https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yASaiB33yLHflOverx4-AIKTrlnVuJ94lVUnqH1BH60/edit?usp=sharingLPF Development Contractor Report for 1/16/22
Contractor: Celicia Slafter
Measures:
- Total hourly cost of Development Contract - $8,297.80
- Total contributions directly attributable to the contractor - $15,085.75
- Contract Profit - $6,787.95
- Contributions broken down by type
- One-Time Donations - $850.40
- Recurring Donations - $3,139.50
- Event Tickets - $2,825
- Event Sponsorships - $7,450
- Event Auction - $519.65
- Specific Project - $301.20
- Change in recurring donors from beginning of the contract
- Contract Commencement: Aug 16, 2021
- Recurring Contributions from July 16, 2021-Aug 16, 2021
- Number of Recurring Donors - 45
- Amount of Recurring Contributions - $1,183.76
- Recurring Contributions from Jan 13, 2022-Feb 13, 2022
- Number of Recurring Donors - 59
- Amount of Recurring Contributions - $1,609.56
100@25 Club Campaign:
- Designed and created by Marc Golob prior to 2021. Launched at the 2021 LPF Convention.
- Perks include 100@25 Lapel Pin after 3 months, private Discord group, and exclusive chats on specific topics of interest to the donors.
- The goal is to get 100 recurring monthly donors at $25 or more.
- Promotion
- Direct appeals calls to Executive Committee members, LPF Committee Chairs, LPF Committee Members, and County Affiliate leadership
- Email appeals to those that didn’t answer the appeals calls
- 100@25 Club profile interviews and emails with social media support
- Promotion Results
- Direct calls are the most effective. It’s a numbers game. Many don’t answer, but it’s still a good way to connect and build relationships with those that do answer.
- 100@25 Club profile interviews worked well to get peoples’ attention and put a human face to the members of the party. Most feedback is positive. They enjoyed reading about the individual members and getting to know more about them. At least a couple recurring donors joined specifically because of those emails.
- Chat topics: These created initial excitement but less as time went on. The next Contractor may be able to resurrect this program using Zoom rather than the Discord voice chat. The key is to have a compelling topic or speaker that people want to hear from. No funds were spent on speakers, but if the speaker is good enough, that would definitely help drive membership. Several members joined just for a particular speaker, but didn’t have longevity.
- Suggested Continuing Action for next contractor or Fundraising Committee:
- Make calls to canceled and dropped off recurring members.
- Make appeal calls to general membership.
- Remake appeals calls to new party leadership.
- Continue interviewing and sending emails for the 100@25 Club profile interviews.
Top Donor Program:
- This program was created by J Mark and Communications Committee in 2021 to recognize Top LPF Donors.
- It was launched at the 2021 LPF Convention.
- The fundraising Committee included extra perks for 2022 not to exceed 5% of the cost of the contribution.
- Promotion - Not much promotion was done for this program outside of the appeals speech given by the Fundraising Committee chair at the 2021 Convention and the actual presentation of awards certificates.
- Suggested Continuing Action - While conforming to an appropriate amount of privacy, publish the rankings periodically (perhaps monthly) via email and social media. Turn the rankings into a contest among the donors and let them see where they stand so it feels like a race.
Holiday Party/ Fundraising Events:
- This event was initiated due to the Vision 2021 goals for fundraising to hold in-person meetings or fundraising events.
- Based on previous fundraising attempts at an in-person meeting by the prior Fundraising chair and this event, it may be best to avoid combining the in-person Executive Committee Meetings with a fundraising event and party.
- Promotion
- Direct calls to those that spent over $100 on tickets at the LPF Convention and LPF members that lived in the county and surrounding counties where the event was being held
- Direct calls to those with a history of sponsorship for the LPF Conventions
- Email and social media postings
- Results
- Attendance and Fundraising goals were met
- Sponsorships were the highest income producer for the event. Sponsorships were motivated by the theme and nature of events planned for the day.
- The VIP luncheon was the second-best income producer for the event. Large donors appreciated the opportunity to have exclusive time with the speakers and special guest.
- It was tough to get many contributions for auction items. The auction went well because the auctioneer was energetic, entertaining, and fun. Be sure to have a great auctioneer.
- Reports from the attendees were that they really enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate together. More than anything, this event helped build camaraderie in the party membership.
- Suggested continuing action
- Hold quarterly fundraising events of different types, like golf tournaments, wine tastings, etc, and hold them in different parts of the state.
