Financial Committee Report September 14, 2003 Daniel F. Bonham, Coordinator Overview: I am pleased to report that as of the end of July, due to the diligent efforts of Ty Reitman, the Fundraising Coordinator; the Party had paid all of itÕs obligations and had a balance of about zero which was a marked improvement over the previous months. However, per a verbal report from the State Treasurer, Delbert McCoombs, income revenues for August came in somewhat below expectations and we are currently in the red once more. We expect there to be some income from the August effort (outlined below) but we are now liable for the 40+ hrs. Delbert has put into the C&E s. I have no report on the fund raising activities of the SCC members, and I have not made any calls yet. Due to scheduling conflicts at work, I was unable to go down to Eugene to meet with Ty for the exit interview but he completed the questionnaire that I handed him at the last SCC meeting. This is his report: TO: PGP Coordinating Committee FR: Tyrone Reitman PGP Fundraising Coordinator RE: Evaluation & Exit Interview DT: 8/20/03 CC, I have not yet heard from any members of the Personnel Committee re: the exit interview discussed at the August meeting, so I have decided to go ahead with other recommendations made re: evaluating the current status of PGP fundraising and providing relevant feedback to you about other issues related to the PGP, paid staff, fundraising, etc. That is what this report is about. This fundraising report will largely take the place of the monthly fundraising report text, however, I will still send out the standardized monthly fundraising report charts with some limited text no later than the 31st of August. Contents: 1) August Work Schedule 2) Responses to Daniels Checklist 3) Responses to Michaels 3 Pros and 3 Cons Exit Interview Request 4) Fundraising Evaluation and Recommendations 1) August Work Schedule The following is my schedule for the duration of my employment. These tasks will be completed in no more than 6 eight-hour shifts by the end of this month: August 11-17th(2 shifts): 1) Review and revise fundraising report and tracking w Delbert 2) Package a 500-700 piece mailing to registered PGP members 3) Produce, print, package phone-bank materials for PGP CC phone-bank 4) Phone-bank (time permitting) August 18-24th(2-3 shifts): 1) Mail out PGP CC Phone-bank materials with instructions to CC 2) Mail out 50~700 piece mailing to registered PGP members 3) Package and mail out personalized solicitations for current phone-bank (aprox. 100 pieces) 4) Produce the Evaluation and Exit report for the CC 5) Phone-bank (time permitting) August 25-31St (l shift): 1) Produce final standard fundraising report for August 1 31St 2) Send e-mail informing PGP Fundraising Contacts of current fundraising plan 3) Answer CC questions re: fundraising, coordination or this report 2) Responses to Daniels Check list: The following responses are from the checklist handed out by Daniel at the August CC meeting: 1) Outstanding checks itemized list: N/A-Ask Delbert 2) Outstanding bills (including Treasurers pay) - itemized: N/A Ask Delbert A) Are there any printing bills (or any bill) still out there that haven't been recorded yet? N/A Ask Delbert 3) Phone banker info (name, numbers, addresses, list of all paychecks with corresponding pay stub info like check#, pay period, # of hours): Kyle Hand. Since I am his supervisor, if you have any questions youÕd like to ask of him please forward them along to me. For the rest of the information please ask Delbert. 4) Specific days, hours phone-banker worked? Kyle has worked 2-3 days/week for the past four weeks according to an agreed upon work schedule. A) Number of pledges/day, pledges/hour? I do not keep track of pledges, I only keep track of received donations. I do not keep a record of donations/hour, instead I keep a record of donations/shift. Please see the fundraising report for donations/shift for the phone-bank effort YTD. Right now it is at 4.5/shift at $46/donation. I do not keep a tight record of donation by phone-banker since I try to emphasize a team approach to phone-banking rather than an individualized approach Our phone bankers never average less than twice their hourly wage per pay period. We make our calls at the peak times for soliciting donations, which is between 5:309pm Monday - Thursday. 5) List of all calls made and when (names, not just #s): This is on the index cards used for the phone-bank and would not be easily transferred to a list. A) Which ones were lapsed/current members? This year the phone-bank has only dealt with lapsed and current donors through monthly dues renewals for this year, catching up on dues renewals left-over from last year, and calling ex-PGP donors statewide (folks whose dues expired prior to Jan 02) if they reside outside of Marion-Polk of the Metro Chapter boundaries. B) Which ones were past donors, etc? All of them. C) How many times have they been called in the last 12 months, 6 months, 3 months? Depends upon who 'they ' are. When current donors come up for renewal (12 months after their last donation) they are called every six weeks until they either indicate they would like to donate, would not like to donate, are determined to be unreachable by phone, or request that we call them another week or month. The lapsed donors are called periodically, based upon this same six-week rotation, when we have time to do so. 6) List of all pledges made and when (and by what phone-banker)? Please check the notations on the index cards. I do not keep a separate list of this information. 