Runners approach Willow Street after the start of 2019’s annual Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities in this file image. The popular run/walk portion of the event was canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19, but that didn’t stop the fundraising from setting new records.
Dancers Workshop supporters finish their walk during the 23rd annual Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities in September 2019 on Jackson Town Square. The 26th Old Bill’s is this Saturday.
Sarah Farris, right, gives her 14-month-old son Nolan a point toward Dad and the finish line during the 2019 Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities diaper derby at the Town Square.
St. John’s Hospital Foundation supporters walk beneath Old Glory, hung high above East Broadway by Jackson Hole Fire/EMS engines, during the 2018 Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities.
Runners approach Willow Street after the start of 2019’s annual Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities in this file image. The popular run/walk portion of the event was canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19, but that didn’t stop the fundraising from setting new records.
Dancers Workshop supporters finish their walk during the 23rd annual Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities in September 2019 on Jackson Town Square. The 26th Old Bill’s is this Saturday.
Sarah Farris, right, gives her 14-month-old son Nolan a point toward Dad and the finish line during the 2019 Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities diaper derby at the Town Square.
St. John’s Hospital Foundation supporters walk beneath Old Glory, hung high above East Broadway by Jackson Hole Fire/EMS engines, during the 2018 Old Bill’s Fun Run for Charities.
Pamplona, Spain, has its Running of the Bulls, the storied annual display of bravura that for 600 years or more has served as a measure of masculine courage, nimbleness and, well, questionable judgment.
Here in Jackson Hole, we have the Running of the Bills, our valley’s annual display (26th, as of this year) of philanthropy, community and many other of the values that make this an extraordinary place to live.
The 2022 running of Old Bill’s Fun Run takes place Saturday by Jackson Elementary School, with a return to the full live event after missing two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The fun starts at 9 a.m. with a mechanical bull, a rock climbing wall, a jump slide and live music along with food, coffee, cocoa and booths set by some 100 Jackson Hole nonprofits. The run takes off at 10 a.m. sharp, when the starter pistol pops and thousands of runners, walkers, strollers, wheelchairers and dog walkers will set off on a 5- or 10-kilometer course through East Jackson, down the Elk Refuge Road and down Broadway back to the starting line.
Some run to “win,” earning donations to the nonprofits of their choice; others run to represent their favorite nonprofit or nonprofits, either as staff or board members, or donors and boosters; still others get in line for the pure joy and thrill of an early September morning stroll with hundreds of friends and strangers.
“The feedback we hear is it really gets everyone in Jackson participating in philanthropy,” said Suzanne Rees, Old Bill’s coordinator for the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, which not only dreamed up the idea of a day when young and old combine forces and finances to raise millions for area charities, but which also organizes and administers the centralized event, performing many of the grueling but instrumental tasks necessary to successful fundraising. “It really amplified the nonprofits’ impacts, both the smaller nonprofits and the bigger ones. It’s cool that everyone in town gets to participate, whether they donate $1 or a half-million dollars.”
Named for a generous local couple who from the start wished to remain anonymous, Old Bill’s Fun Run actually starts around midsummer with the opening of “Giving Season.” While Teton County, Wyoming, nonprofits in the arts, environment, social causes, education and many other categories solicit donations from their base and the community at large, the Community Foundation rounds up a pool of money from Mr. and Mrs. Old Bill and their “co-challengers.” This pool is used to augment the totals each organization collects.
The success of the Running of the Bulls might be measured in the safe navigation of Pamplona’s narrow cobblestoned streets while being chased by a group of ornery cattle — or by the gorings and scars sustained in the attempt. Success of Old Bill’s Fun Run is much easier to measure.
In 2021, the second of two years in which the actual, live Fun Run was not held due to COVID-19 pandemic health concerns, the event raised over $14 million through over 4,100 individual donations, with challengers chipping in another $5.4 million. Those figures represent yet another record haul, a figure that has increased nearly each of the event’s 26 years.
The total amount Old Bill’s has generated since 1997 is an eye-popping $208 million for the more than 200 nonprofits operating in the valley.
Another measurement of success is the impact the event has on individual organizations.
“I would have to say there likely wouldn’t be a Jackson Hole Community Band without Old Bill’s,” said Jason Wright, president of the board and longtime participant with the all-volunteer community ensemble. “Our entire operating budget comes from that year after year, and we base everything we do, from renting rehearsal and performance spaces to purchasing music to things like advertising, on our takeaway from Old Bill’s.”
