Alongside Hope Wild Ride Frequently Asked Questions 

Q. How do I register for the Wild Ride? 

A. Follow these simple steps. 

1. Go to alongsidehope.org/wild-ride. You will arrive at a landing page that includes an online registration form, which is being managed by Canada Helps. 
2. If you click on “Join a Team,” you will see that each team page has a link to “join this team” or you can learn more about that team by clicking “Go to fundraising page.”
3. If you click “Create a Team,” then you will become a team captain and can encourage others to join your team. This is ideal for a parish or diocesan group. 
4. If you are fundraising on your own, click “Join as an Individual.” 
5. When you enter your e-mail address, you will be prompted to create a Canada Helps account. Follow the prompts to confirm your e-mail address and create a password. Be sure to click the link for “Create Account” before completing the rest of the registration form. 
6. If you are returning from past years, or if you have a Canada Helps account from other donations you have made, you can log in to your account using the email address and password you created previously and do not need to create a new account. Tip: If you are not able to load the registration page, try changing your browser to Microsoft Edge. 
7. Personalize your fundraising page with a description of your activity and your fundraising goal. 

Q. I registered as a team captain and an individual. Was that correct? 

A. When you register a team, you sign up as the team captain. You have access to a team tab with the URL to recruit team members. Donations made to your team will be tracked on the Team tab.

You will also have an individual tab with the URL for your personal fundraising. The individual tab is where you will track your personal donations and reach out to your friends and family.

Q. Can you start as an individual and change it to a team if others decide to join, or should you start as a team to begin with? 

A. If you are considering doing the Wild Ride with others, we would encourage you to sign up as a team and invite others to join you. The more people helping to raise funds, the more your team can raise. It is not possible to start as an individual and register a team later. You would need to start over and cancel your individual registration.  If you would prefer to participate on your own, then please do register as an individual.

If you have trouble registering a team, please contact Kim Umbach at kumbach@alongsidehope.org. Kim will walk you through the process or complete it for you. 

Q. Can people who donate leave a message? 

A. Yes, there is a message field in the donation form. 

Q. If Canada Helps is partnering, are they receiving a percentage of the money raised for admin costs? 

Yes, Canada Helps is receiving an administration fee of 5.5%. This includes the credit card processing fee, issuing tax receipts and the peer-to-peer fundraising platform. This is a very low administration fee for Peer-to-Peer platforms. In fact, the support from Canada Helps saves Alongside Hope a great deal of administrative time – which means they are also saving us money, even with the 5.5% investment.

Q. Will Alongside Hope send thank you letters to donors or should participants thank donors themselves?

A. When someone donates, they automatically receive a thank you from Alongside Hope including their tax receipt. It is an autogenerated thank you that indicates the donation is in support of the Wild Ride. Team Captains and participants are also very much encouraged to thank their supporters personally as they are often donating because of a personal relationship. Alongside Hope will send a thank you email to all donors at the end of the campaign.  

You can send emails from your donations page within Canada Helps or by using your own e-mail program like Outlook, or Gmail etc.

Q. How does bike riding or knitting raise money?  

A. The Alongside Hope Wild Ride is a Peer-to-Peer fundraising campaign. This means that those who participate by walking, running, cycling, knitting etc., will reach out to their friends, families and networks to ask for donations. For example, if you are doing a running challenge, you can email your friends to tell them about your challenge, why this cause is important to you and to ask for their support. People may feel inspired by the cause and want to help their friends. When teams of people are formed and participants are recruited, the number of people fundraising expands, which means that each person does not need to work so hard to raise the same amount of money. It is extremely important to connect donors to the cause. That is why we will be sharing stories and videos highlighting the solar suitcase project. 

Q. What if my supporters do not want to donate online or provide an email address? 

A.  You can track offline donations on the “donations” tab of your fundraising page. Click the “add offline donations” button and complete the form when prompted. You do not need to enter an email address. Simply enter the name and donation amount. This will ensure your donations are credited to your page. 

Important note: You must provide Alongside Hope with the name, mailing address and donation amount for each of your offline donations so that we can issue their tax receipt.

You have two options to do this. They are as follows:

1. Donors can give you cash or cheque. You must fill out the Wild Ride Offline Donation Form and send it to Alongside Hope at the end of the Ride. It can also be downloaded from the Welcome tab of your fundraising page. Alongside Hope will issue tax receipts to your supporters.  
2. Donors can also send a cheque to Alongside Hope at 80 Hayden Street, 3rd floor, Toronto, ON, M4Y 3G2. Please remind your supporters to indicate “Wild Ride” on the cheque as well as the team or individual they are supporting, to properly track donations for the Wild Ride campaign and credit them to the right person or team.

** Do not mail cheques to Canada Helps. 

Q. Are there any fundraising incentives?

A. Yes! This year will differ from previous years. With feedback from past participants we will be changing up the incentive program and will not be providing t-shirts. Fundraising and team recruitment prizes will be announced at the June 25, 2025 launch on FaceBook Live.