[Editor: This post was elevated from being a comment.]
That “baseline” [Ed.: the $57,000 income the LNC had in December] used to be JUST the monthly pledge club donations. You could automatically count on $55-60k in recurring revenue plus another $70K in new or renewals. So base line of $130K without doing any other fundraising. All that for a sunk cost of about $15K a month – mostly direct mail – 8.5 x ROI. Now they still do almost zero direct mail thus the results are not surprising. No pledge news, no renewal program, & a prospecting program based on a 27 year old model that bankrupted the party previously. That obviously is providing zero results.
People have asked “you’re always so critical – why don’t you offer solutions?” – well I did in my prior post about selling the building & the need to consult with the donors first. The building was the number one fundraiser in the history of the party. Many who donated did so with the promise that buying a building meant the LP was here to stay. Every major donor to the party supported the building fund. Many who had not donated in years supported the building fund. The process of selling the building without consulting these donors created a huge breach of trust.
I’ve made some suggestions many times that started with repairing this damage. Reaching out to these donors – via mail & phone calls from the Chair – to correct this breach of trust & offer them a chance to say how / where they want their money to be spent in the future. I mentioned when in 2012 the LNC voted not to go forward buying a building that 98% of the donors chose to let the LNC keep their money. Some supported a future purchase – others chose ballot access or different projects. A few wanted refunds.
I’ve suggested starting up LP News, Pledge News, Direct Mail Renewal Programs, etc. I know of people whose memberships expired three years ago & only have received ONE direct mail renewal request in that time. The pledge & renewal programs had a formula as mentioned about that provided an ave of 8.5 x ROI. Talk about money well spent.
I also want to know how their email list of 250K+ ended up now having only 50K valid emails? Were servers blacklisted? At one time the LP had a service that monitored this & that service would fight to get any blacklisting removed so emails got thru. It’s very cheap to get email matches – a small investment will get those emails back up above 250K & perhaps even 500K. What good is relying on emails if nothing actually goes thru or gets read?
And I want to see the treasurer, exec director & chair stop talking like everything is roses because they have some money in the bank account – so who cares that they huge operational losses each money? The building money will not last forever at this rate. They should remain in crisis mode – knocking down fixed expenses even more. Negative cash-flow from operations is never a good sign. They need to still turn things around & create an operational “profit” to support all the other things they want to do without depleting their “savings.”
Finally – make sure the convention doesn’t lose money (it used to provide substantial revenue for ballot access & other needs). If that means cutting meals down to just the min guaranteed F&B then do that. Cut a/v down to just the min needed to carry on the convention. Don’t just go with the catering menus the venue provides – set a budget – talk to the venue about what they can do within that budget. Speaking of which the budget should never have been based on the last convention! See 2010 St. Louis as to how little you really need to spend to put on a national convention. The LP was in crisis mode then & could not spare any funds.
Addendum from Robert Kraus: As you know, the other big breach of trust is not going strongly after the funds McArdle & her cohorts extorted from the LP. Many on the current board where complicit. Until policies & bylaws are in place to prevent this from happening again – and amends / apologies are made – and a full effort is placed to recover as much as possible – the party can not expect members & donors to return.
Being an LNC Region 3 North Alternate, our main objective for our party must be to thwart the Mises Caucus. A part of that objective should be to encourage those who left the LP to come home. This includes those who joined the Liberal Party. Come home and help us obliterate the Mises Caucus once and for all. Help us drive social conservatism away from the LP..
If you’re running again please feel free to answer the ?’s here: https://thirdpartywatch.com/2026/02/07/editorial-the-ship-is-taking-on-water-rapidly/comment-page-1/#comment-9218
Even if you “obliterate” the Mises Caucus you at the end of the day as a Libertarian you have to negotiate with bigots, racists, and homophobia. In 2007 I already knew about the closed boarders Libertarians and the Pro-Life movement in the party. Also what is there to gain by coming back? What did I get for fighting the Mises Caucus in Nebraska? Lies told about me, reputation ruined, and for the first time in my life I now have people I hope to God I never have to see in public or speak to again.
You don’t need the Libertarian Party or high social clout to move freedom forward, but that does make it easier. You just have to do the work. You loose the ball moving freedom forward having to sit and plan Richard Nixon esk games to force your a view of what Libertarians should be on active Libertarians who do not meet a certain philosophical world view. Looking back his just seems silly and un-libertarian.
I’ll take a moment to promote my favorite video about third party politics in the link….
“…..just two ships sinking in the ocean.”
They owe me a huge apology.
Anyone running for the LNC in May must satisfactorily answer these questions: What specific steps are you going to make to regain donors trust? How are you going to deal with “rouge” board members & affiliates like the LPNH? Are you going to bring back a direct mail renewal program, Pledge News & LP News (if no – why not)? Do you commit to stop spending the building fund money to cover operational losses & instead balance the budget?
Shorter question: Are you for or against restoring the ORIGINAL 1972 LP platform?
The Libertarian Partry is probably dead for all intents and purposes. Too bad but that’s the way it is.
The other big breach of trust is not going strongly after the funds McArdle & her cohorts extorted from the LP. Many on the current board where complicit. Until policies & bylaws are in place to prevent this from happening again – and amends / apologies are made – and a full effort is placed to recover as much as possible – the party can not expect members & donors to return.
I will donate to LP candidates known to me. But let it be known to the LNC, it’s like Jim Reeves sang: Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone, I’ll tell the man to turn the jukebox way down low. And you can tell your Mises Caucus there with you, he’ll have to go.