Dear Human Race Community,
This is a love letter to a huge, loving, committed tribe of people, nonprofits, schools, local government, faith groups, businesses, families and even four legged friends who joined together for over 40 years to create something wonderful for our community – The Annual Human Race Walk and Fun Run. It is with great pride and more than a little sadness that I am announcing we are retiring our Human Race in Santa Cruz County, one of the last 2 Human Race Events in the nation and the longest running Human Race.
If you have ever been to a Human Race, you will understand the pride in bringing together so many diverse groups, causes and people to unite in a single fundraising event in a spirit of fun, cooperation and love for all of our community. From the beautiful artwork, t-shirts and costumes each year, to the outpouring of food and snacks, to the joy of dancing in the streets together while we are doing good – there is no event like it. Of course, we are proud to have raised $2.5 million for 250+ local groups in the last 10 years, and close to $6 million total, but the Human Race has never been just about the money.
What is less apparent now is how ground-breaking the Human Race has been. Our Community’s first collaborative fundraiser. Our Community’s first online, crowd-sourced fundraiser. Our Community’s first county wide fundraiser. Every one of these break-throughs is common now, but in 1982, when we hosted the first Human Race for all non-profits, schools and churches and had Metro Buses bringing folks from Watsonville to the starting line, or when we launched our first Human Race website in 1995, a decade before Go Fund Me or Kick Starter, these were huge leaps forward for our community.
While we are proud of how much good we have done with the Human Race over 40 years, we are ready to embrace the next leap forward to come together for good in new ways that, like the Human Race, empower every person in our community to connect for good. We are pleased to announce that our partners in Santa Cruz Gives – the GoodTimes and Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County – have agreed to open this amazing online, crowdsourced fundraiser to double the number of groups this year and we are encouraging all of our Human Race agencies, fundraisers and donors to join us in being all in with Santa Cruz Gives. Santa Cruz Gives has better technology, a wider reach and more of the money raised goes to create good, less to put on the event.
Change isn’t always easy or comfortable and we have faith that in our big, beautiful tribe of volunteers, donors, dreamers and activists, as long as we move forward together for good we will create a bright and joyful future.
In Service,
Karen Delaney | Executive Director
Do you have pictures from a previous Human Race?
Post them to social media using our hashtag #HumanRaceLegacySC
Participating Agencies- Continue fundraising for our community with Santa Cruz Gives!
Santa Cruz Gives is a holiday fundraising program founded in 2015 in Santa Cruz County. The goal is to create a local network of donors and increase giving via crowdsourcing, as we are able to reach more donors. By making it easier to give to various nonprofits on one site, we hope to inspire donors to dig a little deeper and give a little more than they might otherwise.
Santa Cruz Gives is project-based. Donors will be motivated by both the mission of an organization and a special project chosen for this campaign. At SantaCruzGives.org, each nonprofit has a succinct profile page, it’s simple to use the shopping cart to give, and the leaderboard makes it exciting to watch your favorite nonprofits tick up in donations as totals are tracked in real-time.
Browse the individual pages and get fired up about some great objectives for the holiday season and 2021!
Learn more at santacruzgives.org
