The cost question

It's been a long, ugly summer for the Philadelphia AIDS Ride, which netted far less than expected in its inaugural effort this June.

According to final receipts released by the AIDS Ride last week, the Philadelphia ride raised $1.4 million and netted $320,000, which will be split equally among its four local beneficiaries. That means a full 79 percent of the funds raised by Philadelphia riders went to overhead -- far more than the standard 40 percent that the AIDS Ride promises.

But even 40 percent going to overhead pushes the limits of acceptable fundraising costs; generally, it shouldn't cost more than 30 cents to raise a dollar, according to Dan Langan of the National Charities Information Bureau.

In Philadelphia's case, administrative expenses alone ate up 62 percent of the gross revenues. One local beneficiary, the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, disappointed at the $82,500 it netted this year, has withdrawn its support. A year before the event, each beneficiary is required to pledge $81,250 in seed money in order to participate.

You can "look at it as a fundraiser for people with AIDS, or as something to give bike riders an enjoyable experience, or as something to raise money for a promoter," says James Roberts, executive director of the Minority AIDS Project in Philadelphia, which is part of the Urban Affairs Coalition. "It's hard to do all these things at once."

The event has become a hot-button issue in the Philadelphia AIDS-service community, where "there are people walking around blind with rage at the Ride, and people blindly defending the Ride," says Michael Marsico, a local AIDS activist who participated in the Ride. "It's certainly tempered the enthusiasm I feel on the street," says Marsico.

AIDS Ride officials admit that Philadelphia was disappointing, and have rushed to guarantee Boston-New York riders that their overhead bill will come to no more than 39 percent of gross revenues, as it did last year. They point out that the DC end of the Philadelphia-DC AIDS Ride netted $1.6 million with a similar-size recruiting operation, and they attribute Philadelphia's weak showing to infighting within the city's AIDS-service
community.

"The story there is not so much the AIDS Ride as Philadelphia and the AIDS community in Philadelphia," Dan Pallotta says. "In that city there's a lot of divisiveness. . . . There's not anything else coming down the pike. If you can't make the AIDS Ride successful in Philadelphia, you need something like the AIDS Ride. What else are you going to do?"

But Pallotta's arguments have fallen flat for many in Philadelphia, and ACT UP/Philadelphia -- charging that the AIDS Ride caters more to riders than to people with AIDS -- is considering openly protesting the Ride. When the figures were announced in Philadelphia's gay press, the riders, who raised $1400 apiece to participate, were left feeling duped, points out Katie Krauss, an ACT UP member who did not ride.

"It was really demoralizing for people to realize they could have stayed home and written a check for $400 and done more for people with AIDS," says Krauss. "The bottom line has to be, what is it doing for people with AIDS?"

-- Ellen Barry