7) List of all RECEIVED phone bank pledges and when? All of this information re: donations by donor and date is in the state party Filemaker Pro database. For a monthly overview please see the monthly fundraising reports. B) Have they all been deposited? N/A-Ask Delbert. 8) Exact phone bills-for phone banking, office, etc? N/A Ð ask Delbert. 9) Fundraisers hours regarding phone banking-supervising, training, making calls, etc? Training phone-bankers takes about 3-4 hours of my time between the interview and the basic training Most of the phone-bank tasks that have to do with coordination is inseparable from the rest of the fundraising program, however, beyond the nights that I have phone-banked this year, I would say that I spend aprox. 2 hours/week sending out phone-bank generated mail, and updating the actual phone-bank lists. 10) Time spent mailing pledge packets-by whom, when, and for how long? For the phone-bank see above. For the rest of the mailings it can take between 1/3 to 2/3 of my time/week depending upon the size of the mailing 11) Cost of pledge packets, mailings, postage? For bulk mailings please see the monthly fundraising reports under the heading of 'cost 'for the separate mailings-this includes postage (average under $0.30/piece). For the standard rate mail used for sending phone-bank related mailings to individuals it costs aprox $0.50--.85 depending upon whether or not we include a PGP bumper sticker. 12) Exact number of current supporting members? As of the end of July we were at 741 including the sustaining members. It changes daily as we receive donations, as well as monthly when we remove donors from the 'current' list as their dues expire (after a one-month grace period). 13) "Time Cards" for Fundraiser and Treasurer with breakdown on time spent on what projects/duties, etc, since January (last CC required these since Jan/Feb). Please see the fundraising reports and concurrent materials for most of this information. As for time cards, I keep track of my hours on the calendar in the office, however, since the same committee that requested this extra task of Delbert and I never did review the information, I did not continue to write my tasks down on an hourly basis. 14) "Time cards" need to be matched up with specific paychecks-check#, date, amount, and match it to each "time card"-these should already be filed in this way somewhere. The previous personnel committee did not end up following through with this, so it has not been done. See above. 15) How many sustaining an/or donating members are left that haven't been called? Please see the June 03 Fundraising Report for this information. Specifically, if the current Fundraiser were to stay for 2-3 months longer, whom would they be fundraising to? Please see the June 03 Fundraising Report for this information or the 2003 Fundraising Schedule attached to the June 03 Fundraising Report. 16) Explain what "Ex-Dues Renewal" means? Donors whose dues expired prior to January 2002. 17) Where is the list of volunteers-names, numbers, and when did they volunteer? The list is in a spreadsheet at the office. I prioritized this volunteer drive as part of the current phone-bank. The volunteers are from the past four months. And as stated in the July 03 Fundraising Report these are volunteers Òfor the upcoming Campaign Finance Reform InitiativesÓ. We are also developing a separate volunteer list for PGP candidate support. This list is not yet in a spreadsheet. 18) List of all direct mailings (copy of letter, date mailed, and to whom)? All of the direct mailing information (date, cost, to whom, etc.) is in the Fundraising Reports from the past 14 months. Copies of the letters are on file in the office. 19) Time spent preparing each direct mailer-by whom and for how long? Mostly by me, occasionally with the assistance of the PGP CC at meetings (sticking labels to mailings). Mailings, once the materials are created, formatted and printed and the data lists are received and formatted, take me aprox. 1 hour to package aprox 400 pieces. The time I usually spend attaching mailing labels and sorting them by zip code depends upon the destination of the mailing. Actually going to the post office usually takes no less than one-hour to finish. Please see the response to question #9 or see the fundraising reports for additional details. 20) Cost of direct mailers-paper, envelopes, postage, etc? Please see the monthly fundraising reports under the heading of "cost" categorized by mailing. This cost includes postage. 3) Responses to Michaels 3 Pro's and 3 Con's Exit Interview Request: Pro's re: Fundraising for the PGP: 1) Talking to the donors. Without a doubt, the best part about fundraising is the direct contact with the dedicated individuals who give their money, volunteer their time, or both to support the PGP. Without the encouragement of these individuals, through their support for the PGP conveyed either over the phone or in personalized notes w donations, it would have been much harder to motivate for the job of fundraising coordinator-a job that by its very nature, and current configuration requires a great deal of self-motivating. 