The starting gun has been fired for the European Parliament elections on 23 May 2019. We want to make sure there is at least one Green MEP elected for South East England, to join the united Green group in the European Parliament, following on from the work Caroline Lucas and Keith Taylor

Thanks to our generous donors, we have already raised £5,000 for the deposit in deposit bonds. Now we need to raise £40,000 for a Freepost leaflet to be delivered to every household in SE England. We also need to recruit temporary staff to build a big campaign across the region, so that every voter knows why they should vote Green. So please give what you can now.

• £10 buys 10 Green Party rosettes and badges for campaigners to wear.
• £30 pays for 10 big stake boards to put up where voters will see them.
• £100 pays for one day's work by an campaign organiser.
• £250 pays for online advertisements on a campaign issue.
• £400 is enough to print 10,000 leaflets to hand out at stalls and stations.
• For £800 we can print a leaflet to be delivered for free by the Royal Mail to every house in a constituency.

If the UK leaves the EU before 22 May and the European Election is cancelled, we will use the unspent part of your donations to support local Green Party election campaigns.

The South East Green Party is one of the biggest regions in the UK. We currently have around 7000 members and supporters. We’re also contesting more seats than ever before, but we still face considerable challenges; outside Brighton and Oxford we’ve not won more than one or two seats on any council.

What we now need to do is build the capacity of our local parties across SE England to win elections against the well-organised operations of other parties. We need to engage more volunteers, raise more funds, and work together to target winnable seats across the region.

In different parts of SE England we have real expertise in local parties: we have great canvassing scripts, useful leaflets, online campaigning sites, press relations, fund raising expertise, and so on. So how do we build on these skills and maximize them to expand our reach and bring about more election successes?

The South East Green Party is seeking funds to keep employing our regional field officer. She is responsible for getting more Greens elected across the SE. Then we want to raise more funds to employ a local support worker who will work with local parties in capacity building, including finding and engaging more volunteers, raising more funds, improving skills, and planning campaigns.

We are asking for regular monthly donations to cover the payments to these development workers. Please chip in what you can afford.

Congratulations to the 100^th donor to Keith Taylor's appeal to fight the migrant bashers: Alistair Morten.