......to setting up a trust in order to actually purchase an island?
Here's how it works:
In order to setup a charity in the UK a minimum of £1000 per year is required as income, this works out to £83 per month. A charitable trust setup with the express purpose of raising money to buy and develop an island would be able to fundraise for the actual goal itself, but first such a trust needs to exist.
It would be foolish to trust and/or rely on an individual to accept donations for this, hence the reason a trust is required (as by law financial statements need to be publically available). An individual could also take the money and run, a trust could not do this (any individual working on behalf of the trust who stole donations would be liable to criminal charges).
If a charity can be established, sponsors can be found and the island fantasy could become a reality. The first step is finding people willing to pledge a combined total of £83 monthly.
Please do not hijack this thread with discussions of whether or not an island is a good idea (start a new topic if anyone wishes to discuss this) but rather keep this thread to the financial side of things and reasons that would convince you to donate or reasons for not donating.
Correction - £83 monthly would work out to £996
£83.40 would be about right
Looks like so far we do have interest. For those who would donate can anyone give examples of what they would be willing to spend monthly on this project?
Anyone who wishes to be anonymous can PM or email me regarding this.
Wow! That looks amazing :grin:
Can I use a few of those on the autfinity site?
Recently i've been leaning more towards buying an island rather than building one, you'd be amazed at how cheap (or expensive) some islands can be depending on location. There's a 6000+ acre island in argentina for $580,000 - this is amazing compared to the 2 or 3 acre carribean islands at upwards of $1.5 million.
If we can get a fund in place and raise money this could become a reality very easily. Those who have voted no i'd be interested in hearing from the reason why.
I voted 'it depends'. How much money would I, personally, be giving each month? Would it be up to me to decide that?
Please, when listing anything to do with money, could you put it in dollars as well? I live in the US, and I'm no good at conversion I'm afraid.
Thanks!
http://www.xe.com/ucc
This is a very useful tool for currency conversions.
As for how much you personally would be giving each month that would be entirely up to you to decide. However, we have been considering if some people who pledged an amount could be contracted for a period of time for security reasons (if we were for example to take out a loan to raise funds there would be monthly repayments, the same goes for other expenses).
One option once we are setup as a charity would be to accept donations of a certain amount to guarantee people a place on the island. However we would have to calculate what amount this would be and would be gambling a bit as we do not yet know running expenses.
The practical aspects of building an island (especially one close enough to the coastline to have telecommunications and food supplies from the mainland) are huge. Apart from the financial issues there is the cost in time. We would have to spend time raising the money AND building the thing, as well as building the houses and other structures. With a natural island we just have to pay up, land there and get building.
Most people are able to spare some money. As for how many of us would be able to afford to move there, unfortunately at first not everyone would be able to afford the airfare. However, in the long run after the initial development costs are recouped prices could be dropped.
We hope to attract sponsors for the project as well as appealing for donations from the community and the general public. This can be done.
Those who have voted no i'd be interested in hearing from the reason why.
You have to have extra money to donate money.
It would cost a lot to go to an island like that. How many of us could actually afford to go on holiday or buy a home there?
If people don't want to go there or donate or be involved, they dont have to.
Some people dont like to go on holiday anywhere.
There is the possibility that if it was made a charity then people who couldnt afford a holiday normally would be able to stay for free.
The island would need at least sufficient space for 20 holiday homes plus some residential homes.
That would be an absolute minimum.
That does not need a huge amount of space, it would depend how close it was to the mainland for other things.
Example, an island that was very near to the mainland, like the ones in Dubai, are very near to every facility you can imagine.
If the island was very isolated then people would need activities to do in the island itself, to make it a vaild holiday destination.
Things such as swimming pool, horses for horse riding, small cinema, bar.
The plan is to have a combination of residential and holiday homes. The point is that some people are happy with where they live but would like to meet others on the spectrum without having to be in a "medical" setting such as an autism conference.
For others the residential part would be suitable.
I create an installer for it so people who have the right hardware might try it out on their own computer but it's 12 Megs and I need somewhere to host it(looks casually at Amy).
Looks casually at Gareth.
<mumble>millenium *** dome</mumble>
Freedom of religion is always possible. Personally I don't care too much about people's religious beliefs so long as they are not pushing it in my face. If intolerance for your beliefs concerns you I would advise that it is best to keep discussion of religious matters to where it is appropiate. In other words, nobody is going to care if you even want to try and setup a small chapel, just as long as you aren't knocking on people's doors with a bible.
I doubt this would be a problem. Personally, in real life if someone brings up the issue of religion I will be rather blunt, but otherwise I don't care too much. I would imagine that this bluntness may offend some, however as stated the issue is very simple to avoid by keeping discussion of religious matters to where it is appropiate. If you do engage in discussion of religion with people who do not share your beliefs then someone is going to end up offended.
I would be interested if you could PM me to describe any problems you had in the chatroom - I did not witness any such problems myself.
Direct NT relatives (spouse or offspring) would be welcome, though we haven't yet came up with a strict policy on this. As for who stays and who uses it purely as a holiday resort, again we haven't came up with a strict policy on this but it is likely that it would be first come first served.