So you and your team want to drive around the world or join a Go Help sponsored adventure, eh?
Here’s a short FAQ:
What should we do first?
Read this FAQ and if you're not frightened by what you read, contact us. You’ll find that
information on the Contact page. We’d like to hear from people as crazy as we are, have a need
for adventure, and most importantly, want to raise money and awareness for charity.
What kind of car should our team drive?
Get yourself a vehicle – any vehicle, as we don’t have restrictions on what you want to drive, just
make sure that it meets the emission and safety standards of your state or country. Buy it in the
US or from someone in the UK or Europe. Go the hard-core adventurer route and try to make it
around the world in a car with a three-cylinder engine like we are, or if you plan to donate your
vehicle in Mongolia, drive something that the charities can really use, like an indestructible diesel
Toyota truck. Either way you’ll be a hero to the charities that you are sponsoring and will get more
adventure per mile/kilometre than anything you’ve probably ever done before. If you want to
donate a vehicle to the Mongolian Charities, the folks at Go Help have a list of preferred vehicles
on their wishlist.
Uh, we bought our vehicle here in the US. How do we get across the ocean?
If you’re in the US, you might be wondering just how we plan to drive across the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans. Strangely, we’re asked this all the time, as if people think we know of some secret land
bridges or we’ve converted our Geo Metro into an amphibious vehicle. The short answer is that
you’ll need to put your car on a cargo ship bound for England. That means that you’ll have a break
of about three weeks before you fly to London and the real fun begins. If you live in the UK, or
Europe, we’ll all meet at a predetermined place for the launch. We’d like to see others in the US
join us in this endeavor, especially if you are donating a car to a charity. There are plenty of
desirable cars here in the US that the charities in Mongolia would be happy to get. We have a non-
profit rule that says you can’t sell your car to make a profit.
What’s this non-profit rule?
We started the Adventure Research League of North America because we observed a lot of
charity "rallies" that were just barely or aren’t even true charity events. Some of these corporations
are operating under the guise of a charitable organization where the only charitable element
seems to be that the competitors who take part do all the hard work raising money for charity. The
organizers are really just a travel company using the good name of charity to get publicity and
make some profit. Some events even have humongous fees and corporate sponsorship, yet none
of this goes to the charities. This adventure and the adventures at Go Help are non-profit making
events. This means that all of the money teams raise for charity, goes to the chosen charities.
Teams can use any commercial sponsorship they get to cover the expenses of their trip, but they
have to be clear if they are doing this. Any money they get beyond their expenses has to go to
their chosen charities.
So this is all for charity. Cool! What charities should our team support?
Our events are not-for-profit which means exactly what it sounds like – you can’t make a profit from
your event. Since this is all for charity, you’ll need to choose an organization for which you’ll want
to raise awareness and funds. Our only requirement is that you raise funds for charities in the
countries you’re going through or will ultimately end up. You can look at who we’re supporting or
you can choose your own. It is also cool for you to get sponsorship to cover your costs from
corporate sponsors, but anything you raise beyond your basic costs has to go to your chosen
charities. Your team can’t profit from the event. If a corporate sponsor comes along and offers a
big wad of cash, you can only cover your costs and the rest has to go to your chosen charities.
One idea is to get sponsors to pay for your fuel or your visas: let people donate by the gallon or
litre on your website to buy miles on your trip.
The most important thing is that fund raising needs to be undertaken with clarity and openness to
maintain public trust and confidence. This means that teams have to be 100% clear about whether
money they are raising goes directly to the nominated charities, or towards covering the costs of
your trip.
Is there an entry fee?
No, not really. If you want to try to drive all the way around the planet and bring your vehicle back
so you can show it off, tell people you drove around the world in it, and bask in the glow of people
in awe that you circumnavigated the planet in a Ford Fiesta then there isn’t any entry fee. We
figure that you’ll have to contend with enough already. If you want to donate the highly coveted
and useful Toyota diesel truck or a vehicle that’s on the wish list, there won’t be any entry fee
either. If you like living on the edge, like to try your hand at describing engine maladies to a
mechanic in Tbilisi who can’t speak English, and want to try to make the trip in a Robin Reliant or a
Ford Pinto, and you plan to donate your car to charity, then there will be a fee of 300 bucks, and a
refundable deposit of $835 USD. We do require that the car be in at least running condition or
highly reparable when you get to Mongolia. You'd like to give the charities something of value,
right?
Why is there an entry fee and deposit if I plan to donate the car?