- Look for ways to cut down on the cost of the events, including venue rentals, by searching out Libertarian and Libertarian friendly venue owners
- Reconnect with David Crumbley (recommended by Julia Hall) who owns The Vine (wine bar and bistro) in Navarre, FL on Hwy 98. The Contractor previously discussed doing a Fundraiser at his bar planned for mid June. Sundays seemed like a good day for his venue, so the Contractor had June 12 blocked off on the calendar. david@thevinenavarre.com
https://thevinenavarre.com/ - Reach out to LPF Chair Steven Nekhaila about holding a fundraising event at his family’s restaurant in the Keys, “Island Grill.”
https://keysislandgrill.com/ - Plan out the events well in advance (at least 3-4 months) so that there is time for graphic design and direct mail invitations. Next Day Flyers is a good vendor for Postcard direct mailers.
https://www.nextdayflyers.com/. development@lpf.org already has an account with them. Contractor can pass it on by changing the password for the next Development Contractor.
BRM and Special Project Fundraising:
- A BRM permit was recommended by Tara DeSisto, the National LP Fundraiser.
- The idea is to make it as easy as possible for direct mail recipients to donate.
- The process was hung up several times due to USPS bureaucracy.
- Contractor has been working on the first planned mailing to be sent to registered Libertarian voters who have donated to a Federal Campaign, LNC, or PAC (from L2 data provided by Hector Roos) and LNC members who are not LPF donors (from CiviCRM data).
- The delay for the mailing has to do with receiving a reply from the USPS mail design analyst regarding our assigned Zip+4 for designing, ordering, and receiving the Business Reply Envelopes. The vendor that the Contractor intends to use is easyenvelopes.com.
https://easyenvelopes.com/business-reply/paper-brm/9-business-reply-security-tinted-envelopes.html- The letters, mailing labels, and contribution forms have all been designed and created, and need to be printed and stuffed when the BREs arrive.
- With permission and allowance of further billed hours, Contractor will continue this project past the Contract end date through the point where all the letters are mailed. There are 1,194 recipients. Otherwise, Contractor will pass on the files and information to whomever intends to take on the completion of the project. It is time-sensitive, since the content is most relevant at the start of the year.
Contract challenges and suggested improvements:
- Challenge: Incomplete historical data in the CiviCRM made it difficult and time-consuming to reach out to former LPF donors. It required building spreadsheets from Stripe and cross-referencing for contact information from the CiviCRM or even SpyFly. This was compounded with the Contractor’s account being unable to look up contacts in the CiviCRM by email for a long time.
- Solution:
- Input historical donor data into the CiviCRM as soon as possible.
- Otherwise, give the Contractor time to rebuild the data in spreadsheets. This is a less desirable way to do things, because the spreadsheets can get very wide.
- Another option would be to find a contractor that knows how to create MS Access databases (or other database software) to rebuild the data until it is input to the CiviCRM.
- Challenge: Inability to use bulk email through CiviCRM made it difficult to reach out to large segments via email, such as LNC members that are not LPF donors, or the full LPF membership. It also made it difficult and time-consuming to input communications into the CiviCRM that were sent outside of the database, which was everything.
- Solution:
- Solve the delay with implementing Amazon Web Services into the CiviCRM so the Development Contractor can use the bulk email services.
- Allow the Fundraising Committee and/or Development Contractor unfettered access of the party’s MailChimp account with the ability to add audience members and groups. Use Fundraising Committee budgeted funds for the difference in increased MailChimp costs that will result.
- Allow the Fundraising Committee and/or Development Contractor funds to start their own MailChimp or other WebMail marketing account exclusively for Development and Fundraising Communications.
- Challenge: User ignorance of CiviCRM capabilities. Current lack of function of CiviCRM (CiviCRM can be programmed to do anything given money and time, and this discussion about the now and what to do until the functioning exists).
- Solution:
- Give more CiviCRM training support to the Development Contractor via training links, time to learn the systems, and one-on-one coaching with Andy Burns, Tony Sellers, and the LPIN Chair Evan McMahon.
- Give the Development Contractor and Fundraising Committee use of the in-kind contributed Fundraising Database by Hector Roos. (Note - Contractor had this option by mid to late December, but did not use it, because they wanted to save the limited training opportunities for the next Development Contractor)
- Challenge: Emails from lpf.org go directly to the junk inboxes of many users. It makes it that much less likely that the Development Contractor can communicate with donors and prospective donors.
- Solution: Allow the Contractor permission to create and use an alternate email like a gmail account (LPFDevelopment@gmail.com) for certain communications, especially with 100@25 members, Top Donors, and individual communications until lpf.org emails stop going automatically to the junk folder.
- Contract Confusion: Clause 4 “Contractor shall use its own premises and equipment” was interpreted by some to assert that the Contractor should be expected to pay for all materials needed to complete the tasks. However, if the Contractor were to pay for all printing and postage for mailings and bulk emails or texts, this would be a significant blow to the contractor’s income.
- Solution: Be more specific with the word “equipment” and replace that with “computer, phone, and vehicle.”
