Marilyn Price gets ready for a bike ride with winners of Trips for Kids’ Earn-a-Bike program. Photo by Markham Johnson.

Marilyn Price came up with the idea for Trips for Kids while she was biking up Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, Calif. Wouldn’t it be great, she thought, to bring kids up to this spectacular place? But her next thought was, “I can’t. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Aside from working for briefly as the assistant in a small start-up nonprofit, her experience was limited to short part-time jobs, including one in a bike shop. Fortunately, she overcame her fear and in 1986 founded Trips for Kids, which takes disadvantaged kids on scenic, daylong bike rides. Now, at age 67, she manages an nonprofit organization with 64 chapters throughout the United States.

She talked to Encore.org about how she got started.

Encore.org: What did you do with your idea after that bike ride?

Price: A couple of weeks later, I read about a psychologist in Southern California who was doing something very similar to what I was thinking about. I wrote to him and said, “I’m not a psychologist, but I’ve got a similar idea. What do you think?” And he wrote back a very nice letter that actually gave me the courage and the inspiration to start Trips for Kids. He said, “You don’t have to be a psychologist,” and he advised me to start small. That little bit of encouragement just made it all seem possible.

Encore.org: What made you think you think you could create and run a nonprofit?

Price: I’m not a businessperson. I was a housewife and a mother. But I had worked as an office assistant for Huey Johnson (a former California Secretary of State), who had started an environmental nonprofit called the Resource Renewal Institute. I worked for him for two years, and then off and on when I was starting Trips for Kids. I learned a lot about starting a nonprofit, things like bylaws and grant writing. When I first started, I didn’t even know about filing or bookkeeping, but I learned from him. And I also say to people that being a housewife and mother is not a bad profession either because it requires handling a lot of details and managing your time – things that you have to do in running a business.

Encore.org: What sort of pragmatic steps did you start with to get Trips for Kids up and running?

Price: I was very green at the beginning. I just knew the kids would love it, and that we should do this. Somebody told me I should send out a needs survey so I could raise money. So I wrote to about 40 agencies, and 20 of them wrote back, saying that they would love to do this if I got something started. We started out all volunteer, so I knew we had the labor covered, but we needed bikes. So again, someone said to me, “Why don’t you go to the Inter Bike show (an annual trade show) in Reno?” I thought, “Oh sure. I’m going to go to this bike show and ask for bikes, and they’re just going to laugh.” But I got a ticket, and went, and it was amazing. I went in with one little piece of paper, and the first four companies I went to almost promised me bikes, and one of them – Schwinn – came through.

Encore.org: Why did they trust you right off the bat?

Price: At the time, there wasn’t a lot of philanthropy in the bicycling world. I think it must have just appealed to them, or maybe there was a pent-up need, because I was asking for 15 bikes, and we got them. That was the big hurdle. Once we got the bikes, there was no turning back. I had to keep going. And after that, it was pretty easy. Bicycling is so popular here in Northern California and working with kids is so appealing. It just was a notion that clicked. We never had trouble getting agencies, we never had trouble getting volunteers, and it just really started to work.

Encore.org: What factors do you credit for Trips for Kids early success?

Price: I was very lucky. I was able to not take a salary for 10 years, and we were all volunteer that whole time as well. I’m sure that was one of the major reasons we were successful. It would have been much harder to raise my own salary and get the program started. We were able to keep our expenses very minimal, and because of that we were able to very gradually build up our program. Eventually, we were able to offer salaries because we had more and more foundation money coming in. I had started off asking friends and people that would see us on the trail (to help). In 1994 we opened up a bicycle thrift shop and an Earn-a-Bike program, and it didn’t take long for that shop to begin earning money.

Encore.org: How about what you brought to the table?

Price: I’m not a planner. I don’t do business plans. I never know what to say to people when they ask where Trips for Kids will be 10 years from now, but I grab opportunities as they come. Some of them I turn down. It seems every person who goes on our rides, sees us on our rides or comes into our shop is enamored by what we do. They might tell 10 other people, and before you know it, you’re well known. For me, what has really worked is sticking with something – believing in something, enjoying something – and working really hard.

Encore.org: Any final thoughts?

Price: I never had a lot of confidence in myself. I would never have dreamed that this was something that I’d be able to do. I always thought of myself as being someone very good at following someone else, letting them set the pace. But gradually I got more comfortable with being in front and with creating action plans. It was one step at a time, moving gradually, slowly. That’s why I think anyone can do this.