Currently, any Browncoat group that does a CSTS event, whether a full screening or an Affiliate event, donates at least 75% to Equality Now and up to 25% to other registered charities. A few events have expressed a desire to donate more than 25% to other charities. The CSTS Steering Committee and the 2013 Global team recognize that this is a big decision and everyone should be allowed to have their say.
There will be a discussion about this on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, in the CSTS Forums and on the website until the end of Sept at which time there will be a poll for all to vote.
Emotions can run high when it is something important to you, but let’s make sure the conversation stays civil.
First let me say FIRST! Now, first last and always EQUALITY NOW!
I don’t see a problem with changing the percentages to maybe 50/50. But remember, Equality Now is the main charity because it is Joss’ main charity and he and the fight for Firefly are the whole reason we started doing the CSTS events.
If cities want to use the skill they have learned from doing CSTS screenings to raise money for other charities at *other* events, that’s great. But CSTS screenings were started to raise money for Equality Now & it should continue to be for Equality Now.
I posted this blog to whedonesque.com. http://whedonesque.com/comments/31779
This started as something to raise money for Joss Whedon’s charity of choice, and that’s Equality Now. Without Joss, none of this would be happening. He’s given us so much that we continue to enjoy. The least we could do, in my opinion, is continue to do this as a tribute to him. I am a purist, so 100% of our events goes to Equality Now. I wouldn’t expect Global to tighten things up from the 75-25 split that is already allowed, but I don’t think it should be loosened up any either.
What is missing in this discussion is the fact that some cities would like to give more to their local charities and if they cannot they are willing to leave CSTS. That means fewer cities and less money to Equality Now. You can have 50% of a city’s take go to EN or you can have none of it. Which is better? EN is not a 501c3 equivalent tax favored charity in Canada, this may affect charitable giving . Amanda at EN has stated that she is fine with a reduced split. Think carefully before you are willing to part company with these cities and lose their contribution. I think it is important for us to stay together. Each city can give as much as 100% to EN or as little as 50%. It is very likely that that the amount raised will be little changed. Evolution and compromise are crucial to the survival of any organization. You can have 20 cities adhering to a strict orthodoxy and raise $50,000.00 or you can have 40 raising $100,000.00. Which is better?
I know of one city that says it will leave. Every city gone is a loss, of course. But as far as I know, we are not hearing talk of mass desertion.
The following are posts from Amanda Sullivan, representing Equality Now, which were posted to the CSTS forum during the Event Organizer consultation in late August.
“I just want to weigh in here that, yes, of course we are ok with whatever you all come up with. You do all the work, every year, year after year, and the results have been mind-blowing, spectacular and have helped us more than I can tell you. Equality Now is small, you know, and because of that we do not like to duplicate efforts on any given issue. Violence against women and girls is ubiquitous, a worldwide epidemic and we would like to take up so much more but we simply can’t. Rather we work with our grassroots partners in the other countries to strategically support their efforts for justice for women and girls. An exception to the Action campaigns is our Levenson work (UK), also our work on pressing for a UN Committee on Discrimination against women in law put in place to monitor countries, as we believe that laws must be enacted and enforced, also our SOAWR work in Africa. These are broader issues and are just as strategically important as our campaign work. Again, we always work in collaboration with our partners and focus on pressuring governments through strategic litigation, to enact and enforce laws protecting their women and girls.
We are also always sorely in need of funding, especially now as we are going through a period of major growth that is necessitating a lot of adjustments and organizational changes. It was bound to come eventually, we are 20 years old now and growth was inevitable, and is a good sign! Obviously, we need funding in order to realize that growth (85-88% of our funds go to our programs) and I hope you ALL know how extremely and deeply grateful we are for your extraordinary support and efforts on our behalf.
Having said all that I want to also reassure you that we totally understand your desire to support your local charities, and how important doing so – in varying degrees – might be to all of you. I believe it is a tribute to who you are, every city uniquely so.
