A local startup wants to wants to set a new pace for racers who like to run for a good cause.
Laura Essex
Laura Essex last year launched Dedicate My Run, a website intended to create a smoother path for the common practice of racers asking family, friends and co-workers to sponsor their runs in organized events with charitable donations.
For Essex, who has spent most of her career in marketing and has been a runner for about 14 years, the options for running and raising money for charities leading up to races were “too messy.”
“The waters just felt so muddy,” Essex said of other online fundraising methods. “I wanted something more specific for runners and charities.”
Dedicate My Run lets race event runners fundraise for organizations through their profile page on the company’s site. Users can send out emails and social media messages with a link for would-be donors.
After registering with the site – a measure Essex put in place to make the webpage more secure – donors can give as little or as much as they want to a charity of the runners’ choice.
The money goes into a PayPal account managed by Dedicate My Run and is then sent to the designated organization about 30 days after the event. Essex said she verifies each organization and event.
Dedicate My Run, a for-profit business, takes 5 percent of all funds funneled through the site. An additional 3 percent goes toward fees associated with using PayPal.
Essex’s father, who had Alzheimer’s disease, died in 2011, and in 2012 Essex wanted to run a race in honor of his memory.
Essex presents a check to the Alzheimer’s Association in memory of her late father. (Photo courtesy of Dedicate My Run)
“I was looking to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association,” Essex said. “Part of what was important to me was a no-pressure element to fundraising.”
A friend connected her with someone in London, who helped her develop what would become DedicateMyRun.com. Essex eventually sought the help of Rocket Pop Media, a Richmond-based web development firm, to complete the site.
She took Dedicate My Run live in August 2013, just in time to test it out for the 2013 American Family Fitness Half Marathon.
Essex raised $976 for that race through her freshly launched website.
There are about 35 registered users, 50 runs and 20 charities listed on the site. Essex said that she plans to target the running community in Richmond but that she doesn’t see any reason why the site couldn’t work in other parts of the country. A few of the races listed on Dedicate My Run are in California.
Although the site is focused on running events, Essex said she might include cycling events down the road.
“There are so many common threads with the running and the charity communities that narrowing down to this niche made sense,” Essex said. “Everything is out there. It’s just not packaged this way.”
A local startup wants to wants to set a new pace for racers who like to run for a good cause.
Laura Essex
Laura Essex last year launched Dedicate My Run, a website intended to create a smoother path for the common practice of racers asking family, friends and co-workers to sponsor their runs in organized events with charitable donations.
For Essex, who has spent most of her career in marketing and has been a runner for about 14 years, the options for running and raising money for charities leading up to races were “too messy.”
“The waters just felt so muddy,” Essex said of other online fundraising methods. “I wanted something more specific for runners and charities.”
Dedicate My Run lets race event runners fundraise for organizations through their profile page on the company’s site. Users can send out emails and social media messages with a link for would-be donors.
After registering with the site – a measure Essex put in place to make the webpage more secure – donors can give as little or as much as they want to a charity of the runners’ choice.
The money goes into a PayPal account managed by Dedicate My Run and is then sent to the designated organization about 30 days after the event. Essex said she verifies each organization and event.
Dedicate My Run, a for-profit business, takes 5 percent of all funds funneled through the site. An additional 3 percent goes toward fees associated with using PayPal.
Essex’s father, who had Alzheimer’s disease, died in 2011, and in 2012 Essex wanted to run a race in honor of his memory.
Essex presents a check to the Alzheimer’s Association in memory of her late father. (Photo courtesy of Dedicate My Run)
“I was looking to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association,” Essex said. “Part of what was important to me was a no-pressure element to fundraising.”
A friend connected her with someone in London, who helped her develop what would become DedicateMyRun.com. Essex eventually sought the help of Rocket Pop Media, a Richmond-based web development firm, to complete the site.
She took Dedicate My Run live in August 2013, just in time to test it out for the 2013 American Family Fitness Half Marathon.
Essex raised $976 for that race through her freshly launched website.
There are about 35 registered users, 50 runs and 20 charities listed on the site. Essex said that she plans to target the running community in Richmond but that she doesn’t see any reason why the site couldn’t work in other parts of the country. A few of the races listed on Dedicate My Run are in California.
Although the site is focused on running events, Essex said she might include cycling events down the road.
“There are so many common threads with the running and the charity communities that narrowing down to this niche made sense,” Essex said. “Everything is out there. It’s just not packaged this way.”