ANY QUESTIONS?

What is the thinking behind the Fund?

The Fifty Quid Danger Fund was set up on the back of three strongly-held beliefs:- I believe the world would be a much richer place to live in if everyone who hada smart, funny idea actually did it, without worrying too much about failure,adherence to government diversity policy, risk assessments or what the neighbourswill say.- I believe that, despite what many ‘creative professionals’ would have you believe,1000s of regular people have great ideas every day.- I believe that the current system of funding creativity in the UK isfundamentally opposed to allowing most of these ideas from seeing the lightof day: inaccessible, risk-averse and premised on using culture as a socialdevelopment tool, rather than relishing creativity for creativity’s sake.So we need a fund that addresses this. It must be designed to do several things:- Encourage risk:o Low maximum award: If the maximum award is low, it means that the overallfailure rate of the fund can afford to be much higher. The absolute riskassociated with an award of £50 is much lower than with one of £5000.In other words, the Danger Fund way of doing things gets you more ideas to your pound.o No committees: committees are machines for reducing risk - nothing more,nothing less. So we have a panel of selectors who never meet and who each pickideas they like unilaterally. Eventually this panel of selectors will be madeup of previous fifty quid award winners.o Embrace failure: even if there’s a 95% chance that a great idea won’t work,if you’re really willing to try to make it work in the face of this, I’llcelebrate your failure.- Encourage ideas: o Super easy application: 200words max or 3 pictures, posted or emailed.o We get the idea and nothing but the idea: No other information on who you are,how old you are, what you do or what you’ve done before.- Ensure funded ideas get done:o Support: We’ll give you as much advice and support as we can to help you getyour idea done. So if you’ve never even organised your sock drawer you should apply.o Trust: The main mechanism the fund employs to get ideas done is trust. Ibelieve that the first step in making someone trustworthy is trusting them.So you don’t have to fill out long application forms to actually get the moneyand we won’t sue you if you disappear with the cash. Naïve? I actually don’tthink many people who’ve had a great idea, successfully received funding andfelt the full force of our enthusiasm will just spend the money on getting pissed.

Who are you?

I’m Pablo, a man from Leeds who lives in London. At various points in my life I have found myself involved in art, events, advertising and psychology, and the Danger Fund is an idea that I’ve been meaning to do for several years. You can ask me any more specific questions directly here.

Are you a registered charity?

No we’re not. I want to get stuff done and it’s way too complicated,expensive and tedious at this point. The only point in registering would be tomake us seem more trustworthy. We are trustworthy, and if you don’t believe methen please contact me direct here and I’ll do my best to change your mind.

How do I know that this isn’t some complicated scam?

I promise you it isn’t. Feel free to drop me a line here to grill meabout anything you’d like.

Where does the money come from?

Anyone can donate any amount. I put in the first £50 myself to get the ballrolling. Please feel free to donate anything whatsoever here. I’ll maintain acompletely transparent accounts page here so everyone can see what’s going onwith the money we’re been given.

What’s the legal position on all this?

Have a look at the terms and conditions page.

I’ve never done anything before. Is there support to help me make the idea happen if it gets picked?

Yes. Have a look at ‘Do idea’. We’ll try to help you in any way we can.

What happens if my idea doesn’t get picked?

I’ll let you know, and invite you to prove us wrong. If you do your ideaanyway and it works, I’ll post it up here and wear the egg on my face like a man.

Can I apply more than once?

Yes, but you can only have one application ‘live’ at any one time (wait forthe outcome of each application before submitting the next), and you cannot apply again if yousucceed in gaining funding but fail to return your report on the outcome of trying your idea.