Posts published by “George Phillies”

These letters were originally written for Libertarians, but for the most part apply equally for every third party. What is a Strategic Plan? Strategic Planning is not a new idea. Successful businessmen have been doing strategic planning for millennia. 50 years ago, it was understandable that the newly-founded Libertarian Party would have done little in the way of strategic planning.…

The following was written 20 years ago by the then-chair of Vermont, Chris Costanzo, to the then-Chair of Rhode Island, Mike Rollins. The approach is optimized for states with nomination by convention, and needs some polishing for states with low petitioning requirements. However, if the requirement is five signatures, that’s the candidate, a cohabitants, and a few neighbors. Recruiting Candidates…

Advice of Ten Years Ago History does not repeat, but sometimes it rhymes. Yikes! Yes, an “urgent” fundraising appeal went out from the LNC leadership recently. That’s another cry of wolf. But you can only cry “Wolf!” so often, even if the wolves are howling at the door. In the age of the Internet, anybody who has a clear and…

(To avoid discussion of current Libertarian politics, you are seeing numbers from the year 2010) ing in new members, they’ll be more inclined to give. Now the process will build on itself. Prudent Financial Reserves Every financial adviser you can name recommends to their clients that they build a prudent reserve fund, held in cash or equivalents, for a “rainy…

This discussion was written for the Libertarian Party, but works equally well for any other third party. Spending A Dollar’s Worth of Nickels to Make A Dime It’s important that we use our fundraising dollars as efficiently and profitably as possible. Taking a lukewarm profit as “the best we can do” is almost as bad as taking a loss. A…

Never Waste An Opportunity With only a few exceptions, every fundraising event should offer an opportunity for outreach, whether to affinity groups, new members or lapsed members. Likewise, fundraising at an outreach event can be as simple as putting out cards or envelopes for donations or as elaborate as a dinner or excursion. Joint fundraising events with affinity groups and…

There have been claims that LNC fundraising and membership retention are well down.  I have previously written, in various places, that these claims were untrue.  Matters have changed. For most of this year, membership renewals were in the range 550 to not quite 1100.  In each of the last two months, membership renewals were under four hundred, namely 360 and…