At it’s core, The FreedomBox is a fundraiser; it is a tool V.A.P.E. Society has created to make advocacy fundraising efforts more Efficient, more Equitable, and more Effective.
The current advocacy fundraising model is essentially: Retailers raise cash by selling vapor products at a mark-up; A bill that would severely harm vaping is announced; Retailers realize defeating this bill will require more resources than any one shop can provide; Retailers do the only thing they can– start passing the hat to collect cash.
- Instead of selling mods for cash, losing time pooling cash, and using that cash to pay for advocacy, The FreedomBox makes advocacy fundraising more efficient, by allowing retailers to collect donations on behalf of V.A.P.E. Society.
- Instead of asking shops to contribute cash that they might not have, the FreedomBox make funding advocacy more equitable, by asking for spare shelf space, that every shops has, thus facilitating wider distribution of the financial burden.
- Instead of relying only on direct lobbying, The FreedomBox makes Advocacy funds more effective, by supporting V.A.P.E. Society. V.A.P.E. Society can use the network of shops created by the FreedomBox to engage consumers in the fight to save vaping, and the funds it generate to empower them with the tools they need participate meaningfully. V.A.P.E. Society will not only supplement direct lobbying with informed grassroots activism, but make direct lobbying more effective by providing the constituent stories Lobbyists need to be most effective, and reinforcing the message lobbyists deliver, with massive public support.
