Fundraising Ideas

Here are some of the ideas that Jim McIntosh and Heath Thomas discussed November 12, 2010:

2010 Elections & Voter Contact

• Collect and keep voters lists and centralize them. We need to create a database. I could do this using MS Access. Easily done.
• Voters lists are valuable tools for once the Party gets bigger.
• Once we have funds, we can engage in direct mail campaigns to increase name recognition for the Party and also develop a general following with the people that count - the voters. This would also theoretically allow us to develop direct mail campaigns for fund raising etc. (See Metroland pricing and options for Bulletin)
• Also, if we do it correctly, we could create a telephone banking system down the road. Information matters.

Web Strategy and membership outreach

I (Heath) propose that we have a separate website dedicated totally to fund raising. My website (for the municipal election) is at the disposal of the Party. I know how to run it anyway. So, what I would like to do is create a website called "theontariolibertarianfund.ca". The focus of this website would be fund-raising. We would keep people engaged with a thermometer application on the margin of the front pages and focus on why people should give money to the Party. It is about our activities as opposed to our policies and the urgent WHY they should give unlike www.ontariolibertarian.ca, which is really focussed on policy and information about our ideas. Most importantly, our members could follow our financial progress. They can more clearly see how we are doing and that may motivate them to give more. Obviously, this would be focussed on campaigns the Party is engaged in. Lots of websites do this - check www.antiwar.com as an example. This works for them. They raise $150,000 per quarter. So, it can be done.

What we would do is use Pay Pal and I strongly recommend that we consider VISA here as a donation tool. If it means I have to cover the cost per month, so be it - so long as it is not onerous.

Facebook Strategy

We should create our own fan page to compliment the group page. (Done - The Ontario Libertarian)

This is just to drive people to our stuff. The Federal Party has one. Also, all Executives need to be on Facebook. 7 million Ontarians use it especially young people. This is how we will create the future of our Party in the 21st century. The guy who won in Calgary for Mayor came from nothing in a few months and took the election largely through Facebook. We need to investigate how this was done. But, building your own Facebook network is critical. If you are an organization and are not on Facebook, it lacks credibility. It is really about the personal touch.

Facebook Causes

This is a compliment to point 3, causes are very effective tools for generating buzz in the Facebook world. It also can be linked to a webpage hence theontariolibertarianfund.ca. Pointing to the money is the key here. Since non American organizations cannot use the contribution clearing house linked to Facebook, we can only direct people to a webpage. The thing here is that the webpage has to in my opinion be organized around giving money for it to succeed.

Twitter

Also for fundraising purposes, I would like to create a separate Twitter account to focus people on our fundraising. I have now set-up a basic Twitter account for the Party twitter.com/#!/OntLibertarian - Ontlibertarian is the sign in. The Password is (was) dynamic00.

I (Jim) am no expert on Twitter, but as I understand it, one has to 'follow' someone in order to see their tweets. I think people will only follow us if we regularly offer useful tweets, usually providing links to web sites or Facebook etc. The occasional appeal for funds, especially if the funds are for a good cause, could be productive. But I can't see anyone following a "Tweeter" that only solicits donations. --LibertarianCFO 07:18, 8 May 2012 (EDT)