Transforming the Rags of our Society into the Riches of God’s Kingdom… The Big Dress costs money!

Fortunately, we know that we are following a vision that God has placed in the network and we know he will provide - but that doesn’t mean we sit around waiting for it to fall out of the sky! Even if you’re not hosting the Big Dress in your town, there is so much we can all be part of to make this tour & campaign a success. Please see the campaigns pages on the web site for more info on what’s going on. There is also a lot more you can do to make it happen and raise awareness at the same time...

Resources

-A fundraising booklet: full of ideas, tools and handy hints.

-A collection box: We can send you a box and loads of stickers to make a tin you can use on stalls and in meetings etc. It’ll help you to remember!

-Sponsor-a-Mile fliers: Pass these out to groups of people when you do a talk, then order as many as you need from the Speak office.

Ideas

There is no shortage of ideas and I’m sure you can come up with more! Here’s a few that relate directly to the Big Dress campaign to get you started...

-Badge Making: There are normally badge making machines lurking around in Sunday school cupboards! See if you can borrow one and make badges with prophetic/activist symbols or slogans and sell them so people can cover up the labels on their clothes. Explain why you’re doing this – exposing the injustice that is behind the labels we wear.

-Clothes Altering Parties: Another good one to highlight our campaign! And you don’t need to be creative. Get some bits of fabric and some fabric paint/pens. Charge people a small fee to come along and re-design their clothes. Encourage people to go against the flow of consumer society that places importance on brands.

-Sponsored Sweatshops: Even though the Big Dress squares have been sewn together, sponsored sweatshops are a great way to raise money. Is there anything else you can sew? What about something you can sell on?

-Slave Auctions: These can raise loads of money. And they can be a good way of highlighting how many people are enslaved by our economic system.

-Use the Mini-Big Dress!: Does anyone remember the mini Big Bress?! It’s bigger than a normal dress and good for dressing up in. We’ll send it out to you if you can get over £200 sponsorship for a crazy action wearing the mini-Big Dress.

-Sponsored silence: Good especially if you’re known for talking a lot! You could do a lot to raise awareness too – having a tie over your mouth that highlights the forced silence of the oppressed.

-Big Dress Ball!: Host a big fancy dress ball! Charge entry, perhaps get some fair trade food/drinks on sale or return from a local fair trade shop. Charge entry and set up displays about the campaign.

-Using the collection box: Get hold of a collection box from the Speak Network support office and use it! You can use it on stalls or at meetings and for other things too. For example, you could use it like a swear box, but for an ethical lifestyle!

-Rich/poor meal: A good old favourite!