EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Partnership for Safe Driving seeks sponsors for a new national event: The Run & Walk for Road Safety.
This event will be held for the first time in October 2006, in select cities across the United States. The purpose is to create awareness about the importance of safe driving; to raise funds for national, regional and local programs to deter all forms of dangerous driving; and to give families of crash victims an opportunity to join together in remembering their loved ones.
To launch this event, the Partnership will join forces in 2006 with other safety organizations and individual activists, who will work with us to host the Run & Walk for Road Safety in a minimum of five U.S. cities. We will create and distribute all of the advertising and promotional materials for use by the local partners, and assist them in planning and implementing their events. We will also provide development grants for our partners to enable them to hire a professional event planner and pay for other upfront costs associated with the event. The event planners will work to recruit additional sponsors at the local level.
The day of the Run & Walk for Road Safety will be declared National Road Victims Remembrance Day. Families who have lost loved ones in motor vehicle crashes will be invited to join with all event participants in honoring the memory of their loved ones by placing a rose at the finish line called the "Road of Remembrance."
We are seeking national sponsors who can provide financial support to assist us in planning, promoting and supporting our local partners in the implementation of the Run & Walk for Road Safety.
We would like to request that ___________ (insert company name here) consider becoming a _________ (insert sponsorship level here; e.g. National Platinum Sponsor) of the Run & Walk for Road Safety with a donation of $_______ (insert amount requested here).
Companies and agencies that sponsor this new national event will receive extensive national and local recognition for their efforts and the opportunity to align themselves with what is poised to become one of the most popular and passionate grassroots movements of the 21 st Century.
STATEMENT OF NEED
The Partnership for Safe Driving Run & Walk for Road Safety is being developed with funding from The Billy Tyler Tscheschlog Foundation, which was established in 2005. Fourteen-year-old Tyler Tscheschlog (pictured here) of Forest Hill, Maryland was riding his bike home from his neighbor's house on June 16, 2003, when he was struck and killed by a speeding motorist. Despite evidence that the motorist was in gross violation of the speed limit, he was given only a small fine. Tyler's mother knew she had to do something to prevent such a painful tragedy from happening to other families. She established the foundation in her son's name and immediately joined forces with the Partnership for Safe Driving to create the Run & Walk for Road Safety.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that more than 11 million crashes take place annually on U.S. roads. According to the agency, most crashes are not truly "accidents," but rather are a direct result of dangerous and careless driving. Thus, they are preventable.
The National Safety Council reports that one in 78 people living in America will die in transportation-related crashes" almost all of them in motor vehicle crashes. In addition, 1 in 20 will be seriously injured during their lifetime in motor vehicle crashes.
During the past decade alone, crashes killed 400,000 people on our nation's roads and critically injured millions more. Crashes are the leading cause of death for children and adults age 3 to 34 and the leading cause of long-term disability, including brain and spinal cord injuries, for all age groups. According to NHTSA, crashes cost the nation an estimated $230 billion annually in lost wages and productivity, property damage, medical care for injuries, travel delays, legal and court fees, and emergency services.
Currently, the only successful crash prevention program in the U.S. focuses on impaired driving. While this program is essential, it does not address the multitude of other factors responsible for car crashes. Drunk driving plays a role in just 30 percent of fatal crashes, 16 percent of injury-producing crashes, and 7 percent of all crashes on U.S. roads. (Source: U.S. Department of Transportation)
The Partnership for Safe Driving was formed to address the full range of dangerous driving behavior and thereby significantly reduce the overall crash, injury and fatality rates. Among our top priorities is the creation of a federally funded national, year-round, television, radio, and print advertising campaign that discourages all forms of dangerous driving. We also seek to support police in their efforts to enforce traffic laws and, where necessary, to strengthen laws designed to penalize dangerous drivers. In addition, the Partnership is working to promote the use of life-saving crash prevention technology, including speed governors and ignition interlock systems, for deterring dangerous driving and preventing crashes.
In our nine years of existence, the Partnership has operated with limited financial support and has relied primarily on volunteers to maintain our day-to-day operations. The Run & Walk for Road Safety will enable us to reach a broader swath of the public with our message and at the same time begin to create a stable source of funding for our organization. It will also create a new source of funding for our partners located throughout the U.S. who are working to achieve the same goals.
In addition, the declaration of National Road Victims Remembrance Day on the day of our events will give all families whose loved ones were killed in motor vehicle crashes a chance to come together and honor their loved ones. Currently the only annual ceremony for families of crash victims is sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and that ceremony focuses exclusively on victims of drunk driving.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
In October 2006, the Partnership for Safe Driving will partner with other grassroots safety organizations and individual road safety activists to host a Run & Walk for Road Safety in five U.S. cities: 1) Annapolis, Maryland; 2) Santa Barbara, California; 3) Dayton, Ohio; 4) Atlanta, Georgia; and 5) Seattle, Washington. Additional cities may be added as funding permits.
