Rise Up Belltown

A DOLLAR IS ENOUGH.

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UPDATE! 2/11/2019. Check out our 2018 Financials Recap  on the Rise Up Blog, for a rundown of Rise Up Belltown's income and expenses in 2018, including where we used our resources, and with lessons for 2019. Thank you again for supporting your community! - EHC

You can also check out our 2019 Winter Welcome Book  to learn more about the work of Rise Up Belltown.

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UPDATE!  6/20/18 Thank you to everyone for speaking up! The fundraising goal was originally listed at $20k, which raised a lot of eyebrows. To help make the point that a dollar is enough, we've updated the fundraising target to be $1.00. 

I've also talked about this in more detail, in a recent F.A.Q. on our blog. 


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ORIGINAL: This is a campaign by the #HumansOfBelltown to keep our community and local small businesses alive in the face of gentrification and growth in Seattle, Washington.  We understand the challenge we face, but are excited by the opportunities involving market-based approaches to historic preservation, and investments in our creative economy. 

Every single day for the past quarter century, it has become incrementally more expensive to live or do business in Belltown. In the last decade alone, residential rents have skyrocketed and beloved local businesses have been lost and economically pushed out. The relative decline in affordability for residents and business has caused a massive displacement of Belltown’s longstanding creative communities, including artists, musicians, dancers, stylists, performers, and many more.

Rise Up Belltown is an effort to fight that displacement by working to preserve and create affordable space – space to exist - within the boundaries of Belltown. We are demanding changes from our City leadership, and building strength by connecting as a community. 

You can learn more about our specific proposals at www.RiseUpBelltown.com and by reading the stories of the HumansOfBelltown.   

HOW WILL THE FUNDS BE USED?

As with many issue-based advocacy campaigns, funds will be used to cover things like promotional costs, event costs, supplies and materials, and paid community organizers, among other things.  We'd like to be able to hire three paid organizers in this case, based on past campaigning experience. (Yes, I would like to be one of those three organizers, if we raise enough resources).

Costs can vary significantly, but below are some ballpark figures, just to give you a general idea of expenses:

- July 23rd Rise Up Kick-Off and "Belltown Pop Up": $2,500 - $4,500 (one-time costs)
- Operational things like G-Suite, web, tech, taxes, fees etc: $100 - $600(per month)
- Direct organizing supplies and materials: $75 - $500 (per month)
- Advertising and Promotional budget to get our message out further: $50 - $1500 (per month)
- Paid Organizer x1: $2,500 (per month)
- Paid Organizer x2: $2,500 (per month)
- Paid Organizer x3: $2,500 (per month)

This is just ballpark, as I said, but hopefully it gives you some idea.  The campaign originally had a fundraising target of $20,000 (see *update at top) with the idea being that it was a round number that would cover three organizers, plus expenses, for a month and a half.  That means that those organizers would have to immediately turn around and continue to bring in additional resources for the campaign.  If you have any questions or concerns about this, please please please ask. Or consider joining the BOAT .


A note to local Belltown: this is a community effort, and all feedback (for good or ill) is welcome and encouraged.  If you consider yourself a Human of Belltown (of any kind! even just in solidarity!) and have questions or suggestions, please send us a message through the website , through Instagram , or through Facebook .  We can also be reached by phone or text. 

Thank you for caring about Belltown. Thank you for caring about culture. And thank you to the incredible Chris Word, Jerry Nash, and others for the incredible video at the top of this campaign.  We seriously can't say it better than the people of this community can say it themselves, so please take a minute to get to know the human beings  you're supporting.  We think you'll fall in love, like we have.