[Lnc-business] Upcoming budget increase requests

Wes Benedict wes.benedict at lp.org
Thu Sep 1 19:52:19 EDT 2016


I have been intentionally price things so that branding revenue is 
approximately the same as branding expenses, but I don't go to great 
lengths to try to make them match exactly. We sell most things for a tad 
more than they cost us. One notable exception is the door hangers -- we 
sell those for less than they cost us. Last year a donor contributed 
$20,000 in support of subsidizing door hangers.

The staff time put into LPStore.org is not factored into my pricing of 
the things we sell. The feeling I've gotten over the years from our 
members and most LNC members is that we should be providing materials as 
a service more so than a profit center.

My goal is to get as much stuff out there into the hands of our 
activists as is feasible, to help them help our candidates and party, 
not to maximize LPHQ profits on sales. Although sometimes these things 
are capable of generating significant profits.

We are working on a new website, LP.org. That takes a significant amount 
of staff time (salary, hourly, and contractor).

We sent Nick Dunbar to New Hampshire to help with an emergency ballot 
access situation. As a result, he worked a lot more hours lately than he 
had been. He normally works less than 20 hours per week for LPHQ.

We sent Andy Burns to help with an emergency ballot access situation in 
Illinois, New Hampshire, and Iowa.

Casey Hansen used to prepare membership cards, inquiry mailings, and 
pack most of our store shipments all by himself. It's way too much work 
for him now.

Fundraising costs are higher partly because with a bigger membership 
list we send to more people so more copies are printed and more postage 
is paid. Another reason fundraising costs are higher are because, 
instead of sending the dirt-cheap Urgent Grams, we've been sending much 
nicer looking higher cost fundraising letters printed in full color. The 
thinking is those improve our image overall compared to the dirt-cheap 
black and white or yellow Urgent Grams or simple letters and reply forms.

If you go back and check your email broadcasts from national, you'll see 
very few fundraising emails over the summer. Had I been sending daily 
fundraising emails like the RNC and DNC, our revenue would be a lot 
higher than it is today, but also, some associated expenses like 
processing fees would be a lot higher.

With a bigger fundraising budget, we could try more prospecting via mail 
and Facebook ads, or at least keep up what we're doing.


Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict at lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership

On 9/1/2016 6:48 PM, Joshua Katz wrote:
> I am happy to hear this good news, and thank you Wes for having done 
> the preliminary work and for getting the discussion going.
>
> I have a few questions, mainly just to clarify a few items.  26 and 55 
> continue to match in the budget.  Do they match in real life, or do we 
> make a profit on these items?  I don't have a problem with doing this 
> at cost in order to brand ourselves - I think that's a great thing, I 
> just want to know which it is.
>
> I expected to see an increase in fundraising costs, but I'm surprised 
> at the size.  I hope the idea is to do different sorts of things and 
> reach out to new markets.
>
> Like Mr. Starr, I am interested in the compensation increase. Will 
> this be more time, more contractor time, or more staff? Does it 
> include the interns we've hired for product distribution?
>
> I agree with the ED that the cutbacks proposed do not make sense, and 
> I think the proposed changes make sense.
>
> Joshua A. Katz
> Westbrook CT Planning Commission (L in R seat)
>
> On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 2:46 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org 
> <mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org>> wrote:
>
>     Dear LNC:
>
>     I'd like to start a discussion about several budget increase
>     requests before a formal motion is considered. I mentioned to the
>     chair that I thought it would be good for me to put this before
>     the LNC soon, and he agreed it was okay for me to get this
>     discussion started on this list.
>
>     To me, all of these budget increase requests are the result of
>     good news -- our revenue, membership, and interest is very high,
>     far higher than budgeted, and as a result, many of our expenses
>     are higher as well.
>
>     More revenue and members means more membership cards and LP News
>     to mail out, and bigger lists to send fundraising letter to.
>
>     The original 2016 Budget adopted for the entire year of 2016  was
>     *$1,474,561*. My preliminary estimate for August 31, 2016 YTD
>     revenue is $1,679,938 (July 2016 YTD) plus $412,425 (August 2016)
>     = *$2,092,363*. It's possible we could double the original revenue
>     budgeted for the entire year (although I'm not ready to predict
>     that).
>
>     Dues-paying membership has increased from *11,693* at the start of
>     January to approximately *19,300* at the end of August.
>
>     The original budget for branding revenue was *$35,000*. We've
>     already brought in *$205,862* in branding revenue (that's mostly
>     the stuff we sell at LPStore.org).
>
>     Again, all of these increases in donations, memberships, and store
>     orders, means higher postage, credit card processing fees,
>     purchases of items offered at LPStore.org, office supplies, and
>     some labor to help process all that stuff.
>
>     Robert Kraus and I have looked over the results of this year to
>     date, considered what things could look like going forward, and
>     are recommending that the LNC proposed and passes the following
>     budget increases.
>
>
>     26-Brand Political Materials Revenue increase by $150,000 to $400,000
>     32-Fundraising Costs increase by $60,000 to $201,364
>     33-Membership Fundraising Costs increase by $35,000 to $127,200
>     40-Adminstrative Costs increase by $50,000 to $310,050
>     45-Compensation increase by $60,000 to $448,800
>     55-Brand Political Materials Expense increase by $150,000 to $400,000
>     85-Member Communication increase by $17,500 to $62,500
>
>     We have the revenue to pay for all of these budget increases. I'm
>     pretty certain we have more money in the bank for the September of
>     a Presidential election year than ever before in the history of
>     the Libertarian Party, and that's in spite of paying what it has
>     taken to achieve 50 state ballot access for the first time since 2000.
>
>     While we are not technically over budget in most areas, we are
>     trending in that direction and certainly will go way over budget
>     by the end of the year unless I proactively cut back on
>     fundraising letters, LP News, shipping LPStore.org materials,
>     staff levels, and other areas. That could be done, but I don't
>     think it's the right thing to do. For example, instead of focusing
>     my time on trying to continue the growth of membership and
>     fundraising by hiring another intern to fill boxes with campaign
>     materials, I could spend my own time stuffing envelopes and
>     filling boxes with yard signs--something I do actually enjoy and
>     find to be therapeutic.
>
>     I'd be happy to try to respond to any questions you have on these
>     items.
>
>     Thanks for your consideration. I'm hoping we have a productive
>     discussion on this, and then the chair or treasurer can propose a
>     motion that fits a consensus for you to consider of the Labor Day
>     Weekend.
>
>     -- 
>     Wes Benedict, Executive Director
>     Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
>     1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
>     (202) 333-0008 ext. 232 <tel:%28202%29%20333-0008%20ext.%20232>,wes.benedict at lp.org <mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org>
>     facebook.com/libertarians <http://facebook.com/libertarians>  @LPNational
>     Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
>
>
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