2) Working to help establish the Linn-Benton and Central Oregon Chapters of the PGP. It was very rewarding to help establish both of these chapters within a few months of each other during the summer/fall of 2002. I hope the new CC puts the necessary resources into further developing these chapters for the 2004 election cycle. 3) Working with the existing chapters to put together a fundraising schedule that met both the chapters' and state's financial needs. With one exception, it has been a real pleasure to meet with, and establish relationships with, the chapter representatives statewide. Being able to both standardize as well as personalize the PGP fundraising materials to reflect the activities of the chapters as well as the state party, and to truly coordinate the fundraising mailings, has been beneficial to the organization as a whole since this has become the PGP primary means of communication with our 15,000 members over the past year. Doing so has been a welcome challenge. 3 Con's re: Fundraising for the PGP: Internal Online Communication. If the new PGP CC does not address the flagrantly abusive manner in which some of its' members use the PGP e-mail lists to communicate, the present CC will likely repeat the tired trials confronted by the two previous Coordinating Committees (ask either of the previous two-year Co-Chairs for any additional info). The kind of communication I'm referring to has largely subsided since the Spring, however, the majority of the previous Coordinating Committee quit their posts prior to the June Convention (where you were elected) primarily in frustration with their inability to resolve the issues of: 1) the conflict with members of the MP Chapter over fundraising in general as well as with the fundraising coordinator, 2) personal conflicts with each other over how to communicate, resolve contentious issues, and operate as a committee, 3) the long lasting contest with the GV collective regarding how to develop a viable party newspaper. ALL of these issues were: 1) hotly debated primarily online without any mediation rather than in a face to face mediated setting, 2) lead to a series of very harsh insults propagated online, primarily originating from the members of the MP Chapter and GV collective towards staff and members of the previous CC (please see * below) and 3) ended up establishing an pattern of communication that supplanted any remnants of trust with unfounded accusations, gossip, and the intentional degradation of PGP employees and Coordinating Committee members. To paraphrase one of the many e-mails from Trey Smith of the MP Chapter to the previous CC and staff, "I am Jesus at the temple, and you are the rabble I will drive out" (Matthew 21 :12), and so on. This way of communicating not only has to stop, it needs to be addressed as a real problem, and adequately and fairly resolved. (Please look into finishing the proposed grievance procedure proposal submitted originally by Sarah Charlesworth, as well as the Netiquette proposals from Joanne Cvar and Mark Baldwin.) 2) Trust. I am glad that the previous CC took my suggestion to hold your first meeting as a retreat in an attempt to start your term on the right foot through building positive working relationships with each other. Please make establishing trusting relationships both amongst yourselves as well as between yourselves and the PGP chapters, and the maintenance of these relationships a (if not the) top priority while serving your term on the CC. Without doing so this organization will repeat the unfortunate mistakes of the past. 3) Treating employees as employees. Your staff members are not volunteers. I'm not saying that either Delbert or I are doing our jobs 'for the money'. What I am saying is relatively simple your employees need to be able to 1) do the jobs they were hired to do free from the baggage of excessive micro-management (if this can't be done please revise the job descriptions), 2) receive monthly feedback regarding their job performance for the CC and Personnel Committees, both positive and negative, 3) have parameters set by you regarding how much authority they have to make decisions, 4) have you respect and trust their judgment with the decisions they make, 5) be heard regarding personnel issues important to them and the organization, 6) be able to make the occasional mistake, and 7) know that their time is being spent wisely and managed, when need be, efficiently. 4) Fundraising Evaluation and Recommendations: 1) Do not 're-invent the wheel' (see ** below ): When devising a new plan for PGP fundraising, review the efforts of the past year in light of two things. One, discern between internal and external factors when trying to determine where the challenges are to the PGP's fundraising efforts, and two, always be aware of what's working. A) A lot has been said over the past 5 months about how the PGP fundraising efforts have not met with great results so far this year. While this is true for some of the fundraising letters we've sent out (remember, pro fundraisers will tell you that a 1% return on cold mailings is average), I'd be wary of putting the 'blame' (for lack of a better word) on the quality of the fundraising letters. Instead I would first look to what is going on when the PGP letters are doing well versus what the PGP is doing when the letters are not doing as well. I