Modeling Journey

The latest news of the accelerated Liberal fund raising programs is very positive:

"The Liberals are rushing ahead with a major change to the party’s organization, which only two weeks ago they had planned for the autumn, so they can be ready for a much more robust summer of activity. Emergency meetings of the Liberals’ various governing bodies are underway, with more planned for next week. The goal: a $25 million annual war chest and a vastly expanded grassroots organization to pay for it…

The fundraising plan is extraordinarily ambitious.

The Liberals would seek, within a year, to nearly quintuple the party’s revenues from private donations over the 2008 level. The new goal: an annual war chest of $25 million, built on a massively increased pool of donors who, in most cases, agree to give at least annually, and often several times per year.

Three mechanisms will be used for this objective:

• Membership in the Laurier Club, which is for people who contribute the maximum of $1,100 a year to the party, would be more than tripled to 10,000 members. A Leaders’ Circle will be created, with at least one member in every community in Canada with more than 50,000 people, to sign up new Laurier Club members.

• The Victory Fund, a more broad-based group of Liberal supporters who authorize monthly donations of $10, would get a major push with the goal of an eight-fold increase to 25,000 members within a year.

• Finally, the party would “make use of direct mail, telemarketing and established online/social media techniques to reach out to the millions of actual and potential Liberal supporters and sympathizers across Canada,” with the goal of raising $10,000,000 a year in small, one-off donations.

To say the least, it is not clear the Liberals can meet such ambitious targets."

Kudos to the Liberals’ new party president, Toronto lawyer Alfred Apps, and Rocco Rossi, who as the party’s executive director is in charge of fundraising for these ambitious efforts.

To help them achieve their aggressive but necessary aims, The Cat offers some hints, based on the proven management principle that 'what is measured, improves':

1. Let the public see what is happening with the fund raising efforts of the Liberal Party.

2. Publish (starting now with the history for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008) statistics of fund raising by the party on the LPC website, broken down into the categories set out below.

3. Then publish current fundraising efforts (same categories) for each month of 2009.

4. Also publish the targets for each riding for each of the next 3 years (2009, 2010 and 2011) which must be met for the $25 million per year to be reached.

5. At the same time, compare the Liberal results (on a riding by riding, province by province and nationally) with the fund raising results of the Bloc, NDP and Tory parties.

6. Show the statistics for each of the 308 ridings.

7. Have each of our 77 MPs adopt on average 3 other ridings to support in their fund raising efforts, so that each of the 308 ridings have an MP publicly responsible for raising the targets set for each riding. The allocation of ridings to sitting MPs could be made based on their location compared to the ridings held by the other 3 parties, and, if needed, by random allocations. The purpose is to fit in with the Liberal 308 riding strategy, and to avoid any 'orphan ridings' when it comes to fund raising efforts and responsibility.

8. Make sure that the statistics published identify each MP responsible for each riding, plus the Presidents of the local party organization. We will then be able to see at a glance which MPs are meeting targets, and to give those who are struggling more help to achieve their targets.

9. All the statistics should show the following break downs:

a. The total dollar funds raised (or to be raised in order to meet our $25 million target) in each riding.
b. That total divided by (i) the total voters in each riding, and (ii) the number of donors to the LPC in each riding.
c. Similar figures for each riding for each of the other 3 parties.
d. The amounts donated (broken down into size categories).

We will be able to compare relative fund raising efforts by riding, province and nationally, so as to identify problems and allocate resources to remedy shortfalls.