Announcing Express Donations

Posted by Blip Central on behalf of Blipfuture CIC

In this post we are announcing a new option to donate via PayPal, and explaining what to expect in the coming weeks.

Hello everyone, and thank you for your continued support – we are delighted that we have now reached over £107,000 in pledges from over 1030 people.  The support from the community is really showing.

Express Donations via PayPal

We have had lots of questions about allowing the use of credit cards to contribute, and about allowing contributions without having to go through registration or questionnaires.  Our crowdfunding partner cannot support this for both regulatory and logistical reasons, and we had reservations about doing this because we can’t offer donors the same protections through this route. 

We are making significant progress towards our goal and we want to respond to your comments, so we have set up a new facility to donate via PayPal for those who would prefer a simpler process or want to use a credit card.  Donations made in this way will count towards the total but won’t automatically appear on our crowdfunding site – we will keep you updated on progress here.  Importantly, donations via PayPal are instant (they are not dependent on whether we reach our target) and have separate terms and conditions.

Just to be clear, there are now two separate ways to contribute:

1) Through our crowdfunding campaign at https://www.blipfuture.com

-This route is lowest cost for us and offers contributors the best protection;
- UK, EU, EEA and CH residents can pledge to buy shares using a debit card;
- Those resident elsewhere can pledge to donate via debit or credit card;
- No money is taken until we reach our goal and pledges can be cancelled until then;
- Full terms and conditions are available at https://www.blipfuture.com

2) Express Donation via PayPal at http://blipfoto.com/activities/donate

- Money is taken instantly with no opportunity to cancel;
- Terms and conditions for donations are available at http://blipfoto.com/activities/donate

The Next Steps

The US investors who currently own Blipfoto are watching our campaign and we will be speaking to them next week on Tuesday 12th January to discuss progress.  We have not reached our target yet, and if they are not confident that we can achieve a deal then they could withdraw support for the site and it could close.  The numbers (number of pledgers and total raised) we take to that meeting are therefore very important in encouraging them to continue to support us – remember, they are paying all the costs just now with no certainty of a return. 

Discussions could take some time, and as it is a commercial negotiation it will necessarily take place behind closed doors.  We will update you as soon as we can, but please remember that in the meantime no news is good news, it just means we are still talking. 

It isn’t helpful for us to speculate here about possible outcomes, other than to say that from all we have seen in the last few weeks we still believe that Blipfoto can have a future as a community-owned site and we will be working hard to achieve that aim.  The best way the community can support us in this work is through the crowdfunding campaign.

Thank you,

Annie, Bob, Graham and Ian at Blipfuture.