I hope, WE hope that you are all able to come to a compromise that is satisfactory to everyone. I am sure that you will be able to. All of you do this every year for FREE. The way I see it is, you do it because you love Joss, you love the crew, the series and the movie, you love getting together and pulling it together and celebrating. You love the community of CST. It truly is a unique and brilliant example of people working together for a common purpose. I have witnessed it firsthand and it is very, very SHINY.
One more thing, I hope you won’t ever hesitate to come to me with any questions about anything involving Equality Now and/or our history with Joss, with CSTS, our future, anything.
With all my warmest wishes,
Mandy”
“Just to let you know, EN was/is part of that coalition re: representation of women in the media, from the very beginning. Our London office director was quoted often in your press and had a fantastic piece in the Guardian. There is a lot that we do that we do not do Action Campaigns on, this being a prime example. Everything we do is up on the website.”
“We cannot register in Canada without ‘bricks and mortar’.”
Personally, I’m in favour of leaving the split as it is – minimum 75% for Equality Now, maximum 25% to other charities (where groups can choose to donate 75%-100% to Equality Now, with the remaining going to charities of their choice).
The purpose of CSTS has (from it’s very beginning) been about raising money and awareness for Equality Now, not just being a general charity event for Browncoats. There are many opportunities for Browncoats to raise funds for local charities, and there are no limitations that state that only CSTS events can organise screenings of Serenity or Whedonverse content or other activities for charity. While I understand that there are some groups who would prefer to raise money for local charities (particularly when there is no national Equality Now office in their country), CSTS has always been intended to be an Equality Now fundraiser. And for what it’s worth, Equality Now’s donor base isn’t as large as you might think – like many other charities, they’re sorely in need of funding.
To me, CSTS is not just about having a large dollar figure raised for a whole lot of charities. From it’s beginnings, it’s meant to be about using Joss Whedon’s works (specifically Serenity) to raise awareness and funds for Equality Now.
I wasn’t particularly keen on the reduction from 100% for Equality Now (back in 2009), but I am accepting of the desire for that change. I feel that to reduce it further would create an environment that steers CSTS away from being an Equality Now fundraiser, and instead towards being a catch-all Browncoat charity event (which could then cause groups to feel restrained from organising non-CSTS fundraising activities because they may feel like they have to organise under the CSTS banner as some kind of “that’s how Browncoats fundraise” expectation, as well as cause us to lose the focus of CSTS).
Full Disclosure: I am a member of the CSTS Global Steering Committee, a past Global Team member (2009) and have also been organiser/crew of CSTS events in Melbourne, Australia (2007, 2009-2013) and Vancouver, Canada (2006).
Regarding queries about the history of the donation proportion: The proportional split was set in 2009 by the then Global Steering Committee and Global Team to settle a question that had been asked for a number of years (it makes it easier for organisers to know what they can do, rather than having a moving target all the time). The timing was simply because CSTS was getting a bit more structured (after CSTS had found it’s feet and due to some lessons learned from challenges faced by past global teams). They settled on 75/25 as a reasonable proportional split (which the CSTS community at the time seemed quite happy with). Prior to this, there may have been events that were using a different split Many cities still donate 100% to Equality Now.
I would prefer to stay at current level, already a compromise. I liked Jen’s comment that groups are free to organize lots of other fundraisers using their great skills and fan lists.
Idk…Equality Now is close to my heart…and it’s Joss’ charity. But I’m all for the 50/50 idea or keeping it the same. I’m not entirely sure how to process works (because I’ve never been able to attend a CSTS event…the shunning may commence) but I think that it’s important to be able to support other charities too…a careful examination of where the money is going would be important.
As to cities leaving…as unfortunate as that would be – coming from someone who works in the non-profit sector – you can’t please everyone – work with what you have and build from there. If those cities that leave really care about the project they will be back. We need to stay true to who we are – this is an Equality Now project first and a Firefly/Serenity project second.
Stay Shiny, Jerrod
I apologise in advance for the length of this post but it turns out I have a lot of thoughts about this issue that have been percolating in my head for a couple of months.
