Member Charity for Pride ?

Demand for Manchester Pride Community Membership
Solution Found Following LGBT Community's Fury

A campaign has begun for Manchester Pride, a local charity currently under fire, to be converted into a 'membership charity'. Campaigners say membership would re-engage the LGBT community and organisations with the charity and enable them to influence decisions with votes.

Paul Wheatley, a member of the Facebook group 'Facts About Manchester Pride', thinks this change would be of great public benefit, and help restore the perception of the charity amongst the LGBT community.

He said “Recent protests and online campaigns show that people feel strongly about how Manchester Pride is currently run, and there's a strong appetite for a new approach with better results. There's one problem; we all have different ideas, therefore we need democracy. This might be the silver bullet solution. Rejecting the current structure doesn't have to mean razing Pride to the ground. This way, we preserve the charity and the assets, but allow our entire community to take an active decision-making role for the first time.”

Manchester Pride has been the topic of dozens of negative press articles in 2 months following huge drops in charity sums. The charity are withholding their latest accounts, which resulted in a number of protests outside the Manchester Pride offices and in the Gay Village. Campaigners expect the accounts to show that profits have collapsed from £161,694 in 2008/09 to £22,868 in 2012/13. Some community members believe the charity could make a loss in 2014 without intervention.

Campaigners are concerned that the board of trustees for Manchester Pride won't give their consent to the conversion, and their consent is necessary to proceed. Manchester Pride  have declined media engagements and aren't responding to many emails and phone calls from community members.

44% (80,000) of charities have voting members and 84% of charities with individual members “overwhelmingly saw the role of their membership as a positive one”
- source: Charity Commission RS7a Guidance - 2005

Anyone can become an 'individual member' and businesses, charities and community groups can each choose a representative to become a 'corporate member'. Members can vote on issues at the Annual General Meeting, can call additional meetings during the year, and can elect new trustees. Membership can be free, and numbers are unlimited.

Benefits of membership is likely to include;

greater transparency and accountability of the board of trustees
greater appreciation of the need of beneficiaries
improving the charity's influence
providing new fundraising opportunities
membership as a source for new trustees

Campaigners will write to the board of trustees by the end of December 2013 with a formal written proposal to convert the charity into a membership charity.

Published: 19-Dec-2013: (2226)