The fee covers the administration costs of donating your car in Mongolia. This helps circumvent
the huge import duty for cars entering the country. Here’s the deal: The Adventure Research
League of North America is partnering with charityrallies.org, organized through Go Help, a UK
Charity helping to raise money for some really great causes. They'll handle everything to do with
donating your vehicle to the Mongolian charities. Here’s what you get for your 300 bucks:
Is this journey dangerous? Will I die?
Yes, this journey is not without risk, but if you figure that you've made it this far, then your instinct
to avoid dangerous situations that might compromise your life is pretty well honed by now. Count
on that well-honed instinct as there will be no support - you are completely on your own. No
support crews, no rescue choppers, no GPS-guided medivacs will come to your aid should you get
into serious trouble. Adventure by nature requires risk. Adventure without risk is Disneyland. Have
a look at what John Steinbeck said about adventure:
"In time of peace in the modern world, if one is thoughtful and careful, it is rather more difficult to
be killed or maimed in the outland places of the globe than it is in the streets of our great cities,
but the atavistic urge toward danger persists and its satisfaction is called adventure. However, your
adventurer feels no gratification in crossing Market Street in San Francisco against the traffic.
Instead he will go to a good deal of trouble and expense to get himself killed in the South Seas. In
reputedly rough water, he will go in a canoe; he will invade deserts without adequate food and he
will expose his tolerant and uninoculated blood to strange viruses. This is adventure."
Will I die?
Eventually. Duh.
Here’s a short FAQ:
What should we do first?
Read this FAQ and if you're not frightened by what you read, contact us. You’ll find that
information on the Contact page. We’d like to hear from people as crazy as we are, have a need
for adventure, and most importantly, want to raise money and awareness for charity.
What kind of car should our team drive?
Get yourself a vehicle – any vehicle, as we don’t have restrictions on what you want to drive, just
make sure that it meets the emission and safety standards of your state or country. Buy it in the
US or from someone in the UK or Europe. Go the hard-core adventurer route and try to make it
around the world in a car with a three-cylinder engine like we are, or if you plan to donate your
vehicle in Mongolia, drive something that the charities can really use, like an indestructible diesel
Toyota truck. Either way you’ll be a hero to the charities that you are sponsoring and will get more
adventure per mile/kilometre than anything you’ve probably ever done before. If you want to
donate a vehicle to the Mongolian Charities, the folks at Go Help have a list of preferred vehicles
on their wishlist.
Uh, we bought our vehicle here in the US. How do we get across the ocean?
If you’re in the US, you might be wondering just how we plan to drive across the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans. Strangely, we’re asked this all the time, as if people think we know of some secret land
bridges or we’ve converted our Geo Metro into an amphibious vehicle. The short answer is that
you’ll need to put your car on a cargo ship bound for England. That means that you’ll have a break
of about three weeks before you fly to London and the real fun begins. If you live in the UK, or
Europe, we’ll all meet at a predetermined place for the launch. We’d like to see others in the US
join us in this endeavor, especially if you are donating a car to a charity. There are plenty of
desirable cars here in the US that the charities in Mongolia would be happy to get. We have a non-
profit rule that says you can’t sell your car to make a profit.
What’s this non-profit rule?
We started the Adventure Research League of North America because we observed a lot of
charity "rallies" that were just barely or aren’t even true charity events. Some of these corporations
are operating under the guise of a charitable organization where the only charitable element
seems to be that the competitors who take part do all the hard work raising money for charity. The
organizers are really just a travel company using the good name of charity to get publicity and
make some profit. Some events even have humongous fees and corporate sponsorship, yet none
of this goes to the charities. This adventure and the adventures at Go Help are non-profit making
events. This means that all of the money teams raise for charity, goes to the chosen charities.
Teams can use any commercial sponsorship they get to cover the expenses of their trip, but they
have to be clear if they are doing this. Any money they get beyond their expenses has to go to
their chosen charities.
So this is all for charity. Cool! What charities should our team support?
Our events are not-for-profit which means exactly what it sounds like – you can’t make a profit from
your event. Since this is all for charity, you’ll need to choose an organization for which you’ll want
to raise awareness and funds. Our only requirement is that you raise funds for charities in the
countries you’re going through or will ultimately end up. You can look at who we’re supporting or
you can choose your own. It is also cool for you to get sponsorship to cover your costs from
corporate sponsors, but anything you raise beyond your basic costs has to go to your chosen
charities. Your team can’t profit from the event. If a corporate sponsor comes along and offers a
big wad of cash, you can only cover your costs and the rest has to go to your chosen charities.