For those interested in my connection with CSTS I helped organise CSTS Melbourne in 2010, 2011, and 2012, I have been CSTS twitter monkey since June 2010 and this year I’ve also taken on the role of Donations Administrator at Global level. I attended my first CSTS event in 2011.
I do not believe the donation % should change. For many reasons.
To me CSTS is about thanking Joss Whedon. The person who not only created the ‘Verse and characters we love so much but who believed enough to fight for their story to continue, fought with us to get Serenity. Equality Now is his chosen charity, he is the reason we all came together, this is our thank you to him.
And while it’s nice to see big figures roll in, I think the awareness raising about EN is equally as important as the money donated.
Something I recently realised about one of the impacts of a % change is on the Donations Admin. Currently we confirm donations with Equality Now and KNTR, if donations are made to other charities we usually take it on good faith the proof of donation (copy of receipt, cheque etc emailed to us) is what was donated. We can guarantee most of the money goes where it’s meant to, which is one reason CSTS has such a good reputation. If the % is changed all of the charities will have to be contacted, some who are not aware of who we are may wonder why we’re asking, it may take a lot longer to verify etc. It will create a lot more work.
Some people are worried CSTS is dying because we don’t have as many cities participating in the past couple of years. I don’t believe this to be even remotely the case. However CSTS is in severe danger of dying in the next year or so because nobody is stepping up to help at Global level. There are currently 4 of us doing the work of at least 11 people. If it wasn’t for Jen and Lioness doing an incredible amount of work the last few years I’m not sure there would currently be a Global CSTS. We almost didn’t have a Global Event Coordinator this year, and I have no idea if anyone will volunteer for the role next year. I mention all this, which may seem irrelevant to the current discussion, only so that when I say something creates more work people understand it’s not that we’re afraid of hard work but that Global is currently stretched to breaking. If you really want to see CSTS survive in whatever form then consider volunteering or encouraging others to at Global.
I’m in Australia where EN has no office and little to no press coverage yet our events are growing and currently all Australian events give 100% to EN. I can’t speak for any other cities but I know when I worked on Melbourne events we felt it was important to inform people about EN, what they did, why their work was vital and what the connection between us is. If cities choose not to make Equality Now an important part of their event, that is their decision.
If watching the When I Speak video doesn’t make you think it’s important to support Equality Now then I doubt what I’m about to say will change your mind. There was something that happened earlier this year that made me proud and so very happy CSTS is such a big fundraiser for EN. If you didn’t hear, back in May an 11 year old girl in England wrote a heart breaking letter to the British office of EN asking them to help her avoid being subjected to FGM. I can’t help thinking where would she be if Equality Now wasn’t here. EN has been doing a lot of work in the UK in particular on FGM. Because EN exists she had someone to turn to, there is hope for her and other girls that they won’t be horribly mutilated.
And if that wasn’t enough there was a report from the World Health Organisation in June which found violence against women is at epidemic levels, 35.6% of all women worldwide will experience violence. EPIDEMIC LEVELS.
CSTS is a global organisation with events across the world and I believe we should mainly support a charity that works with and benefits people worldwide.
This is a difficult discussion at times because it’s so hard to say this charity should be supported more than another because they are all deserving and do vital work.
No one is stopping anyone from doing good in the name of Browncoats. Yes the number of cities has fallen in the last 2 years but everything thing ebbs and flows, I think the fact we’ve kept so strong in numbers for so many years has been an amazing achievement. There are many factors for the cities we’ve lost and I think the donation split would account for less than a handful.
If people want an umbrella organisation to support and be a hub for a whole host of Browncoat fundraising then we create that, but that’s not what CSTS is.
If hypothetically we do change to a 50/50 split, what’s to say the cities who wanted the change in a few years leave anyway or want the split reduced again?
I am hopeful for the future of CSTS, through twitter I’m lucky to talk with people who have just discovered Firefly or CSTS or both. And I get to talk to people who are thinking about running an event because there’s not one near them. As far as I know the current split has not put off anyone thinking of running an event and I don’t think the current donation % is damaging us.
The CSTS and EN symbols are entwined in our logo, and I think EN should remain our primary charity focus.
Thank you for reading.