<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>The discussion of the current email ballot reminded me that I'm rather tardy in addressing the subject matter of the below message. I don't think that the message adequately describes to the LNC what it was that led me (while wearing my APRC hat) to point out the policy that required LNC notification.<br><br></div>Some of our largest donors are going to be sent a letter which leaves the impression that because we adopted a new logo, we need to spend $90,000 for a 3-phase rebranding project.<br><br></div><div>From a donor relations management standpoint, I think this letter might leave a bad taste in donors' mouths. We're broke enough that we send urgent-grams saying we can barely pay our bills. We're heading into a presidential election year in which we're going to need a big pile of money for ballot access. I don't think it will appear that we have our priorities straight for us to be touting a $90,000 rebranding effort in these circumstances.<br></div><div><br></div><div></div></div>I agree that having adopted a new logo is going to result in some extra expenses related to printing materials and putting the new logo on the website. That is described in this letter as being Phase 1 at a cost of $10,000. It doesn't break down how much of that total is for materials vs. the website, but let's just split it and say it's $5,000 for each.<br><br></div>Phase 3 of the proposed rebranding project is a full website redesign, with a price tag of $25,000 to $50,000. Add to that the $5,000 portion of Phase 1 for the website, and now we'll be asking these donors for $30,000 to $55,000 for website changes.<br><br></div>Keep in mind that the IT Committee has been telling us they expect a new website would cost us in the $5,000 to $10,000 ballpark, and that doing it after the new logo was adopted would allow those changes to be made at the same time.<br><br></div>If we tell donors that we need to raise $20,000 for ballot access in State X, and donors send us $30,000, and we actually spend the $20,000 we said we needed on the project we described, then the excess $10,000 can go into our general fund for other uses. I have no problem with that. We did what we told the donors we would do with the funds, and they gave us more than we asked for. Even if we manage to come in a little under budget and get it done for $18,000 instead, that's fine because the $20,000 we asked for was a good-faith estimate of what we thought it would take.<br><br></div>However, if we believe that a new website will cost us $10,000, I do not think we should tell donors that we need $30,000 to $55,000 for it so that any excess collected over whatever we actually spend goes to the general fund. That's not a good-faith estimate.<br><br></div>If the entire three-phrase rebranding project is a single project, the $90,000 price tag would represent just under 7% of our entire budgeted $1,291,300 revenues.<br><br></div>I agree that in reality, the printed materials and hats/shirts go in different budget categories than the website, so that this one lump-sum-project pitch might actually be spread across more than one category. But if we just look at the potential $55,000 price tag for the website (which does all belong in one budget category), we're pitching to donors a project representing just under 4.3% of our entire budgeted revenues while the IT Committee has only estimated a $10,000 price tag.<br><br></div>-Alicia<br><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><br><div><div><br><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Sep 28, 2015 at 7:31 AM, Wes Benedict <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org" target="_blank">wes.benedict@lp.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
This email is primarily a notification email to be sure we're in
compliance with our Policy Manual rules.<br>
<br>
The Policy Manual says:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">The Executive Director shall notify the LNC
of any intention to undertake any project that<br>
is estimated, on gross, to cost more than 2.5% of budgeted
revenue.</blockquote>
<br>
I'm sending some fundraising letters that mention branding
prominently. What exactly you consider "branding" is subject to
interpretation. But as you can imagine, with a new logo and other
branding, you change graphic design in snail mail, printed items,
fundraising letters, business cards, email headers, brochures,
t-shirts, stickers, door hangers, website graphics, and much more. <br>
<br>
Depending on how well fundraising goes, some of the spending will
come out of various categories on the Standard Statement of
Operations, depending on the area affected, but could include:<br>
<br>
32 Fundraising Costs<br>
33 Membership Fundraising Costs<br>
35 Convention<br>
36 Ballot Access Fundraising Exp<br>
37 Building Fundraising Exp (for example a snail mail for the
building using new branded letterhead)<br>
<br>
40 Administrative Costs<br>
45 Compensation<br>
50 Affiliate Support<br>
55 Brand Dev / Political Materials<br>
58 Campus Outreach<br>
60 Candidate, Campaign & Initiatives<br>
85 Member Communication<br>
88 Outreach<br>
<br>
I don't consider new polo shirts, minor website changes, new
envelopes, etc., to be a single project. In any case, to be prudent,
based on some advice from the APRC, I'm notifying the LNC in case
depending on how things go and/or how we treat the bookkeeping we go
over 2.5% of budgeted revenue. I have no plans to spend more than
2.5% on a project without approval, unless you consider all of the
various minor efforts to be a single project, in which case we'll go
over that. <br>
<br>
We're not building a website without LNC or IT Committee approval
and don't have specific plans for a new website yet, just to ease
any concerns by the IT Committee in case this email gives the wrong
impression. <br>
<br>
Most of our fundraising letters raise around $10k to $30k. If one of
the next ones raises upwards in the range of $45k to $90k, we'd be
in a great position to initiate a new website with IT Committee
and/or LNC approval. I don't think it would be prudent for me to
predict one of our next letters will bring in $90k, but if so, we
might feel a bit of pressure to move quickly on some of the bigger
IT Project challenges.<br>
<br>
This email is primarily a notification email. I'm not asking for
changes in the budget via this email. <br>
<br>
However, a separate request, perhaps by the Treasurer, may go out to
ask for an increase in the branding budget, so we can add some new
brochures to LPStore.org as and/or replenish what is already
there. <br>
<br>
For Functional Allocation of Expenses purposes, I think the time
spent on this email should be allocated to Admin, although a case
could be made for allocating it to Branding or even Fundraising,
since it was a fundraising letter that triggered this.<br>
<br>
Thanks,<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<div>-- <br>
Wes Benedict, Executive Director<br>
<small><small>Libertarian National Committee, Inc.<br>
<b>New address: 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314</b><br>
<a href="tel:%28202%29%20333-0008%20ext.%20232" value="+12023330008" target="_blank">(202) 333-0008 ext. 232</a>, <a href="mailto:wes.benedict@lp.org" target="_blank">wes.benedict@lp.org</a><br>
<a href="http://facebook.com/libertarians" target="_blank">facebook.com/libertarians</a> @LPNational<br>
Join the Libertarian Party at: <a href="http://lp.org/membership" target="_blank">http://lp.org/membership</a></small></small><br>
<br>
</div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br></div>