One idea is to get sponsors to pay for your fuel or your visas: let people donate by the gallon or
litre on your website to buy miles on your trip.
The most important thing is that fund raising needs to be undertaken with clarity and openness to
maintain public trust and confidence. This means that teams have to be 100% clear about whether
money they are raising goes directly to the nominated charities, or towards covering the costs of
your trip.
Is there an entry fee?
No, not really. If you want to try to drive all the way around the planet and bring your vehicle back
so you can show it off, tell people you drove around the world in it, and bask in the glow of people
in awe that you circumnavigated the planet in a Ford Fiesta then there isn’t any entry fee. We
figure that you’ll have to contend with enough already. If you want to donate the highly coveted
and useful Toyota diesel truck or a vehicle that’s on the wish list, there won’t be any entry fee
either. If you like living on the edge, like to try your hand at describing engine maladies to a
mechanic in Tbilisi who can’t speak English, and want to try to make the trip in a Robin Reliant or a
Ford Pinto, and you plan to donate your car to charity, then there will be a fee of 300 bucks, and a
refundable deposit of $835 USD. We do require that the car be in at least running condition or
highly reparable when you get to Mongolia. You'd like to give the charities something of value,
right?
Why is there an entry fee and deposit if I plan to donate the car?
The fee covers the administration costs of donating your car in Mongolia. This helps circumvent
the huge import duty for cars entering the country. Here’s the deal: The Adventure Research
League of North America is partnering with charityrallies.org, organized through Go Help, a UK
Charity helping to raise money for some really great causes. They'll handle everything to do with
donating your vehicle to the Mongolian charities. Here’s what you get for your 300 bucks:
- Arrangements for the tax free import of your vehicle into Mongolia and donation to the
charity in Mongolia (the CDPF). - Free entry to all pre-drive events to meet up with other Adventurers including the big party
in London the night before the launch. - Advice pack containing advice on getting visas at the cheapest price and fund raising tips to
help you build up your charity total. - Assistance and support from the charities to help with fund raising and promotion.
- T-shirts for all of your team and stickers for your car.
- A team page on the charityrallies.org site, with a personal team blog (updated via the web or
sms), gallery and automatic map tracking (using GPS or place names). Their system allows
you to give free RSS feeds of your messages to friends and family, to help keep them
updated while you’re on the road. Plus you get access to all of normal Charity Rallies forums
and content, and the ability to contribute to the event wiki. - Free website hosting and email hosting for your team.
- An amazing ferry ticket deal (to be confirmed).
- The party at the end of the adventure in Mongolia.
- No excessive restrictions on commercial filming/photography. You retain the copyright in
everything you produce (unlike many other rallies). You just agree to let Go Help use
anything you produce to help publicize the event/Charity Rallies in the future. - Priority entry to future Go Help and ARL NorthAm Charity Adventure events.
- At the end of the event, you'll be able to see where your money was spent - all our accounts
will be presented to the annual meeting of Go Help and you'll be entitled to a copy. - FREE ENTRY to the Go Help Georgia Run - you can swap rallies or even abandon the
adventure by donating your vehicle to the charity in Georgia.
Is this journey dangerous? Will I die?
Yes, this journey is not without risk, but if you figure that you've made it this far, then your instinct
to avoid dangerous situations that might compromise your life is pretty well honed by now. Count
on that well-honed instinct as there will be no support - you are completely on your own. No
support crews, no rescue choppers, no GPS-guided medivacs will come to your aid should you get
into serious trouble. Adventure by nature requires risk. Adventure without risk is Disneyland. Have
a look at what John Steinbeck said about adventure:
"In time of peace in the modern world, if one is thoughtful and careful, it is rather more difficult to
be killed or maimed in the outland places of the globe than it is in the streets of our great cities,
but the atavistic urge toward danger persists and its satisfaction is called adventure. However, your
adventurer feels no gratification in crossing Market Street in San Francisco against the traffic.
Instead he will go to a good deal of trouble and expense to get himself killed in the South Seas. In
reputedly rough water, he will go in a canoe; he will invade deserts without adequate food and he
will expose his tolerant and uninoculated blood to strange viruses. This is adventure."
Will I die?
Eventually. Duh.
| Photos 8 & 10 © 2005 Stephen Edwards Photos 4 & 5 © CNCF Photos 1-3, 6, 7, 9 & 11 © 2007 Feckin' Irish Rovers |
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| Content © 2007 Go Help / Adventure Research League of North America |
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