Author: Joe Rojas

What follows is a note from Laughlin to the team and to you:

If we are to have a shot at fulfilling our pledge, at accomplishing our mission, this event, this convening, this concert, this mobilization is essential. 

You see, 2030 or Bust is a very radical “campaign.” A campaign rooted squarely in the power of standing for the unforeseen, relating to the world as it actually is, absent significance, opinion or generalization, and action as the only thing that moves the situation in reality. 

Where power, real power, is a function of confronting your own bullshit as to why you don’t have power and from there taking responsibility for the whole deal. No good guys or bad guys, no best intentions, no hope, no blame or good reasons why or why not. This is a weird, if not totally alien, way to work for most people and not even a way that people find attractive. 

And it is what we bring; it is what will make the difference; it is the secret sauce. A breakthrough in the crisis of humanity, a crisis of consciousness, a breakthrough in the way we relate to ourselves, each other, and the world.

Given my fundraising track record, you would not bet on me raising $2 million to pay for this concert. 

And consistent with the way we work at 2030 or Bust, what initiates the never been done before is a stand that one takes. I am standing for the Concert for Power: getting the world on board to end the climate crisis.

Coming off my most recent fundraising failure, one with a major bank, I had a kind of awakening.

In taking a look through my failed attempts at securing major funding (the 6-figure kind), what struck me was the vast amount of time and effort that I have put into doing the pitches, writing the proposals, assembling the decks, and having the conversations from the way they work.

Trying to present what we are and what we are out to accomplish so that it fits with them. That is TOTALLY ASS-BACKWARDS.  So I see this latest failure as almost a sign from the universe: STOP TRYING TO FIT.

2030 or Bust is by nature disruptive. As partners, we want disruptors, people who find interrupting the status quo attractive. People that are fed up with the business as usual of humanity.

That’s what Concert for Power is for – to generate a worldwide disruption, a disruption that will build right through 2030.  2030 or Bust offers that you can have the world go the way you say, rather than reducing yourself to fit the world. People standing for the end of the climate crisis, taking responsibility as access to power, and taking actions that fulfill their stands. Where anyone anywhere can say, “This is mine!”

We at 2030 or Bust are experts at this, and it is a highly specialized endeavor. Our funding for the concert will come from those who are thrilled and grateful that we are here doing what we’re doing, bringing to the world what we are bringing, and not from those who look to the past and what they know to determine if they will fund us. Radical thinkers with radical cash.

This is to announce that my days of jumping through the traditional hoops of raising money are over. It is time for us to be fully who we are and make no apologies for what that is.

Not to vilify or diminish anyone, only to say that it is time for us to start getting heard in all of our glory. To speak ourselves so that the disruption we are here to cause is, in fact, the offering that people have the opportunity to fund.

So now, what to do?  To raise the $2 million, with the initial $500K raised by Labor Day. What’s the disruption we can cause that would be one worthy of $500K? 

It came to me this weekend. I’m going to stop eating until the event is funded (the initial $500K). The phrase that came to me is PEOPLE ARE STARVING FOR POWER AND I’M STARVING FOR THEM TO HAVE IT. Not that I intend to starve, I’m gonna be smart about it, and I am doing a hunger strike. It’s something I can do (personal) and something anyone can do (universal). Given that we are all about empowering ordinary people, what better way to fund this that by those same people?

We’ll be promoting this through our existing press contacts, using the hunger strike to promote what 2030 or Bust is all about, and the critical function of Concert for Power in fulfilling its mission. My plan is to start the strike on July 25. That gives us time to get set up and for me to finish eating what’s in my apartment.

We’re setting up a landing page solely for this campaign, where people can donate anywhere from $5 to as much as they want.  This is going to be BIG, SPECTACULAR!  A major splash for major exposure and chances for people to make a difference with their money. The best kind of performance art – which I am GREAT at!

I’m not going to stop going after the major funders, and I’ll be going after them in a way that invites them into our world, and not vice versa. It is a gift for an organization to partner with us in the fulfillment of our mission. Something that honors them for the pioneers that they are, for what they can bring to the world in partnering with 2030 or Bust.

This is our time. There is no later for this, for us, for the world.