- Contract Challenge: Exhibit A. To require the Contractor to sit in on meetings and listen to Executive Committee members that have suspicion, accusations, or skepticism of the Contractor can create the feeling of an uncomfortable or hostile work environment, especially if that member is also someone the Contractor needs to work directly with, such as a Committee Chairperson. It also results in confusion of how to bill the time spent on the Executive Committee call. Should the whole call be billed, just the time for making the report, or the time up to the report?
- Solution: Do not require the Development Contractor to sit in on Executive Committee calls or deliver the oral report. Rather, require the Contractor to submit the written report to the Committee Representative and the Executive Committee via email, and have the Committee Representative deliver the report to the Executive Committee. Only require the Development Contractor to be on calls when asking specific questions of the Contractor and only for that specific duration. Also, do not keep the prospective Contractor/s on the call where the Executive Committee is deliberating about them. It would be even better to go into Executive Session to deliberate on the Contractor. Allow the Contractor to speak for themself, while sparing them from the politics. The last sentence of Exhibit A, “Presenting written and oral reports of activity at the Executive Committee Business Meetings” could be changed to “Submitting monthly written reports to the Committee Representative and Executive Committee 5 days prior to the Executive Committee Business Meetings.”
- Contract Confusion: Exhibit B. For the sentence “Contractor will be expected to provide twenty (20) hours of service on a weekly basis,” verbally, it was explained to the Contractor that this expectation is a MAXIMUM number of hours per week, but it does not state that in the contract specifically.
- Solution: Contractor suggests that rather than breaking the hours down by week, add the maximum and minimum hours expected out of the total contract. It might say “Contractor will be expected to provide a maximum of 480 hours and a minimum of 360 hours for the total duration of the contract. This calculates to an average of a maximum 20 hours per week, and a minimum average of 15 hours per week.” This removes the need for the next sentence “Hours of work may be carried over to be executed the following week if maximum hours were not satisfied the previous week, provided the Committee Representative or Executive Committee Approves” and gives the Contractor more agency on when and how to put in the hours, depending on what projects are happening, and what might be going on in their life.
- Contract Hours: Part of the Contractor’s job is building relationships with the donors and party members. Executive Committee members will be called during the regular execution of the Contractor’s duties. If the Executive Committee member chooses to go off-topic during a call for development and fundraising purposes, it is unfair to request or require the Contractor to deduct those “off-topic” hours from their billing. The Contractor pre-plans how they will use their hours, and even “off-topic” conversation is related to relationship building.
- Solution: The request is to ask the Executive Committee members not to wade into topics during a billable call that they do not wish the party to pay for. Rather, ask the Contractor to call them back when they are not on the clock for those types of discussions. Certainly, some responsibility lies with the Contractor, as well. However, it can be unclear to the Contractor what topics are not considered relationship building. The Contractor does not have a solid suggestion for this solution as far as a specific wording in the contract, but there should be some wording that Executive Committee members cannot request time already spent on relationship building with that member to not be billed, unless agreed upon prior to the discussion.
Job posting
Development Contractor (Part Time)
Position Summary:
Do you love building new relationships? The Libertarian Party of Florida (LPF) is looking for someone like you to expand upon our current systems and processes we use to financially sustain the party.
As a Development Contractor, you will maintain and develop new relationships with donors, coordinate and work with the Fundraising, Communications, Candidates, and other LPF committees, and report to the LPF Vice Chair to expand our donor base so we can fund bigger projects.
Responsibilities:
- Directing fundraising activities including:
- Written appeals
- Donor Calls
- Contacting lapsed members
- Creating fundraising initiatives
- Fundraising for specific purposes
- Thank you calls and written notes
- Social media influence directed toward fundraising
- Leading fundraising events
- Utilizing the Party’s CRM data for fundraising
- Collecting and keeping Party fundraising data, such as monthly recurring donations and donor data
- Building relationships with donors and communicating Party goals and mission
- Presenting activity reports to the Executive Committee
Qualifications:
- 1 year of fundraising or sales experience
- Ability to be self-directed and work independently
- Some experience with CRM software
- Skills working with spreadsheets for data analysis
- Friendly and outgoing personality with great communication skills
- Creativity with written appeals and fundraising initiatives
Hours and Compensation:
- 6 month, part time contract
- 20 hrs per week
- $20/hr
How to Apply:
Please submit your resume to ec@lpf.org, along with a cover letter explaining why you are a good fit for this position.
About the Libertarian Party of Florida:
We are a grassroots political organization. Most of the day-to-day work of our party is done by hundreds of volunteers all over Florida.
We stand for a free and prosperous Florida based on the principle of personal responsibility, individual liberty, and economic prosperity. We oppose the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals. Libertarians seek a society built on the pillars of individual liberty, equality under the law, and defensive use of force - a society in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives.
https://lpf.org/
