Vulcan plan reshaped to include Pledges

Here's the latest update from Robert Pleming, as we look to get the Vulcan to her 50th Birthday...

50th Birthday Appeal - Update Friday 20th November.



50th Birthday Appeal - Pledge Your Donation


Since XH558’s 50th Birthday Appeal was launched just over a month ago, we have gratefully received just over £30,000 from just under 1,000 donors, against our target of £400,000 by Christmas.
This is after mailing out Appeal leaflets to 35,000 people, and featuring the Appeal strongly on our website and through targeted emails.

We have also asked for feedback from our supporters, and have been listening carefully to what they are saying. First, there is an overwhelmingly positive message that we should all try as hard as we can to keep XH558 flying. About 20% of our supporters have still not received their Appeal leaflets, because of the recent postal strikes. (If you want an Appeal leaflet, please call 0116 247 8145.)
But we also understand that, unfortunately, we appear to have overestimated the level of confidence our supporters have at the moment, and in the approach to Christmas of course, the state of their finances!
This has manifested itself in our supporters being unwilling to donate. The perception that any donation may be swallowed up by an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to keep XH558 flying is deterring the uncertain.

We acknowledge this issue, and as the result, we are changing the Appeal from purely a Cash appeal, to be for Pledges as well, similar to the incredibly successful Pledge Campaign appeal at the beginning of the year.
By asking for pledges which will only need to be honoured when we reach our funding targets, we are providing a much higher level of assurance that your money will achieve the goal for which it is being donated – XH558 in the air next year.
We also recognise that, with Christmas soon upon us, people may not be in a position to make a donation until January or February.

The reshaped 50th Birthday Pledge Appeal has four phases, the first aiming to raise £200,000 in donations and pledges in December, followed by monthly phases aiming to raise the same amount again in pledges and donations in January, February and March, resulting in us reaching our £800,000 target by Easter.
This phased approach will allow us to commence the Winter engineering programme in time for a successful return to displays next season.
However, I can’t stress strongly enough the need to reach these monthly targets to ensure that XH558 is flying again by May – the month of XH558’s first test flight, 50 years ago.

The downside of not making these targets is huge, because the nature of our venture does not permit fractional success – we are either successful or we fail completely.

If you wish to make a pledge, you can do so via the website, just click on this link: http://www.site.vulcantothesky.org/pledge.asp

The current running total of pledges is available here:

http://www.site.vulcantothesky.org/pledgedata.asp

However, you can also make a pledge by returning the Appeal leaflet, filled in with your contacts details, the amount you wish to pledge, and the word “Pledge” and the month in which your pledge will be honoured alongside your name.

Our Appeal Results Page will shortly be active so you can monitor progress.

Once we have reached our monthly funding targets, we will ask those who have made pledges to honour them, allowing us to commit the necessary work.
I must also stress that it remains very important that we continue to receive immediate Donations from those who are in a position to give us cash now, since any delay in starting the engineering work not only eats into our funds because of our monthly overheads, but also threatens the start of the 50th Birthday season .
We hope that by acting swiftly and surely in response to the feedback we have been given, we now have the shape of Appeal that everyone can buy in to.
We have done it before, we can, and must, do it again!
Kind regards
Robert Pleming
Chief Executive

So, the plan is to pledging & donating - we need to see that money rolling in between now & Christmas, that's only 34 days away by the way!!