It's no secret that Bike Index is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We tout it all the time. Our nonprofit status allows us to work with the groups whose missions align with ours and it reflects our simple goal of registering all of the bikes in the world. Being a nonprofit also makes us eligible to receive your kindly donations - the donations that help us keep more bikes safe.

This coming Tuesday, November 27, is Giving Tuesday. We hope that you will head over to our fundraiser on facebook at 8 AM on Giving Tuesday and donate whatever you can. Whether that's $1 or $1 million 😎 each bit goes directly toward our efforts to recover stolen bikes and get other organizations on board who can also recover lots of bikes.

While we may not have registered every bike in the universe yet, we have managed to recover more stolen bicycles than any other registration service - over 5,000 as of last month. In fact, as of today, we've helped recover 5,153 stolen bicycles. And we've had a good year. We now have over 132,000 registrants, almost 200,000 registered bicycles, and over 500 partner organizations. We have gathered all of these registrations and partnerships organically. Through our own efforts to engage and unite community members, and through the efforts of incredibly special people in the cycling community, we have managed to build Bike Index into a lasting registration system with a global network.

Your donations have enabled this to happen. Help us continue another great year of Bike Index by donating on Giving Tuesday.

We have chosen to host a fundraiser on facebook because facebook is matching up to $7 million worth of facebook-hosted donations to nonprofits on Giving Tuesday. But this is somewhat on a first-come first-serve basis, so we're asking everyone to donate at 8 AM on November 27th. We will be thinking of you as you sip your morning coffee.

Contributing to the cycling community is the reason for Bike Index. We connect with people who are passionate about the many different kinds of cycling, and who are willing to go steal someone else's bike back just because they recognized it on Bike Index (not officially condoned, but always appreciated). This community is filled with bike shops, police departments, universities, advocacy groups, and individual cyclists who recognize what our bikes mean to us.

There might not be an analogue to the bicycle: these vehicles stay with us for years and years and are cherished goods. Yet, we are forced to leave them outside, unattended.

But through Bike Index, we aim to reduce the stress cyclists feel about leaving their bikes out. And in the worst case scenario, Bike Index connects theft victims with people who purely want to help - we have been so happy to discover that there are lots of these amazing people. With Bike Index, organizations too can boost registrations by making sure their constituents' bikes are safe and logged. Bike Index provides tools without demanding increased time and effort to use them. You can register your bike in two minutes, and your registration remains forever, for free.

If you don't want to donate on facebook, you can always donate on our usual platform. Don't forget that your donations are tax deductible! Thank you for caring about bikes. Get out there and ride!