I've been a conservative activist for over a decade. Was out in the streets protesting long before the Tea Party came to pass. I'm glad to see all of the new blood, but I also know that with new movements comes new opportunities to fleece people.
Also, I'm not asking anyone for donations. You are. So you have a much higher standard to meet here to explain where those donations are going than I do to explain my conservative bona fides.
And I've worked for a non-profit in the past. It actually raked in some good money and paid good salaries. Non-profit means nothing to what those within it can make from it.
So there have been some serious allegations levelled here. And I really haven't seen anything that you've posted that significantly addresses those allegations. How much of your budget goes towards salaries? Towards marketing? Towards advertising for donations? Towards fundraising?
Versus how much goes towards the sponsorships and activism you speak of?
Doesn't have to be a complicated accounting - just simple line items will do. Salaries. Marketing. Fundraising costs. Activism. As percentages of your budget.
Also, if you have it, a link to any filings you may have made publicly to support those percentages.
Prove the critics wrong. I am more than willing to evenhandedly review the evidence. Present some that is more than talk. Give us the kind of numbers that are routinely used to evaluate the efficiency of charities and non-profits in how donations are sued.
All you have to do to see what we use our donations for is go to our website of www.theteaparty.net and click on the button on the right hand column labled “What donations are used for”. Yes, we have actually posted what we use our donations for on our website since nearly the beginning. I challenge you to go to most other nonprofit organizations and see a page like that offering the specific information to anyone who would like it. We have nothing to hide and are certainly not ashamed in asking for and receiving donations to help us advance the principles of the tea party movement. Our progressive opponents are well funded and it takes a great deal of funding to combat their power structure and attacks on our movement. Just because we are successful at getting donations because people see the value in what we are doing is not a reason to attack us. Again, people can join and use any service on the website absolutely free and the majority who do join, do so without donating a cent. In fact 90% of the people who join do so without donating. That is averaging about 15,000 new members every week that we are bringing in to the tea party movement. I challenge any individual or tea party organization out there that is even bringing in a fraction of new members of what we do into the movement. To do that we have to be aggressive in our marketing to bring people into the movement by appearing in Fox News, Newsmax, Drudge report to get out the word. Even though we are nonprofit, these organizations expect to be paid to get the word out for us. Backyard tea parties of 50 people are nice and needed in the movement but if we are going to succeed, our success will come from major promotion and recruiting campaigns which we do. Our success as a movement will come from our numbers, our growth and our resolve to recruit new people into the movement and educate and inform them and do it free for the people. Donations are purely voluntary.
If anyone had really researched our organization completely by going to the website of www.theteaparty.net as I have recommended several times, they would have seen where we offer on the site the information on how donations are spent. Approximately 70% of the donations we take in are spent on marketing and recruiting new people into the movement and then continuing to educating and informing them on a daily basis and live events and sponsorships we do like CPAC. About 30% go administrative costs in running the organization. We have a full time webmaster, event coordinator, treasurer, social media person, radio, newspaper and television media rep, radio show manager, secretary. Our website development alone has cost well over 6 figures. And again, all these services are given to anyone who wants them in the tea party movement, even if they are with other organizations. It takes money to provide all this free stuff to people who want it in the movement. But that is the only way this movement will grow to huge levels we need to achieve our objectives of preserving the constitution, limited government, free markets and individual responsibility. Your way of doing that may be holding a backyard tea party for 50 people. Our way is holding an internet tea party to 300 million people.
You say our organization has a “higher standard” because we get donations. Yes I agree, to prospective members who join with or without donating we certainly do. People can go to the website and see what we have done and what we are doing for the tea party movement and all the free services and help we are offering anyone who wants to get involved seriously in the movement. If they don’t think we have value then they will not join or donate. That is how free market capitalism works and that is what we are all about. Well, 15,000 new people a week are judging us and joining and that is the proof in the pudding. I challenge you to find any tea party organization across the country that is adding that many new people to the movement every week. If you find another one then please let me know.
Have a great week.