Email from LPHQ:

Dear Paul,

You are a valued investor in our party and, as such, I wanted to update you on our current situation and upcoming projects.

Last weekend, the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) held their quarterly meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. At this meeting, they reviewed the first quarter and made plans for future growth.

The first quarter of 2017 was the best first quarter we’ve had in over ten years.

Indeed, our first quarter income beats 2007 and 2008’s numbers by more than 10%.

We are using the momentum we gained in 2016 to push forward aggressively. We have not throttled back since the election. Instead, we are working harder than ever to build towards 2018 and 2020.

Our party is on solid financial footing, we are paying down the debt we owe on our office, and spending strategically.

In this first quarter, we raised over $60,000 for the Building Fund which pays down our mortgage on our office building. We have now paid off almost half of the mortgage.

Also in this first quarter, we have raised over $50,000 towards our ballot access work. “Ballot access” means doing all of the things legally required for our candidates to be allowed to appear on ballots.

The LNC has budgeted $130,000 towards this work in 2017 to ensure that we can achieve ballot access in all 50 states plus DC in 2018.

Right now, we have a double matching opportunity where donations to the Ballot Access Fund will be tripled.

Double-matching opportunities such as this are very rare and we are delighted to have this opportunity. