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Donations Launch Today – 22nd Feb 2012
The idea of Directly elected Mayors is finally starting to get some traction beyond the political bubble in Brum. We’ve been out talking to ordinary Brummies about their love of the City, their hopes for it and most importantly what they’d like a Mayor to do. This has made us realise that we need to spread the word faster for higher levels engagement, to source ideas and in order to maximise the potential of this change to the way we do governance of the city. The referendum is on May 3rd and that means we’ve roughly 10 weeks from today to engage, stimulate and decide as a city.
Fundraising has started and we are aiming at £25 donations from around between 1880 and 4000 sponsors to meet our maximum campaign spend of around £45,000. Companies and organisations are welcome to donate more, but uniquely we are asking for them to donate on behalf of named staff, friends and family too. The ethos behind this is that we would like the campaign to be driven by the grassroots citizens who want to show that this City has a strong civic, non-party political scene, which can drive and engage with issues outside of traditional party politics. We have set up a Company limited by Guarantee to hold the funds and be accountable and transparent in how we do this.
The money raised will be used directly to purchase flyers and banners in the first instance to start enabling us to spread the word.
You can also contribute by cheque:
Please make cheques payable to – YES TO BIRMINGHAM MAYOR LTD
Post to:
Julia Higginbottom
C/O Rebel Uncut
Ludgate House
28D Ludgate Hill
Birmingham
B3 1DX
Editor’s Note: Jon Walker has asked in his Blog why we can’t just accept donations direct from companies and other organisations. That somehow asking these companies to donate on behalf of named people was somehow disingenuous. He makes a relevant point so I’ve tried to answer it better.
So why not just take large donations? We can and will do for specific events.That is because we will partner with as many organisations as possible to bring impact to the campaign. In the case of normal general campaign donations we’d like to encourage the grassroots ethos, whether individuals or organisations. We hope that anyone who thinks that having a Directly Elected Mayor will share, debate and donate. In any way they feel they should. Anyone who helps us out in anyway will be reflected in the site. We hoped that if an organisation donates, that will be doing so in the spirit of those they employ and represent after having a dialogue with them and raising awareness of the referendum. Many seem to forget that businesses and other organisations are employers of those at grassroots. This was probably not as well written and explained as it could possibly have been. We’re not professional campaigners with years of experience. We are ordinary Brummies who want to do things differently. The main point of the campaign is to reach the people in every corner of the city and it’s outer regions. The only way that will happen is if we raise funds. We’ll spend it on publicising the fact that we are having a referendum. The debates will allow their voices to be heard beyond the digital bubble in Town Hall and in government.I ask that you get in touch if there’s a better way of doing this? Or a model you know that works? We have less than 10 weeks to get the work out and this means that we need to raise funds urgently. Please let us know if you’d like it done differently.
Julia (Sunday 26th February)
If you are interested in interested in getting involved in other ways please add your name to the mailing list on the right and we will contact you as soon possible.
