Not Stupid Fundraiser Gala

Date 27th Nov 2008
Submitted by Leo Murray on 27 November 2008 - 1:00am

John Durham and Piers

Investor John Durham with Piers

Philanthropy took off its clothes and ran ostentatiously down the street at last night’s Not Stupid Fundraiser, bringing a staggering £165,000 swooshing into the hitherto empty coffers of the Not Stupid campaign.

This breathtakingly audacious feat of cash-wrangling was brought about by the killer combo of screening the film, immediately followed, before anybody could recover, by snappy 1 minute speeches from a highly prestigious panel –introduced by none other than Gillian freaking Anderson – who between them offered a foolproof rationale for why Not Stupid is such a totally brilliant and essential thing to give money to, including:

•    The excellent Fred Mulder, one of the first to invest in the film, eulogising the inner glow of satisfaction available to investors, and the power of giving
•    Franny explaining the global distribution plan that will bring the film to 250 million viewers
•    Mike Childs from Friends of the Earth explaining why those 250 million potential new climate activists need to focus on the Copenhagen Climate Summit
•    Richard Dent telling of his experience of running the 11th Hour Action Campaign, and his commitment to Not Stupid
•    Ashok Sinha of Stop Climate Chaos talking about how Not Stupid complements their work perfectly, and how they’ll be backing it 100%
•    Franny again, outlining some ideas about how Not Stupid might work, and be different from other stuff
•    Janet Convery from Action Aid explaining the schools resource pack plan
•    Peter Armstrong of OneClimate evoking the power of social networking
•    Lizzie detailing how much this insanely ambitious scheme might actually cost
•    Tony Juniper making the guests an offer they couldn’t refuse

Ker-ching!

Thumbs Up

After passing the hat round and getting it back stuffed with what can only be described as a cash bonanza, we had to have a bit of lie-down, followed by stiff drink, followed by the dawning realisation that far from sipping cocktails by the jacuzzi, the next year of our lives would now be consigned to actually making this thing happen.

Juniper Franny and Dent

Tony Juniper, Franny and Richard Dent

It’s impossible to put into words how grateful we are to everyone who has pitched in to make the Not Stupid campaign possible. The window of opportunity to prevent catastrophic, runaway warming is closing, and Not Stupid is going to play a pivotal part in wedging the bugger open for long enough so that humanity has a decent chance of passing through it.

So thank you.

To everyone else – it’s not too late to contribute! See here for more details.

 

You can see some of the guests response to the film, and its potential to change the world, here:

The Age of Stupid: Fundraiser voxpops from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

Mark Lynas came along too, as a sort of midwife. Here he is talking about his relationship with the film:

The Age of Stupid: Mark Lynas at Fundraiser from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.