Call to “Match the $291 raised in Harlem for the BAsics Bus Tour”
A brother who worked on raising money in Harlem sent out this call: “I want to ask people to match the $291 that was raised in Harlem for the Basics Bus Tour. Triple it, quadruple it if you can. Raising this money was fun but it was a very, very necessary thing to do. Humanity needs revolution but there won’t be revolution without the BAsics. People have to find out about BA, and this tour is making that happen.
$291 was raised in Harlem last weekend at a yard sale and a penny drive where a five-gallon water jug was set up next to an enlargement of BAsics quote 5:7, “American Lives Are Not More Important Than Other People’s Lives.” Everyone walking by was asked if they agreed with this statement. From there we talked more about the tour. Everybody was told that their contribution was needed to help bring the tour to New York and surrounding areas, and that they should put as much money as they could into the jug — but big or small everybody could contribute something. 74 people threw in $80, and this, added to the $151 raised at the sale ended up in a successful day. Another 55 people contributed $60 the next day, bringing the total to $291.00 from 129 people in Harlem.
The brother who worked on this yard sale and penny drive continued: “People from and around the projects did an important thing giving this money and they need to be encouraged and made stronger by seeing other people matching it. It would mean so much if people knew that what they did inspired professionals and professors to support the bus tour, to match our $291. It would mean a whole lot. This is part of a bigger picture. The BAsics Bus Tour introduced Virginia, the sister in Sanford, Florida, to BA through BAsics, then some people in the projects got introduced to Virginia and what she had to say. It’s beautiful. It’s inspirational. It’s something that ricochets-Bing! Bing! Bing! This is spreading, and it means so much. I’m asking you to make it go farther. This is the beginning of how a movement of hundreds becomes thousands, and thousands can become millions and then more millions in the right situation.”
Donate here. Email us at baeverywhere@gmail.com when you’ve gotten a matching donation. Also, ask the person donating to write a statement saying why they are doing so. This can be shared with the people in Harlem so people can get a sense of each other in this movement for revolution and around this Bus Tour, and would also be part of encouraging others to contribute.
Match the $291 Raised at the “Penny Drive” in Harlem!
A recent snapshot on this blog, “From Uptown (NY City),” reported on a fundraising yard sale and “Penny Drive” in Harlem where people brought their penny jars to contribute to the pile. In addition to the $151 raised from the sale of donated goods, the crew had a water jug with a sign saying “DONATE! The BAsics Bus Tour”—into which 74 people threw in $80, and a few days later another 55 people contributed $60 for a total of $291 raised. The report said, “The Penny Drive with its chart of how many people contributed turned into one way that many people could give material support to the tour on the spot, no matter what their economic situation. Now if we win a few people who have more resources to match what is being raised by people who have few, we really can raise lots of money and help the bus tour reach many, many people.”
We are calling on people to take up this challenge! All across the country, we want to aim to get 25 matching donations of $291 each by the end of this week. Have potential donors read the blog posting from Harlem and watch the video about the last leg of the Tour. Then ask them to match the donations given by this grouping of people who have few resources. Of course, if a donor has the means to give more, they should be asked to do so.
Email us at baeverywhere@gmail.com when you’ve gotten a matching donation. Also, ask the person donating to write a statement saying why they are doing so. This can be shared with the people in Harlem so people can get a sense of each other in this movement for revolution and around this Bus Tour, and would also be part of encouraging others to contribute.
$25,000 by the end of the July 6-8 weekend
A new movement is being forged around the mass campaign to raise big money to project Bob Avakian’s vision and works into every corner of society: BA Everywhere… Imagine the Difference It Could Make! With this, we are bringing something radically new onto the scene—and in the next five weeks this all can take a big leap as BA’s voice gets out into society even further and as the movement for revolution is further forged and organized. Lots of money is needed for this — and that is a BIG opportunity to reach out even further and more widely. The total goal to accomplish the next leg of the BAsics Bus Tour is $50,000 by August 1st. Half of this is needed by the end of the July 6-8 weekend. To enable this, a video about the last leg of the BAsics Bus tour will be released online on Friday, July 6. $8,500 has been raised thus far from all kinds of people — doing stoop sales, picnics and making larger individual contributions. $16,500 is needed by 11:59pm, Sunday, July 8th.
Start making plans now.
Interview: Going Out Boldly and Broadly to Raise Funds for the Bus Tour
Reposted from Revolution #269, May 20, 2012
Revcom.us recently posted a correspondence from a reader who wrote about going out to some professors and others for donations to the BAsics Bus Tour, and raising $1,200 in a concentrated period of time (“Going All Out to Raise Funds for the BAsics Bus Tour Through the South”). Revolution felt it was important talk to this person about how they approached people in taking out the Bus Tour and BA, how people then found their way to expressing their support, what was found out about people’s thinking—AND how a significant amount of money was collected. There’s a lot for everyone to learn from this experience as people go out to take the BA Everywhere campaign even higher and raise big money to project BA’s voice and work into every corner of society.
