SMS Venice ONLUS

SMS Venice ONLUS (SVO) s a non-profit association founded in 2009 that has the aim to make people more aware of the opinions of the national and international public of the collections of funds for restoration, conservation and valorization of artistic estates and architecture of San Marco and of the City of Venice. SMS Venice ONLUS, with the Town Hall of Venice and the Board for the Properties and Assets of Architectural Structures and Landscapes of Venice and the Lagoon gave life to a campaign of communications and events with the objective of igniting the search-light on this theme that the city has always had need of. The SVO, which like all of the Onlus, is by statute, unaligned, and apolitical (even if in the end they have a clear political value broadly speaking) has direct operating principles:
1) to develop a complex project, variegated and broad with numerous possibilities of valuable creations and making aware of aspirations and collections of funds;
2) to involve the Venetian system (fabric?) in the most ample and shared way possible and opening the doors to all who for affinity of objective and common vision strategically retain it.

The project has three concentric levels of reference for the campaign for awareness and collection; Venice and the region of Veneto and it’s tourists in particular; the second level nationally where the activity develops from the involvement of supporters and media partners who will be consolidated, and finally the third level, the international one, which already partially occurs in Venice and is already a "global media".

The Onlus, in short, has a very difficult task and that is to create a community of supporters, people who will have a unique thing in common, "Amare Venezia", their love for Venice. Those who are tied to her by a memory or a joyful moment in their lives, but who do not want her to remain only a memory, or a souvenir, but to continue to be a live city with the capacity to pass on her tradition and history and to be a symbol of culture and future. As has been noted, the financial need for the conservation of such architectural assets is immense and destined not to exhaust, and like there is the Fabbrica of the Duomo of Milan, we would like to open the Fabbrica of Venice. Just the involvement of large numbers can aim at the attainment of these objectives and in a continuous mode. The sponsors, the donations of a considerable amount, they are important and fundamental, but unfortunately insufficient. Only few could turn around now on this one-way street.

FUND RAISING

Fundraising is a complicated process and in a historic moment like this, is not easy. The first question that Onlus asked is, is it right to lavish all of these resources and energy for an activity that is this financial situation and in a historic moment like this, where priorities and primary needs could be other things. In actuality there are other things, hunger and illness in a poor world and people without work or the needy in the rich world. But to work to preserve and increase the value of a sign so tangible and clear, of something that man was able to make should be in front of a recall to strength and to centrality of man in the history of his capacity of continuous betterment, but which during lack of activity can bring self-destruction and therefore, now more than ever before although he is in crisis, the world, man created and has the recourses, if properly distributed, could also save it. This message is stronger and universal because it covers the most beautiful works of art every created by man. Venice speaks to the heart and the emotions of the millions of people who visit her every year. Briefly a gesture because discounted the value of the economy which such an artistic estate and architectural can and should be generating, if well preserved and valued. One after the other the first and most technical aspect, even if vital to the fulfillment of the goal.

SMS Venice was born as a format and as such develops in numerous directions so to generate donations and earnings. The campaign of communications, maybe the first for collecting in structural funds, aims first of all to create a stimulus "of acquisitions" derived from the take of consciousness of the problem.

The major sectors will be the following:

1) donations using the technological platform supplied by PosteCom, that which could potentially give the most important results because it moves in a world without confines, that is the web;
2) media royalties connected to events and shows;
3) ticketing of events and shows;
4) merchandise and products sold by nature at low prices, that permit the following of a line where one gets a lot from a little, for example selling bracelets that will be made in partnership with Vela;
5) sponsors, surely the most difficult to obtain, managed and coordinated completely by the Office of Marketing of the Town Hall;
6) then there are a series of transversal activities that go with the production and mass commercialization of a series of scratch off tickets (paper and digital), auction of works of art that become "donations" to the project, just like in 2008 with the operation "The Signs of the Difference" with Lancia, sold at a bargain from the Festival of Cinema and that we hope can be repeated the following year with even better results and finally the Gala Dinner to present the testimonials and friends foreseen for December 2009, an occasion during which the dates for 2009 will also be announced.

An important aspect to underline is that the Project, that one can see publicized on our website the collection dates and the management, has as a policy to not go above our costs of organization, management and communications the 20% collection, considering also that from today the start up of the project was made possible thanks to the activities of entrepreneurial FT & Associates with sustained costs and investments in spending of nearly 500,000 euro, plus the activity that this summer will be developed for the organization of concerts which at the inside of the summer festival will be managed by SMS Venice.
Up until now we have not mentioned what will be the objective of collections, and in reality, there is not, but we cannot collect like the challenge indicated by Sindao in his interview which appeared in the Corriere della Sera from last Sunday,
70 million Euros.
An enormous sum, and for this reason we need to immediately start working to collect the first euro, or better still the first 80,001 because this is the official sum given by the administration for the activities to be carried out in 2008 with the concerts organized in Piazza San Marco.