Dear John,

These aren’t my favourite emails to write, but sometimes, needs must. As Head of Campaigns and Organising at Positive Money, it’s my job to communicate with you, and all our supporters, updates and actions we can all take to make our money and banking system fairer.

Today I’m asking you to put your hand in your pocket and make a donation to Positive Money. Because right now we don’t have enough money to run the big campaigns we need to in 2020. To stop banks funding climate breakdown. To make sure Brexit benefits people, not bankers. To stop Facebook’s Libra and instead demand a public form of money.

I type with a lump in my throat, because looking to the future I feel quite scared - climate and economic breakdown are on the horizon. 

But I also feel genuine hope. Movements like Positive Money are pushing for the radical reforms we so desperately need - to avert these crises and build a fairer, more secure future. 

What we do together is working. Writing groundbreaking research. Turning it into policy. Putting it under the noses of politicians and central bank governors. Then our local groups get the word out in communities and our relationships with journalists help our actions break into the media. And we’re starting to have a real impact on policy makers. [1]

But the economic and social situations are now urgent. So now’s the time for us to scale it up. Nearly 100 supporters have already chipped in in the last few weeks. John, please will you help? It’ll take you just a minute or two.

The wonderful thing about Positive Money is that we’re a people-powered movement. That means the only people whose approval we need to take actions are those who support our mission: reforming the money and banking system so we can have a fair, democratic and sustainable economy.  

But this also comes with drawbacks. It means we don’t receive any funding from big businesses or the government. We have some grants funders, but our resources otherwise depend on the number of people who are willing to chip in.

In the 2010s we built up a small office team, local groups network, and a movement of tens of thousands. We pushed the Bank of England to a better place on climate change and halted the RBS sell-off. We spearheaded exciting progressive policies such as a central bank digital currency and broke into the broadcast and print media hundreds of times. 

For our work to hit new heights in 2020 we need a bigger budget. Please will you make sure together we’re ready for whatever this year throws at us? Please will you chip in today?

Thank you for all that you do,

Rachel from the Positive Money team

PS: In case you missed it, here are Positive Money’s highlights from 2019: ttps://positivemoney.org/2019/12/merry-christmas-from-positive-money-🎄-what-a-year-its-been/

Notes:

[1] Major breakthrough on central banks and climate change:

https://positivemoney.org/2019/04/major-breakthroughs-on-central-banks-and-climate-change/

Labour commits to keep RBS public after our campaign:

https://positivemoney.org/2019/04/labour-commits-to-keep-rbs-public-after-positive-money-campaign/

A Positive Money local group leader’s story:

https://positivemoney.org/2018/03/positive-money-local-group-leaders-story/

MPs echo positive money’s call to give regulator new powers to protect cash: https://positivemoney.org/2018/12/mps-echo-positive-moneys-call-to-give-regulator-new-powers-to-protect-cash/

New Positive Money report ‘Seeking legitimacy’ launched in parliament: https://positivemoney.org/2019/10/new-positive-money-report-seeking-legitimacy-launched-in-parliament/

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