an unpaid volunteer effort for the founder, Mari Lynch, for over a decade.

  7. “Will you send me a written acknowledgement of my contribution?”

    It’s a pleasure to send a written acknowledgement to every contributor who provides a postal or email address. Your contact information will not be used for other purposes.

  8. “What’s the best way to contribute so Bicycling Monterey receives the most benefit?”

    Although contributing by either method—check or PayPal— is appreciated, you may wish to consider, especially if making a large contribution:

    -Contributing by check means 100% of your contribution goes to the Bicycling Monterey work.

    -Contributing by PayPal means that a transaction fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents is charged to Bicycling Monterey. (No fee is charged to you as the contributor.)

    Here are two examples: If you contribute $10 via PayPal, the PayPal transaction fee charged to Bicycling Monterey is 59 cents—only 4 cents higher than the cost of a postage stamp necessary if you mailed a check instead (so contributing via PayPal makes sense). However, if you contribute $500 via PayPal, the PayPal transaction fee charged to Bicycling Monterey is $14.80 (so you may prefer to mail a check instead). Again, contributing by either method—check or PayPal— is appreciated!

9. “Is Bicycling Monterey a business?”
No. 

Since founding Bicycling Monterey in May 2009, and still the case as the tenth year was completed, Bicycling Monterey’s founder, Mari Lynch, has done the work of this website and all other Bicycling Monterey projects entirely as an unpaid volunteer. For a brief history of Bicycling Monterey’s ten years of bike advocacy volunteerism, click here.

10. “If Bicycling Monterey isn’t a business, why is the root URL for many posts and pages marilynch.com/blog?”

As Kera Abraham reported in the Monterey County Weekly in May 2011: “What started as Dehmler’s [Bicycling Monterey founder Mari Lynch Dehmler’s] personal blog two years ago quickly evolved into an umbrella website for all things two-wheeled in Monterey County.” For additional details, see “Why is the root URL for Bicycling Monterey’s posts and pages marilynch.com/blog?”

When referring people to this site, simply refer them to the primary domain name, https://bikemonterey.org (or if you prefer, to any of the alternate domain names: http://bicyclingmonterey.com, http://bicyclingmonterey.org, http://tipsfortourists.com, or the original domain name, https://marilynch.com/blog).

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Why contribute

to Bicycling Monterey?

Thank you, financial contributors!

To contribute project supplies or volunteer time, phone Bicycling Monterey.

Archived notes about crowdfunding platform and rewards program

  • On December 22, 2015, ten women launched Bicycling Monterey’s first fundraising campaign, including a crowdfunding effort—Volunteering & Service Fundraising at http://gofundme.com/bikemonterey [“Mari Lynch Dehmler, Bicycling Monterey Site & Projects”]. That crowdfunding platform continued to be one of the options for making a contribution to Bicycling Monterey through the end of Bicycling Monterey’s 10th year, April 30, 2019. Beginning May 1, 2019, that payment option is no longer being recommended; contributing via Go Fund Me incurs a significant transaction fee (7.9% plus 30 cents) charged to Bicycling Monterey.
  • As part of the crowdfunding effort, an optional rewards-for-contributors program ran from Feb 26-Dec 31, 2016. After 2016 the rewards program wasn’t continued, simply because it required far too many additional volunteer hours of Mari to be worthwhile. Nonetheless, the businesses that provided rewards in an effort to help were appreciated. To see who they were, click here.Short link to this page: https://bit.ly/ContributeFAQs

Posted by: Founder, Bicycling Monterey on 17 September 2011. One or more updates last made on 29 Aug 2019.