Q: What was your approach in doing this fundraising?
A: First off, I realized that we had to go raise money for this—it was so critical for this bus tour to happen. When I asked for money, I asked for big money, especially from people who can afford it. I asked several people for $1,000—I didn’t get that, but I got some donations and pledges that were large.
BAsics Bus Tour — Sample Fundraising Letter
The following is a template for letters to send out to people broadly to raise funds for the BAsics Bus Tour. You can draw from and adapt this template, or write your own letters—the important thing is to reach out to everyone you know and call on them to donate to this tour that will make a big difference in the world.
Dear ,
I am writing to ask for your support for an exciting and impactful venture… the next leg of the BAsics Bus Tour kicking off from New York City in mid-July.
This is building off the last leg in May which went from Atlanta, GA to Sanford, FL (where Trayvon Martin was murdered). This tour reached out to, and captured the imagination of, thousands—connecting people with the vision and work of Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader who has developed a new synthesis of communism. And all throughout the tour, the multinational and multigenerational volunteers worked to involve people in the campaign to spread BA’s voice even further as part of building the movement for revolution.
Thank you for supporting the BAsics Bus Tour, now let’s take it higher!
Thank You to everyone who contributed to the BAsics Bus Tour!
We raised $32,866 to exceed our goal of $30,000. Hundreds of people across the country contributed, from many small contributions and a few larger individual donations. Over the past few weeks they stepped forward to make something very important happen… the first leg of the BAsics Bus Tour which went through parts of the South and delivered a message from those hundreds to the people of Sanford. And in doing so, those people around the country and those that the Bus Tour met in the South have been part of beginning to cohere a national movement around the mass fundraising campaign to project Bob Avakian’s vision and works into every corner of society, BA Everywhere…Imagine the Difference It Could Make! Follow http://basicsbustour.tumblr.com to see what an impact this is having and all that was learned in the process.
Contribute now to take the BAsics Bus Tour even higher. While a budget and goals for the next leg of the Tour haven’t been released yet, it will likely cost around $30,000 or more. Raise funds, as you build on what has begun through the Bus Tour, involve others in this movement, and spread the message of BAsics 1:13 everywhere.
The BAsics Bus Tour: Next Stop -- Atlanta and Beyond
From the article…
The BAsics Bus Tour is getting ready to hit the road in the South. Next week volunteers from Los Angeles to New York will stream into Atlanta. They will be traveling there on the money donated for this tour all across the country. Some will be taking greetings that were created and signed in the communities they’re coming in from. They’ll be representing something much bigger than themselves. As one volunteer put it: “This is a great opportunity to expand and widen the movement for revolution, as well as to let many more people know about BA and the revolution…the fact that this vision was brought to them and that they know that there are people who really WANT TO DEDICATE THEIR LIVES to change the world, that already makes a difference in the political atmosphere of the country.”
This crew will bring word of Bob Avakian and the new synthesis of communism he’s brought forward, the strategy for revolution he’s developed, the leadership that he’s providing to the movement for revolution. The focal point of this tour is BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian—a book of quotations and short essays that concentrates over 30 years of BA’s work on everything that stands between humanity and its emancipation. This work can introduce people to “the basics” of understanding and changing the world and give them the foundation from which to act on the world and learn more. The tour will be getting out hundreds of copies of BAsics itself, and tens of thousands of palm cards and posters drawing from this work, letting people know about it and getting into all kinds of discussions off of it.
BAsics Bus Tour Kicking Off From Atlanta in Early May — Be part of taking it higher
The BAsics Bus Tour is going to hit the road again. After its successful pilot launch in California, the BAsics bus is going to take it higher. And $20,000 is needed to make it happen.
Momentum is building in the mass campaign to raise big money to project the vision and works of Bob Avakian into every corner of society. In the coming months, new rounds of the BAsics Bus Tour are going to be spreading out to different areas. And now, beginning in Atlanta, then heading out from there, the BAsics bus will be rolling into the thick of the struggle in a particularly hot area in this country. The crew aboard will bring the message of revolution and introduce Bob Avakian to people who are beginning to fight the power. This will be changing the atmosphere, bringing the fresh wind of the possibility of a whole new world, attracting people’s deep hopes for humanity and outrage at the world as it is… stirring up controversy, deep engagement and critical thinking. It will bring the answers people so desperately need about the way out of all this and involve people in different ways in the mass campaign: BA Everywhere! Imagine the Difference It Will Make! This is needed now more than ever, and if this is accomplished, it will make a very big difference.
Whatever you can do and wherever you are, you can make your time, effort and energy count! Your creativity, participation and support is needed to make a truly big difference in the world right now.
Source: revcom.us