The group always welcomes donations, putting out a box for each of its performances, “which helps,” Wright said. But the rest of its $20,000-or-so annual budget comes through donations made and then matched through Old Bill’s.
“I’m sure we could survive without Old Bill’s,” he said, backpedaling a little, “but donations wouldn’t be matched, and we would have to figure out how to funnel that on our own, hold our own fundraising events. This gives us a day to rally people around one single event and to tell people, ‘Don’t forget about the Community Band.’”
“We probably wouldn’t have a staff without Old Bill’s,” said Friends of Pathways Executive Director Katherine Dowson.
Most people like the idea of chipping in to help pay for a cool project or program, but staff salaries and general operations just aren’t as sexy.
“People is what get things done,” Dowson said. “People cut trees, people put bells on bikes, people go into classrooms and people are at the meetings. There’s no substitute for people, so there’s no substitute for Old Bill’s.”
Furthermore, it makes fundraising for Friends of Pathways and other smaller organizations much easier, taking a huge administrative load off their shoulders.
“Imagine what your post office box might look like or how many times people would have to send out appeals to get attention to raise funds,” Dowson said. “The Community Foundation streamlines everyone’s need for quarterly or yearly fundraising, and so many people are so well-versed in giving through Old Bill’s it saves on mailers and reminders. … They take the money, keep track of it, and add value and organize this day of just a big celebration.”
At least as important, if not quite as noticeable, the Community Foundation and Old Bill’s Fun Run has helped create an incredibly fertile matrix that individual nonprofits rely on to survive and grow and thrive, and in which to come together for a robust, synergistic charitable ecosystem.
Hole Food Rescue has since its 2013 founding saved some 2 million pounds of food from going to waste in our landfills. Collecting produce, meat, dairy products and more that area grocers might otherwise dispose of to make room for next week’s trucks, it then distributes this food to a wide range of families and individuals throughout Jackson Hole.
“I want to say Old Bill’s helps us with about 40% of our funding for the year,” said Lisa Lent, longtime volunteer, former director and now a board member for Hole Food Rescue. “We’re heavily reliant on that. ... Our operations would fall through the seams if we didn’t have the supporters through Old Bill’s like we do.”
Hole Food Rescue gets free food to those who need it through several programs, including its Food to Community program, which sets up a “farmers market” like stand six days a week at the Senior Center of Jackson Hole, the Timbers, Blair Apartments, the Grove and other locales. It also parks its Sprout van five days a week in public parks and neighborhoods around town.
But food insecurity continues to be a stigma for families, and many hesitate to accept what Hole Food Rescue offers. Which is where partner organizations come in to play.
“We had so many partners this year that wanted to help out and offer their own time,” Lent said, “too many to mention.”
Teton County Library gave the organization hundreds of books to give to kids, the Teton Raptor Center brought its “avian ambassadors” to teach about birds of prey, Teton County Search and Rescue put on a program of its own alongside the Sprout Mobile. On a recent Thursday when Lent drove the van, folks from Grand Teton National Park led programs, teaching about wildlife by getting kids to act out behaviors.
“They had to be an owl,” she said, “and do they had a staring contest. Or they had to see who could jump the farthest to win the title of mountain lion. ... It was all so interactive, and the kids were so into. So it’s not just about the lunch, it’s about the interaction.”
Since each of those nonprofit partners also relies upon Old Bill’s Fun Run, and since so many nonprofits rely on partnerships of other nonprofits, many of the funds raised through the philanthropic display touch many different lives in a variety of ways to feed bodies, minds and souls.
“Old Bill’s is the thing that connects us all together,” said Wright, whose organization not only helps instrumental musicians keep their chops, but also supplies the soundtrack to a half dozen or so community events throughout the year, including for the Fourth of July parade and even Old Bill’s Saturday. “We scratch each other’s backs.”
Try to imagine the Fourth of July without the Community Band performing on its mobile stage. If you can’t, it’s at least in part because of Old Bill’s Fun Run. 
Contact Richard Anderson at 732-7078 or rich@jhnewsandguide.com.
9 a.m. festivities, 10 a.m. run
Since moving to Jackson Hole in 1992, Richard has covered everything from local government and criminal justice to sports and features. He currently concentrates on arts and entertainment, heading up the Scene section.
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