Salcombe is fundraising for the lifeboat its volunteers will crew in 2027 — £450,000 (about $612,000) of it, locally

The RNLI's volunteer crews at Salcombe, Devon, launch into some of the Channel's busiest waters in a Tamar-class lifeboat that has served since 2008. Its replacement — a faster, safer Shannon-class boat costing £2.7 million (about $3.7 million) — arrives in 2027, and this week the town began raising its share: a community appeal for £450,000 (about $612,000), alongside £1.25 million (about $1.7 million) being raised by the Baltic Exchange, a partner since the 1960s, whose name the new boat will carry as The Baltic Exchange IV; the rest comes from legacies. It's how the RNLI has always worked: the people most likely to be rescued help buy the boat, crewed by their neighbours, that will do the rescuing. The appeal is open now, and local businesses have already begun to back it.

Mechanism: community action