Safe Speed Forums

Hi All,

Safe Speed badly needs funding. If you know anyone who might be interested in providing substantial support, please try to get them in touch with me urgently.

You can assist with funding by joining as a member or by sending a donation. See this page:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/join.html

We're doing a lot - I've personally put in well over 4,500 hours of unpaid effort - but with the right financial help we could do ten times more.

What can you do to help?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I'd like to organise a motorcycle ride out /day trip and picnic It'd be 10 quid a head and I'd spend half on food.

Would I have your support?

I doubt we'd raise 100s but every penny counts.

I'd like to say we'd ride the best biking roads in the south east, but they've all had their speed limits set to 40 or 50 now, so it would more likely be a relaxed pace - yet still fun.

This sounds very nice - So you intend it as a "Safe Speed Fundraiser" - is that what you mean? if so, ABSOLUTELY you would have my full support.

Ummm well, for the sake of absolute clarity: I would be very pleased to advertise such an event, but wouldn't be able to help with organising it.

Thanks, let me know what you're thinking in a bit more detail.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I have moved the last couple of posts in this topic to "Special Projects" an "invitation only" forum section.

DIY, I have enabled your access to "Special Projects".

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Paul,

why don't you try the lottery system for a grant as SS is for the benefit of the public as it is actively engaging in making the roads safer for all road users and is participating on behalf of the public?

Just an idea but I think it needs to be a public club or whatever as the boat club here tried for one but it didn't get it because it was essentially a private members club.

Andrew

I did have a look at lottery funding last year, thanks. Basically I judged that it would take a couple of weeks of management time and would probably not be successful. I reckoned it wasn't worth it.

Plus there would likely be the need to create a registered charity with admin overhead, trustees and so on. Again, working with no staff, I'm just too busy for all that.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

If you can get registered charity status wouldn't you qualify for gift aid on all donations? Worth considering

Yes. I'm sure it'll come, but probably not before office staff. Admin is the killer - there just aren't enough hours in the day.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Paul,

what about european funding of some sorts they seem to fund a lot of things not just loony projects for sport and the arts. Seen this (link) from a quick search I done.

http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/roa ... dex_en.htm

Local MP might be able to help point you in the right direction regarding certain criteria etc. that you require for funding. I'll certainly keep my ears to the ground.

Andrew

Lack of proper funding is becoming a major issue. There are excellent opportunities being missed because funding isn't adequate.

Consequently I have to have a push to find proper funding.

The best bets still appear to be:

a) Commercial sponsorship. I'll be making some calls to potential sponsors and seeing how the discussions develop.

b) Individual sponsorship or patronage. This is an excellent route - if I find the right rich person, one individual can easily provide an operating budget.

Memberships are useful, but without the resources to do marketing the income from memberships and donations is nowhere near sufficient.

Can anyone offer any practical assistance? A list of rich folk to contact would be extremely helpful.

I would be more than delighted to pay a substantial commission to a professional fund raiser. How do you find a professional fund raiser?

I'm sure that Safe Speed would qualify as "eminently fundable", in as much as we have already done enough to earn ourselves a powerful case and a prominent position.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Clarkson springs to mind. I'm sure him and his Top Gear gang aren't short of a bob or too. I'm sure he would be willing to support any campaign against those who refer to him as a 'petrolhead'

Also, what about an amalgamation with the ABD? I believe they are already well funded and may welcome your input.


Dave

How about those Northumbrian Hauliers, the ones who are so fuming about the scamera pratnership that is making the A1 so damn dangerous.

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Semper in excreta, nur quantitat variat.

If you could put a notice up and see if everone that is a regular contributor and is serious about roadsafety could donate say £10. I would be willing to do it if everyone else was and i'm pretty skint at the mo. it would be far from perfect continual funding but certainly would give you a wee boost.

Surely some flush individual out there has a hatred of cameras as road safety tools and believes the campaign worthy of some capital, just a matter of finding them.

Andrew

Paul I'd be interested in what you need the operating money for. Don't get me wrong, I believe that the cause is an important one but just asking for money is the wrong approach, I feel that people need to understand what it is required for as I for one would see funds as legitimate for certain reasons and not for others. eg

Legitimate

Site running costs (server, bandwidth etc)

Questionable

Income for any individual

This is something I'd be happy to discuss in great detail with any proposed source of funding. I've got all sorts of plans, and could easily spend half a million next year on the campaign. Plans will obviously have to be tailored to income.

It's scary that you find "income for any individual" questionable. I do this full time. I don't have a private income or an inheritence or anything comparable. I expect the campaign to provide a modest income, because like everyone else, I have to eat. Why is income for any individual questionable?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Paul I didn't say that I found the prospect of income wrong I said I found it questionable.

Let me explain; this is a fabulous site I can fully understand that whilst the bulliten board software is freeware, hosting the site is a direct cost that has to be bourne by someone and I see no reason why that should be you, it should be the users and beneficiaries of the site. For this I would suggest that you have a "sponsor" option on the site which allows users to make a voluntary donation if they choose to do so, this needs to be optional as the most important thing is that the true road safety messages get communicated.

As for income, if income is to be provided it needs to be justified, this means that the receiver has to have goals and is measured against the success of those goals by the provider of the income. I do not think that that needs to be public knowledge unless the income comes from say the same fund as the site running costs.

Basically what my post was intended to say was that just asking for money does not demonstrate the benefits of receiving the money, any campaign for funding needs to be clear & open so that people feel comfortable donating.

Just my tuppence worth, I can't really offer much help, but on the VW scene, there is a magazine that's run entirely via the internet until it gets to print. The staff communicate solely via email, IM and videoconferencing, all the articles and imagest are sent to the editor electronicly and the whole is mailed off to the printers on a CD, the mag is then distributed to a list of subscribers by post.

I'm not saying make a safespeed magazine (no, wait, do, it'd be ace!) but you could work the charity in a similar way. The people on the boards are inteligent people and always seem willing to help, with enough of them, you might get it down to half an hour a week.

Everyone knows it's a good cause and everyone is willing to throw in ideas and people come up with campaigns, I don't know how many have been carried out, how about just chanelling the energy already show in a different way??

If theres anything I can help with I'd be more than willing to give an hour or two