would immediately suggest that the performance of the PGP's fundraising is obviously directly linked to the activities and visibility of the PGP. Without any kind of program, candidates, or other campaigns, why should we expect to maintain the same level of financial support as during those periods when the PGP is actively doing all of those activities? So, my first recommendation re: fundraising is simple establish proactive party building programs, recruit candidates, and find campaigns to get behind. Also, allow for some flexibility when the unforeseen comes up (fundraising took a real drop when we invaded Iraq). B) Regardless of the challenges we've faced re: fundraising this year, we have been able to maintain a decent phone-bank through our dues renewals. This is due directly to the fundraising efforts from last year and this is why our phone-bank has been so much easier this year. So, my second recommendation is simple too-continue fundraising through direct mail for new members even if the mailings only do a bit better than breaking even. It was through the bulk mailings that we were able to amass enough memberships to renew this year to bring the PGP out of this year's early slump. If you choose to avoid bulk mailings you should look into replacing it with a phone-canvass or some other method to find new supporting members. If you decide to do nothing other than solicit off of the members we now have, the PGP supporting memberships will gradually drop off unless you succeed in producing a 100% dues renewal rate. 2) For both fundraising and organizing, the PGP needs to become much more visible. Part of what the PGP could do to become more visible would be to finalize the establishment of a statewide party newspaper. So here's recommendation #3-Either establish a contract with the Green Voice Collective to produce a viable and affordable, officially sanctioned, PGP newspaper or find another way to produce a state party paper (perhaps ask Metro about the newly produced Green Zine). The previous two PGP Coordinating Committees have had to negotiate with different members of the Green Voice Collective over how to properly run a state party paper with no concluding agreement and no finalized contract. To proceed without having reached an agreement and a contract between the two parties perpetuates the problems of the past rather than resolving them. At the Spring 2003 PGP State Convention the PGP membership indicated that they indeed want to have a regularly produced state party newspaper. In order to do so you should look for the most affordable way to produce the most useful product possible. I, and many members of the previous CCs, have contended that the current plan of the GV Collective has some major faults (one of which is the lack of disclosure re: financial information and business plan) including: 1) the cost (presently at $1800 for 10,000 issues), 2) constant reliance upon advertising, 3) subscription solicitation proposals, and the most important, 4) lack of a contract with the PGP, whose views the GV is supposed to be representing. In order to remedy the situation, these points need to be addressed. To start, I would recommend finding a different printer for the GV (there's one in Eugene that could do 10,000 copies, eight pages each, in black and Green for under $1000) as well as working through the technical difficulties of reaching an agreement between the two parties. If an agreement cannot be reached between the PGP CC and the GV Collective find an alternative. (***) 3) As I mentioned earlier, please look into finishing the grievance procedure proposed this past spring by the previous CC, as well as some from of communication etiquette guidelines for official PGP list-serves. 4) Hire a new Fundraising Coordinator no later than early November. November and December should be very good fundraising months for the PGP, so, the later you wait the harder it will become to take full advantage of the end-of-year contributions. 5) Last but by no means least-stay in contact with the chapters and take their views into account when making policy decisions, and, really try to get a feel for the mood of the PGP general membership. Perhaps look into doing a random survey of registered Greens or ask the Chapters to do so. The supporting members I've spoken with over the phone while phone-canvassing are pretty divided on the presidential issue, local vs. state vs. national, etc. The next few months may be an opportune time to ask the members of the party where it is they'd like to see the PGP heading as we enter the 2004 election cycle. All the best & in solidarity, Tyrone Reitman CoordinatorÕs notes: * It must be noted here that there are two sides to every story. ** It must be noted here that since January 2003 the Party has operated at or below the Òbreak evenÓ point Ð paying bills and paying for the fundraising effort Ð with no money for programs or publications. Although ÒincomeÓ is comparable to previous years, the ÒexpensesÓ for salaries and supplies have about doubled. Drastic, wide-ranging improvements are needed in fundraising to mount an effective campaign for 2004. *** A few factual corrections need to be made here with regard to the Green Voice: 1) The Green Voice LLC and the ad hoc group that preceded the LLC always made full financial disclosure to the SCC. 2) The cost of printing the GV was $1600 for 20,000 copies of a twelve-page tabloid newspaper. We spent an additional $200 for mailings and distribution. 3) The Party aided the GV with $575 for each of the Summer, Fall and Winter editions. Prior to the MPGreen and LLC groups, publishing the GV would drain the StateÕs coffers to the tune of $2,000 plus, each quarter. Advertising with Green Businesses and soliciting subscriptions is essential to the goal of minimizing costs to the Party. 4) The GV staff maintained constant contact with the PGP SCC and sought their input and approval of every issue. (Sarah, Jon Wacker, and Dale Matthews all had a great deal of input in the Summer issue for example.) The editorial board was made up entirely of SCC members or current members of the advisory board. 5) The lack of a signed contract was because some members of the previous SCC maintained, what was described at the time, as a Òde facto filibusterÓ. 6) I have every confidence that the GV LLC and current SCC can come to an agreement. Conclusion and perspective: Many hands make for lighter loads. I hope to establish a State wide, cooperative fundraising program. I am currently contacting people on the list Irene sent me (thank you again Irene) to get their input, invite them to join the finance committee, and ask for their help. In the meantime we are without fundraising coordination. For the interim IÕm proposing (please note the word ÒproposingÓ) to the Personnel Committee that we hire the former State Treasurer, Trey Smith for 100 days starting September 15th through December 31st as a interim Fundraising Coordinator. This will give us time to set up the State wide program and continue fundraising for the rest of the year. TO: PGP CC RE: CC Phone-bank FR: Tyrone Reitman DT: 8/18/03 CC, The following list is the breakdown for the CC phone-bank. The following 420 donors you will be calling have given previously between October 2002 and June 2003. At the end of this month I will be sending out the remaining supporters to call that are currently being solicited through the dues-renewal phone-bank in progress. County Supporters/County l) Daniel: Lane 60 2) Harry Deschutes 13 Hood River 7 Multnomah 26 Washington 1 7 Misc. 7 3) Irene Jackson 35 Josephine 10 Douglas 5 Curry 5 4) Joanne Lincoln 7 Tillamook 4 Benton 50 5) Liz Multnomah 60 6) Michael Multnomah 60 7) Seth Marion 12 Polk 2 Coos 10 Linn 4 Clatsop 4 Clackamas 10 Yamhill 4 [Supporting Member RENEWAL] 1. Hello, is (first name) available? 2. Hi, my name is ____________ . I'm working with the Pacific Green Party of Oregon. We're calling Green Party supporters statewide to give an update on a number of important Green Party issues and events coming up. 3. Do you have a couple of minutes? 4. Starting this summer, the Pacific Green Party will be teaming up with Money is Not Democracy to put two statewide initiatives on the 2004 Oregon ballot. These initiatives will put limits on campaign contributions in Oregon. Presently Oregon is one of seven states with no limit on campaign contributions or expenditures. [TOSS IN Q?] The Green Party is already organized in 15 counties in Oregon, and with our 15,000 registered members we're going to be leading the signature gathering portion of this campaign this SUMMER. Would you like to be contacted when this effort begins? [gather signatures of friends, etc] 5. In addition to getting these initiatives on the ballot, we're starting early this election cycle to get qualified candidates, in local races, on the 2004 ballot. á this election cycle the Pacific Green Party will be having two statewide primaries, the first is scheduled for the end of this year, and the second is planned for spring 2004. Our goal is to increase the involvement of the green party supporting membership in making statewide decisions on candidates and Green Party endorsements. á NOW, in order to run successful campaigns next year we will be holding an election school in September to help develop campaigning skills for both candidates and staff. [Nader 2000 staff, Metro Chapter of PGP is taking the lead in organizing, co-sponsored by the Green Party of the United States] á [Provide additional info & ask if they would like to volunteer for PGP candidate campaign in their local area] 6. As I'm sure you're aware the Green Party does not accept corporate contributions, it is only through the support of members like you that we have been able to build the Green Party. 7. My records show that as of ____________ your membership with the state party came up for renewal. [PDX?]---Last year you contributed _________ would you like to renew your membership with us at this time??? 8. [PORTLAND ONLY] Have you have recently made a financial contribution to your local Metro chapter? [lF YES] thank you very much, you have already renewed your membership. Would you like to make an additional donation to the state party at this time? 9. We have two different ways for you to renew you membership over the phone to the PGP. The first is by making a one-time financial contribution. The second is by making a regular monthly donation to the PGP over the next twelve months [SUSTAINING MEMBERSHIP]. Either way is a great way to help build the Green Party. Which of these would you prefer? [We qualify for the Oregon Political Tax Credit $:50 or 3100/ deduct from state taxes- Line 21 Short form Line 39 Long form]