Great Nonprofits

I must admit that my reasons for signing up with the SF Bay Area Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training (TNT) were none too altruistic. After grad school, all of my friends left the Bay Area, and so I had no life. My marriage sucked dead goats. And worst of all, I was quickly turning into a tub of lard. I decided that joining a triathlon team would ease my yearning for social contact, buff men, and (my own) toned toukhas. Deeply guilt-ridden Judeo-Christian that I am, though, I couldn't justify dedicating hundreds of dollars and hours of training to my own selfish needs. And so I made a charitable event out of my endurance sport aspirations by joining TNT. Oh yes. And I wanted to stamp out leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood cancers. But that came later. TNT does an excellent job of whipping its recruits' bodies into shape and their social networks into a fundraising frenzy. Each athlete has to raise several thousands of dollars - for my event, the 2005 Wildflower triathlon, the amount was $2900 - and the TNT staff armed us with Web sites, fundraising letter templates, and a bevy of fundraising event ideas - many of them involving copious amounts of liver-altering libations. The staff also guided us through a sane, safe, well-watered, nicely nurtured training regimen that, by Jove, resulted in about a hundred newly minted triathletes - all of whom are now, of course, my best friends. I can't ride my bike in Marin County without running into a fellow TNT alum. L & L also does a pretty decent job of educating TNT athletes about blood cancers, their causes, and their cures, as well as supporting research and patient services. What's not to love about this set-up? Well, I'm sure if you do it right, you don't wind up shelling out hundreds more dollars on your new best friends' fundraisers. But I didn't do it right, and probably spent at least as much money on donations as I did on gear. And triathlon gear is not cheap - a road bike with clipless pedals, a wet suit, and some toukhas-accentuating spandex don't come cheap in these parts. So it's an expensive way to raise money for blood cancer research and patient support. Also, I was required to drink far more alcohol than anyone should - a deterrent for folks who are trying to stay on the wagon. And the mean age of participants was probably 27, although the range was about 24 to 50, and so the demographics might not be welcoming to all. Finally, in all the pavement pounding and lollygagging, I'm not sure how much we paid attention to the cause of fighting blood cancers. TNTs strategy of turning its athletes' vanity and unspent glucose into donor dollars is brilliant; it would be even better if the organization could turn those resources into a deeper knowledge about nonprofit participation as a whole (e.g., which other diseases deserve attention, how the poisoned environment is increasing cancer prevalence, how else athletes can be of use in the world). But in the end, it was hellafun, and I was converted to the cause of supporting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society forever.