said by onemorechris
on Saturday, 15 August 2009, 9:11pm

I don't spend 1p, 2p and 5p's so by the time pride comes along I usually have upwards of £20 to give away.

It took till I got the the park this year to find someone with a bucket - and including this guy I saw two people with buckets. It's been a similar story every year I've been.

Everyone in the parade itself should use that captive audience (and in the New Steine/Street Party) to get some cash and make it a fun experience to do so.

Tickets for Preston Park should be a last option - maybe that's where things are. 100% would have to go to the park and charity though.

I think the guys in control of pride need to step up. The park is great but if it's going to cost money for everyone next time and there isn't notably more going on - are people not going to feel a little ripped off? Your £5/£10 to get in next year will get you exactly what you had last time for free? This could backfire.

I agree that looking beyond the gay community for cash would be a start.

said by daledrury
on Sunday, 16 August 2009, 4:49pm

@Ben. I totally agree with you in regards to collecting over the two days on the street where thousands of people attend. When I was involved I had meetings with pride suggesting the same thing but still nothing came out of it... putting money buckets on bars isn’t attracting the cash... if someone waved a bucket my way on the street I would have put cash in, so would the people around me... and so would probably more than 50% of the crowd. No buckets on the street was always my concern.

Pride 2009 should be paid for by now, and unfortunately if they are setting themselves a target to raise 50k by the end of 2009 and only leaving themselves eight months next year to raise another 300k for pride 2010 then I doubt it’ll be raised at all. Massive changes are needed. In theory if it rains down in 2010 they will be 100k short, will they not?

With the amount many people spend over the pride weekend (hotels, new clothes, costumes, drinking, partying) I can't see people having a problem paying £1 to enter the park and that would make a significant financial difference to pride.

I would think that not even half the people in attendance to the park buy from the bar, so maybe the drinks should be reduced from their high prices - but a charge to enter the park... if you think about the theory of that more money would be raised this way.

More buckets I say!

said by CarlH
on Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 12:36pm

It's clear from the posts on here and talking with friends that a big contributor to the £50K deficit was the lack of buckets which is a lesson learnt for next year. Should the Pride team step down? No! It was still a fantastic event and there are many aspects, not just fundraising, to putting on an event like this that needs huge amounts of experience and contacts. However the money still needs to be found and this is a challenge the Pride Team need to step up to and not take the easy way out.

As far as next year is concerned there are benefits and draw-backs to both keeping it free and charging.

Keeping it free:
We know it can be done, just with more fundraising buckets. Train station is a perfect place to get the London crowd. At the entrance to the park is also the place everyone passes through but had no buckets this year. The information lanyards should have be given out when a donation was made, not simply for free. The rain plays a big part if someone is willing to give up their time to help support Pride, hand them out umbrellas or have collection points in the park that have a canopy to keep them dry.

Charging:
Additional costs of fencing off Preston Park, additional security, administering tickets both in advance and on the day, would all have to be met by the ticket price, leaving less for the rest of the event. As people are being charged they'll be less likely to donate as they expect the money for their ticket to cover everything. Would also expect the numbers to reduce which would put a question mark over how much money could be raised by charging.

Charging would be a huge risk and I'm not sure it's a risk I'd want to see Pride take.

said by Huw
on Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 5:56pm

One way that we can all support Pride both financially and organisationally is by becoming Pride Members via the Pride website. This costs £15 (waged) and gives you a say in the running and future direction of the organisation. I must confess that I've let my membership lapse (due to laziness really) but I will be rejoining given the current situation.

I was on the Pride committe for two years a while ago and I can confirm that it is huge commitment of time as a volunteer throughout the year (fundraising ideas meetings on wet November nights anyone?), with very little thanks (as evidenced by some of the "why don't THEY do more to raise sponsorship/bucketeers" comments on this site). It is very difficult indeed to get people to volunteer to do buckets on the park and then actually turn up. One year a super-market chain said that they'd supply bucketeers, but no one turned up, leaving it to the committee and whatever friends and relatives could be persuaded to give up their day to shake a bucket at the last minute.

said by beaver
on Saturday, 22 August 2009, 10:41pm

i think it's time to re-think the whole 'pride' event. Over the past few years the park has become less and less a brighton gay celebration and more a london circuit party (and increasingly less gay). At the same time london pride has abandoned its party and has finally become something worth celebrating. Let's be honest: for most people this isn't really "pride" any more is it? It's just a big commercial party.