Fundraisers & questions

Spot on loveyouradvice

FPFW chose Crowdfunder and not Crowdjustice because of the tight timescales I believe. Crowdjustice (rightfully) needs to liaise with the legal firm and establish the case is genuine and where the funds should go etc. And there just wasn't enough time to wait on all that happening.

This makes sense.

I totally agree with all above who say that it's time we began to move towards more coordinated thinking/campaigning .... which in itself would be a huge step forward and says a lot about for how far we have come in such a short space of time.

That said, regarding the monies raised by Crowdfunder, and how they work:

1. When we gave the monies it was quite clear that if not needed for this case, it would fund future campaigns for FPFW: I suspect this is how Crowdfunder is set up, as they need to ensure organisations are accountable and that monies are managed legally
2. The challenge of returning donations - given that this is not how Crowdfunder is set up - would be immense, administratively expensive and take a huge amount of time.... potentially costing as much as £20 to return each £20 donation, given they would need to find out what the donor wanted, etc etc etc
3. Given it is not how it has been set up, it may be practically impossible (as well as potentially non-compliant with whatever laws guide these things) for FPFW to give some of the monies raised to another organisation
4. FPFW must be exhausted, having worked so hard and so fast to ensure success - they are a tiny team - I would NOT want to add any additional burden to them

Personally what I think we should be doing is:

1. Celebrating that FPFW now have a fighting fund of £100,000 or so - this is TINY given what we are up against and I trust them to use it well
2. All of us committing to help FWS to raise the monies - like other posters, I think this is crucial ... I am going to dig deep again, although I hadn't planned to ...

WE DO NOT WANT FOR WOMEN SCOTLAND TO GO UNDER.... and I'm going to suggest that for those posters who can't dig again (and even those who can) that you think of something else you can do to help them raise the money.... Posting well-worded questions and starting threads on Mumsnet (especially on other boards) would seem like a VERY POWERFUL and effective thing to do.... We can help them raise the money and sharing what has happened and how much is needed and why, alongside more emotional/intellectually challenging posts, could do so....

I for one don't know the details of how much they need and what the scenario is and WOULD LOVE some one to post a new thread about this on this board in an eye-catching way, recognising that only the most conscientious or involved will read existing long threads and for those of the rest of us who care but have busy lives, attracting our attention really works.

I can understand FPFW keeping hold of the money they have for now if they havent received and settled the final bill for their own case yet.

However, it doesn't make sense to me to say that they'll keep the funds for a legal challenge of the Scottish census a year from now... When who is included as a woman under law in Scotland is being changed NOW.
Surely a legal challenge of the census will fail if the Scottish government simply need to turn and point at the legislation showing that male people do indeed count as female in Scotland.
It's all joined up, and our response needs to be joined up too!

FPFW always said that any surplus would be used for other causes:

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/sexinthecensus2021/updates/151379#start

I'm happy with FPFWs decision. I do like the idea of some kind of centralised funding but not sure how it would work, who would organise and who would make decisions and on what basis.

I think money from costs recouped from a legal victory should not go into general campaign funds. If the organisation gets its costs back, it seems fair that donations are refunded.

Alternatively if this is not possible logistically, it would be relatively simple to poll supporters on what should happen to the money.

Otherwise organisations that began as grass roots will turn into funding the next generation of professional feminists and so that wheel turns once more.

FPFW chose Crowdfunder and not Crowdjustice because of the tight timescales I believe. Crowdjustice (rightfully) needs to liaise with the legal firm and establish the case is genuine and where the funds should go etc. And there just wasn't enough time to wait on all that happening.

Now that FPFW have won their case and the ONS is going to pay for all their costs, then I think it's up to FPFW to decide what to do with the funds they have acquired. They mentioned that they are now setting their sights on the census in Scotland and will be writing to the Scottish government and the NRS. I imagine if there's a need to bring a similar court case against the NRS, then the funds they have raised will be used to pay for all the legal support required.

There has been a previous thread here discussing women having to start over from scratch, and several posters talked about the need for some kind of centralised funding that would help these kinds of legal actions and also help organisations providing single-sex services who are being held hostage by public funding demanding that they include males.

I would also like to see some joined up working.

AEA (Ann Sinnott's org tackling Stonewall misinterpretation of the law) is something that seems to be closely aligned with FPFW's aims but Ann has struggled more to reach funding targets.

The situation with FWS is an immediate and pressing concern and I would be all for helping them out. Scottish women are having a dreadful time as it is without losing their main grassroots support org.

Despite some idiots thinking we are awash with dark money the opposite is true and with so many fronts to fights on our average of 20 quid per head donations only go so far. It's not likely to get better either because women have been hit hard economically by the pandemic.

Collaborative working would be strategically smart at this point I feel.

I get your point and it is something I hadn’t considered before. Constant digging is expensive and perhaps there needs to be a wider strategy among connected campaigns to maximise the effectiveness and target of funds raised.

Personally I would go for D - I’m not a Scot but FWS is so important.

I can’t believe that the Scots government have reduced Scots womanhood to a title/name on a gas bill.

I read somewhere that the problem with Orwell was that he didn’t have enough imagination. Seems depressingly appropriate.