East Coast Overland Adventures could not happen without the interest and support of a great number of people. In the past we have made use of crowdfunding to support individual project like the No Highways Tour books. Moving forward we’ve adopted the Patreon model to build a stronger financial foundation for all that ECOA does. This is only one source of a diversified income stream which also includes merchandise sales, instructor fees from paid training gigs, payment for magazine articles, as well as corporate partnerships. However, the bulk of our support has always come form our patrons.
The money donated by our patrons goes to support the operational expenses associated with running ECOA. The bulk of these expenses are travel related. Fuel is by far the most expensive purchase we made. Food and staff per-diems are next. Vehicle maintenance and equipment or actually relatively small expenses in the grand scheme of things. The other reoccurring expense is instructional and marketing materials for events.
Whether it’s $1 a month or more, the contributions of our patrons does not go unappreciated. Nor does it go unrewarded. There are various benefits available to our patrons outlined both on the ECOA Patreon page as well as on the ECOA store. We offer patrons two ways to show their support: first, it monthly using the Patreon site; second is a one time purchase through the ECOA store.
Below are the current members of the ECOA Patron Support Team:
Investors
Jim A. ***
Bill & Mary S. ***
Premier Patrons
Gold Patrons
Xiaohui F. *
Silver Patrons
Shane S. *
Jonathan B. *
Justin W. *
Basic Patrons
* Denotes First Year Patron
** Denotes Multi-Year Patron
*** Denotes Founding Patron
If you are interested in becoming part of the ECOA Patron Support Team you can check out the following resources: