Believe in Scotland supports 127 local Yes campaigns
We Support Local Groups
The grassroots independence campaign is vital in achieving Scottish independence. That’s why Business for Scotland launched the Believe in Scotland campaign – to support the grassroots.
All donations go directly towards supporting grassroots independence campaigning.
Believe in Scotland supports 127 Local Yes Groups, providing them with messaging, campaign materials and funding-raising opportunities.
We are professionalising the Yes Campaign
Early next year we will provide every Local Yes Group with access to a national network of databases to manage memberships, volunteers and canvassing information, as well as access to a mobile canvassing app.
Our track record
We have delivered through our affiliated Yes Groups and partners more than 2.6m items of campaign material in less than two years. No other campaign organisation comes close to our size, professionalism or reach.
Our goal
Independence, pure and simple – we work till we get Yes across the line in a referendum or a general election – regardless of the route to independence, we talk to the undecided and lay the groundwork for a Yes victory.
If you support our aims, please donate now.
In the last two years, Believe in Scotland has become the engine of the grassroots Scottish independence campaign.
No other campaign comes close to our output.
Since its launch in Jan 2019 BiS has now distributed more than 2.6 million items of independence campaigning material in partnership with local Yes groups and activists.
The biggest and best grassroots Yes campaign
127 local Yes Groups are now affiliated with and campaigning under the Believe in Scotland campaign umbrella. Those groups all maintain their independence but have elected 17 regional representatives to the Campaign Steering Group, making it the first fully inclusive and democratic grassroots-led Yes campaigning organisation.
Our fundraising guarantee
We guarantee that 100% of all funds raised will be spent on campaigning materials, leaflets, canvassing systems, posters, books, billboards, polling and videos – absolutely none of the money raised will be spent on wages, office space or admin costs because business owning Yes supporters have already taken care of all of those costs.
Campaign Highlights
We revolutionised the economic arguments for Yes – Launched in January 2019, the Scotland the Brief book has been a phenomenal success, already selling more than 50,000 copies and helping to revitalise the independence campaign.
Our online gallery has hundreds of sharable graphics
During lockdown, when Scotland the Brief-based graphics reached millions through social media and a coordinated billboard campaign. One website article that forms a section of the book has now been shared 81,000 times on Facebook alone.
The biggest social media Yes presence
When lockdown put a dampener on face-to-face campaigning, Believe in Scotland pivoted online, building a unique social media following of around 400,000.
Believe in Scotland also owns and operates the two largest Yes pages on Facebook, which are the only ones to boast more than 100,000 likes each. The ‘We Believe in Scotland’ page has 148,000 likes and BiS also runs the largest and most active Yes Group on Facebook called simply ‘Believe in Scotland’, which has 30,600 members.
The Business for Scotland and Believe in Scotland company pages boast 39,000 and 29,000 likes respectively. The campaign’s 17 local pages are in their infancy but are growing and other social media platforms are also receiving investment, giving the organisation a combined reach of 1 million people through social media on a single day during its August Day of Action.
The Yes movement funds our activities!
The campaign is funded almost entirely by individual donations and memberships we do not accept funds from any political party and we are political party neutral.
The 1m household Wellbeing newspaper
In 2021 Believe in Scotland produced two newspapers, the first of which involved distributing 60,000 copies of Open Minds in partnership with The National and the National Yes Network. Then in November 2021, Believe in Scotland teamed up again with The National, the SNP and Scottish Greens, to produce and deliver 1 million copies of a paper promoting Scotland’s Wellbeing, and independence through doors across the country.
We have coordinated 3 national days of action and 6 Billboard campaigns to reach millions.
The 2021 Autumn of Action saw the polls move from 47% to averaging 53% at the campaign’s end, with one poll registering 55% Yes. However, independence campaigning then stopped for the Holyrood elections and Yes support inevitably dropped again, mainly as the SNP didn’t make their campaign sufficiently about independence to maintain the momentum.
Going forward there can be no stopping, no pausing.
From now on we campaign until we win Scotland’s independence.
Attend the Business for Scotland Annual Dinner with the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Thursday, January 19th, 2023, at the Glasgow Crowne Plaza as a VIP guest.
VIP guests will enjoy a central table position for the dinner and can attend the private VIP reception, meeting celebrities, leading politicians and potentially even the First Minister.
You will also be invited as a guest to one of our BfS Saltire Lunch Club meetings, private dining sessions held across Scotland with leading political speakers and senior politicians.
Billboards cost roughly £500.00 for two weeks – Your donation will pay for one of our fantastic billboards. It won’t necessarily be near you, but we can guarantee an impactful image that will hit home with a key independence message in a target area. We will also send you a mounted A2 print of the billboard you choose (Scotland only), all the previous rewards and we will invite you to our next Saltire Club Lunch (with a leading politician/political expert).
Remember that every donation automatically draws down a matching donation from our Yes supporting Business donors – so your donation is instantly doubled.
HIDDEN
HIDDEN
Make a One-off donation
You can make a one-off donation from as little as £5.00 to as large an amount as you wish. Below are options for our most regular donations.
To make a larger donation than listed here, please email [email protected] to make arrangements as bank transfers and even cheques help avoid larger payment fees.
Would you prefer to donate monthly?
Become an Ambassador for the Independence Movement with our Stakeholder membership.
The best way to support our independence campaign is to become a Believe in Scotland Stakeholder Member by setting up a monthly online payment for a minimum of £5 a month. However, if you would like to donate a higher amount monthly you can do so by selecting a different amount option below.
Stakeholder membership pays for our campaigning efforts and to say thanks we will enrol you in our online Stakeholders’ community, where you can access our Independence Ambassador Training Free of charge. That includes hundreds of hours of videos featuring interviews with leading campaigners and politicians, allows you to attend monthly campaigning surgeries with Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp and you will receive a free PDF copy of our book Scotland the Brief (Mini).
Notes:
- Both Believe in Scotland and Business for Scotland are 100% funded from memberships and donations; we receive no money from Government or political parties, and our decision making is completely independent. Therefore, every donation is vital to our cause and every pound takes us a step closer to independence.
- We use GoCardless to manage donations through Direct Debits as it is a lot more cost effective than PayPal and so leaves us with more of your donation to campaign with.
- Recurring donations are much appreciated and are what keeps us able to do what we do – recurring donations will continue until you stop them (which is easy to do from within GoCardless).
- Finally, it may take 72 hours to add you to our Stakeholder community and give you access to the online learning and other Stakeholder benefits.