Our goal is to be 100% member-funded by 2018 and we are making solid progress towards that goal.
In the 2014/15 financial year 22% of our funding came from member donations (the rest was from grants)
In the 2015/16 financial year 62% of our funding came from member donations.
Welcome to a new kind of politics: where everyday people are coming together like never before to create change. It’s 100% powered by you. You don’t have to be a billionaire to make a big difference: all of us giving what we can adds up to an powerful force for good, for a fair and flourishing New Zealand.
Lots of our members like chipping in for specific campaigns, and even for specific tactics and actions within each campaign. Making that level of transparency possible is key to what ActionStation is about.
At the same time, there are some regular, ongoing costs involved in building and maintaining the machinery needed to be able to deploy campaigns in critical moments. Every month, for example, we have to pay rent on the desks we hire for our staff and volunteers in Wellington and Auckland, we pay for phones and internet, and for the ongoing costs of hosting and maintaining our website. For these ongoing costs, we depend on our ‘Sustainers’, members who make regular weekly or monthly contributions to ActionStation.
Their regular contributions ensure we can be bold and move quickly, as well as plan ahead with confidence. By chipping in a few dollars each week or month, you are building the infrastructure for a fair and flourishing New Zealand. Enough with the cynicism and noise. Let’s create the future we want, together.
Here's a lovely letter we received from one of our 'Sustainers'
Kia ora ActionStation,
Six old friends talked over dinner on Saturday night. All in our early/mid sixties, all tertiary educated, all financially secure - the privileged white kids of the 1960's now grown up. We were not privileged because we came from wealthy homes. Our privilege was safe loving working families. My own upbringing was in a cul-de-sac of factory houses in an average country town. That street of nine houses produced 6 teachers, a paediatrician, an engineer (all women), a lawyer, a millionaire businessman and others I have lost track of. Similar streets all over New Zealand now struggle with the results of intergenerational poverty and the road to tertiary education is well and truly overgrown.
My friends at dinner talked about our anger that we have people unable to afford homes and our appalling record of child poverty. We are all deeply disturbed by the impact of neo-liberal politics both at home and abroad. We decided that each of us needs to take action on our beliefs in a more public and hopefully constructive way. The idea of post truth politics is very alarming but we know that to act out of fear is to lessen our impact.
So my husband and I will make a start by making a small contribution to ActionStation. We will make an ongoing donation of $10 per week and will actively encourage others to do the same.
Our power is in our collective voice and actions and ActionStation is a great vehicle for us and others who are beginning to sit up and notice.
Perhaps you might like to publish this letter if it can encourage others to do the same. Imagine the power we could unleash with our collective contributions!
Thank you for your important work,
Shona Munro and Barrie Gordon