Runners and walkers will be recruited to participate in the events through strategically placed posters and other advertising. Those who sign up to participate will pay a nominal registration fee and will receive a Run & Walk for Road Safety t-shirt. Participants will be encouraged, though not required, to ask their family and friends to sponsor them in their participation by making a small donation to the Partnership in their name.
The day of the Run & Walk for Road Safety will be declared " National Road Victims Remembrance Day," and each race will conclude at a designated "Road of Remembrance," where runners and walkers will be invited to lay roses in memory of crash victims.
The Partnership's original "Road of Remembrance" was Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, where we partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) in 1998 and 1999 to mark the first-ever Remembrance Day ceremonies. Following a moving ceremony in which families made a public plea for safer driving and then read off the names of crash victims against the background of a live string quartet, n early 4,000 roses were placed on the Road of Remembrance in memory of crash victims. ( Photos from the event are located throughout this proposal.)
This new signature event will enable the Partnership to revive National Road Victims Remembrance Day, a day that had the strong support of the U.S. DOT and continues to be requested by the families of victims. In addition, it will allow us to take the ceremonies outside the Beltway, into select cities across the country, and add a race component.
PROGRAM DETAILS
The Partnership's national headquarters will manage the national campaign for the Run & Walk for Road Safety. The national campaign will determine the overall look and feel of each event and will retain trademark and ownership rights on all content associated with the event. All marketing and promotional materials for the Run & Walk for Road Safety will be developed by the national campaign and distributed to local partners.
Any 501(c)3 organization or individual road safety activist can volunteer to become a local partner in this event by contacting the headquarters of the Partnership for Safe Driving and requesting an information packet. The Partnership will provide a limited number of development grants for selected partners to assist them in organizing their local event. This seed money will be designated for 1) hiring a professional event planner; 2) marketing, advertising and promoting the event; and 3) securing additional local sponsors for the event.
Local partners will be responsible for the planning and implementation of each local Run & Walk for Road Safety, and will be listed on all promotional materials as a co-sponsor of the event.
If the local partner is a designated 501(c)3 organization, it will be allowed to retain 50 percent of the funds raised by the local Run & Walk for Safety minus expenses not covered by the Partnership for Safe Driving for local and regional programs to deter dangerous driving and prevent car crashes. All funds raised by the events will be collected by the national campaign, which will then distribute the appropriate amount to each of the partners.
The remaining 50 percent of funds raised by local partners of the Run & Walk for Road Safety will be retained by the Partnership for Safe Driving for its national programs.
All funds raised from the Run & Walk for Road Safety must be used in a manner consistent with the rules stipulated by the Internal Revenue Service for 501(c) 3 organizations, and as such, may not be used for lobbying. However, beyond IRS regulations, the local partners will have great liberty to choose how best to use their funds to promote safe driving in their own communities. Local partners may also elect to use these funds for general administrative costs.
Each local partner will provide a mid-year and year-end report to the Partnership for Safe Driving on how the funds raised by the Run & Walk for Road Safety were spent.
The Partnership for Safe Driving will provide ongoing logistical support to help the local partners plan their events but will expect the events to be planned and managed by the local partners with the help of their professional event planner.
The Road of Remembrance will be the pinnacle of each event. Located at the finish line, the Road of Remembrance will provide each runner and walker with an opportunity to lay a rose in remembrance of Americans that have lost their lives on U.S. roads due to any form of dangerous driving.
As part of our advertising campaign for the event, we will invite runners and walkers, as well as non-participating families of crash victims, to order a rose for the Road of Remembrance. The roses will then be distributed to event participants by volunteers at the finish line and placed on the Road of Remembrance while the names of loved ones killed in crashes are read aloud.
RATIONALE
Each day in communities across the country, runners and walkers feel threatened by dangerous drivers. The Run & Walk for Road Safety is thus a natural way to bring together those who feel the threat of dangerous driving most acutely and give them an opportunity to help raise awareness and funds for campaigns to deter dangerous driving. We anticipate that this new signature event will grow quickly in the first few years, eventually attracting thousands of participants from across the nation.
Many charities host successful races and walks each year and have been able to use these events to raise funds for essential programs. Among the most notable is the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. In 2005, the Race for the Cure had more than one million participants in 100 races worldwide.
For reasons stated above, no other type of organization is more naturally suited to attract runners and walkers then an organization whose exclusive mission is to deter dangerous driving and prevent motor vehicle crashes. Thus, we believe that the Partnership for Safe Driving Run & Walk for Road Safety will eventually be as successful as any other charity-sponsored run or walk in the U.S.