It’s hard not to be moved by all the amazing things I have seen the sex worker community do as I watch on from overseas. Now that I’m back I want to do my part to help too. I’m certainly not asking many of you to do any more than you already have, but whether you’ve already done plenty and still have the time and energy to help, or if you’re in the same boat as me, and feel like you haven’t done enough yet, I’d love for you to join me, my wife (Tash Hamilton) and a few other friends, in Melbourne, for a group effort to fundraise for those effected by the bush fires.

I’ve booked a simple studio location in Brunswick for a half day shoot on Thursday 16 January 2020 from 1pm. I’ll cover that cost as well as giving up my time for free. I hope the below is not too much information as I want this to be simple., fun and effective, and hopefully helpful to all those effected by the fires. But also there are important details to discuss too.

THE CONCEPT

My idea is to ultimately make large donations, as a collective of members of the sex worker community, to a few charities. Those charities haven’t been decided on and I’m happy for input on this via the group chats.

To raise the funds, my idea is firstly for every one involved to publish the same group photo simultaneously, together with BTS video content like boomerangs. The concept for this photo will be to wear what you like in neutral tones of nude and white as pictured below (special thanks to Alyssa Forde for this suggestion). Both those face out and face in are welcome and if you’re face in I’ll pose you so your face is hidden. The message for the photo is that the sex worker community is doing all that it can to help. LoveLust Australia will try to donate a few outfits to help anyone who needs it.

Secondly, and only for those interested, I will also want to take a couple raunchier semi-nude group photos to sell via a password protected gallery, probably hosted on my website. The concept for this photo will be to be:

stripping out of the clothes in the first photo; and
taking photos of each other with phones and polaroid cameras as a way of celebrating how this community has raised so much money by selling nudes. Someone also suggested holding hand written signs like Save the Koalas or anything else you might think of.

Any polaroids taken and BTS content can also be sold.

COLLECTING THE FUNDS

I’m thinking the main way of collecting funds would be via bank transfer to a business account held by my wife Tash Hamilton. The donations have to be marked as donations in the reference field. I’d like to encourage you to promote this in your networks, and then to distribute the password to those who have confirmed payment to Tash’s account. That way everyone is essentially doing their own admin rather than having just myself or Tash doing it all. 100% of the donations will be donated. There are no overhead or running costs.

Doing it this way also avoids paying commissions to a third party and the risk of being shutdown by the third party i.e. Go Fund Me has been shut down fundraisers due to being organised by a sex worker. The only downside is its likely donations won’t be tax deductible. If anyone wants to make a tax deductible donation then perhaps they should be directed to one of your choice. If they show you confirmation of a donation, you can pass on the password to them.

Before anything goes live, I’ll send details of everyone’s social media accounts so everyone can tag and give credit to everyone else involved. If you have your own fundraising promotions, those details will also be shared.

I’m definitely open to suggestion on all of the above, including the concepts, which can be discussed in the group chats. But I am pretty happy with the colour palette for everyone's outfits, as nudes and whites should be easy for everyone to hopefully find in their wardrobes or to borrow from a friend.

Speak to you soon!

Bushfire fundraiser