The Short Version
Create a service to support pro-indy groups and
help them with fundraising, merchandise, design, web hosting, and
administration.
Background
One of the strengths of the Yes campaign was its
creative diversity. Hundreds of groups and thousands of individuals
stood up to carry forward the arguments for independence. It was a
mad, frenetic, vibrant, inclusive campaign crackling with positive
energy, like somebody had tipped the Fringe Festival into a national
political debate. And although we lost that vote, we're all proud of
the part we played in it, because it was an almost magical political
awakening for Scotland.
But one of the flaws of the campaign
was that these fantastic people were largely unsupported and had to learn on the run. They all had to plan and strategise for
meetings, demos, performances... but before they could do ANYTHING
they needed money. So everybody went on a fundraising learning
curve.
Then they needed 30 hours a day just to do half of
what they'd agreed to, and find time to package and label hundreds of
products - like some nightmarish version of last minute Christmas
shopping - and... my God, is that how much postage costs these
days?
All of these wonderful, hard-working campaigners
went through the same journey. Many are still on that path, as folks
like Wings, Bella, Newsnet, Wee Ginger Dug, WFI, Common Space and
many, many more continue to do the job that the media has utterly
failed to.
The Pitch
We've been taking care of Wings Over Scotland's
fulfilment for the last three years, including distributing the
Wee Blue Book. When we first approached Stu our idea was quite
simple; let us take care of the admin stuff, and you can concentrate
on writing. And that's the idea behind ayeMail – we want to offer
everybody these services. It's a support system for pro-indy groups;
it's what Yes Scotland should have been, and what we need before a
second referendum.
We'll send out letters, posters, perks,
merchandise, books – you name it, we'll deliver. We'll hold stock
so that campaigners are no longer tripping over boxes of product in
hallways, bedrooms or garages. We'll free up their time to do what we
all love them doing; campaigning for indy.
But it's not
just a gift wrapping service, we can do so much more. We can
manufacture many of the items needed at a fraction of the cost
of commercial suppliers; badges, keyrings, magnets, donor
certificates and much more. We can build websites; create posters,
banners and flyers; shoot and edit video; even publish books.
We've
got the skills, experience and technology to do all this, and by
co-ordinating across multiple pro-indy groups and individuals, we can
bring economies of scale to everyone.
What We Need & What You Get
What we need is time, full-time in fact. A
small part of the ask is towards equipment, but the majority of it is
to enable us to work full-time supporting not just Wings, but all
groups who campaign for independence. The sums are quite modest.
We don't need a lot, just enough to keep the lights on and the
computers running - but to us it would make a huge difference,
and enable us to support the work of hundreds of others.
So
first of all we're asking for £2,000 to fund two people to
work (mostly to volunteer, in fact) over an initial five month period (and if we have enough work after that, we'll keep going).
I know that's a heck of an ask in these cash-strapped times, but it's
only £200 a month apiece. That's enough to keep the bank manager off
our backs for the moment, so that's all that we humbly ask
for.
Secondly, we need some equipment;
Over the next three months we want to produce at
least 30,000 badges (with packaging) for pro-indy and
EU-IN groups. These will be around 30% cheaper than commercial
suppliers - and yes, we'll be offering them to all pro-indy
groups, not just the SNP!
That lot comes to £1,200,
which brings us to £3,200 thus far which, with Indiegogo's fees and
a small contingency, totals to £3,500.
The franking
machine is really what empowers everything else; with that we can
offer much reduced postage rates to campaigners, and we project that
it will pay for itself within two months.
Three grand is a
large amount of money to ask for, especially at this time of year and
with a lot of uncertainty still about. All I can do is point to our
track record with Wings; you all got your perks and books the last 3
years, yeah? That was me, alone, working evenings and weekends.
Imagine what we can do with two full-time folk!
If we
don't make the target then we'll scale things back, but still get
what equipment we can and get our badge production line up and
running.
If we exceed the target then we'll expand our
capacity, buy materials in larger quantities to reduce the unit
cost, and look at adding stuff like mugs and t-shirts to our in-house
manufacture so that we can offer these at discounted rates too.
