Memories

It seems mad to me that any charity would turn down help and money, however that is what they have just done!

Here is what they said;

“Your idea to offer a charitable donation for each one of your products sold is legally defined as a royalty (payable in return for the use of the charity’s brand) and has various legal and financial implications, including being subject to VAT.  For all partnerships of this kind, we require a minimum income to Cancer Research UK to be contractually guaranteed. This is usually in the order of £50,000 per annum and is VATable.  This minimum amount is set both in recognition of the value of the brand association itself but also because there is a significant cost to the charity of managing commercial relationships of this nature.  Given our finite resources and the need to protect our brand, we can only enter into partnerships that meet this criteria in terms of income generation.
However, we are really pleased you have thought of supporting us and hope you may continue to support the charity in other way, for example, you might like to think about organising staff fundraising activities which can be a lot of fun for all involved as well as helping raise vital funds to help beat cancer or you may like to get involved in local fundraising events.“

What can i say…  It’s a shame that red tape gets in the way of the purpose of the charities which in my opinion is to help people.  It’s a sad day when charities become elitist against small companies trying to give a little something back.  Oh well, let then hunt for a more forward thinking charity, either that or it’s a staff fund raiser for two… how about it Tony?

Today we sent our proposal off to Cancer Research Uk as they are our chosen charity for this project.  We are look for help and support and for the charity to back us in this amazing project.

Fingers crossed!

Cancer is such a pervasive killer these days that few of us go through life untouched by the disease. We’ve decided to do something about it by launching the Memories project and the outcome will be a beautiful art book. Proceeds from the sales of Memories will go towards cancer support (charity TBA)

Memories will look at the thoughts and experiences of individuals who have survived cancer, as well as those of people who have lost loved ones. There will be ten stories inside, each looking at one person’s recollection of a particular day in the struggle against cancer. For each of these ‘memories’ a dozen leading artists, illustrators and designers will be creating their own visual response. Two further stories will go ‘open brief’ and we’ll be inviting creatives worldwide to make their own images to accompany the text. The best submissions will go into the book.

That makes for 12 touching stories, and 144 smashing pieces of artwork

The project is being launched this summer by Designers Against Human Rights Abuse (DAHRA), Subism, OneTenEleven Media and editor Garrick Webster. Along with a number of writers and, of course, all the image contributors, they’ll be volunteering their time and skills to the project. We expect it will take a year to complete, culminating in the launch of Memories and an exhibition.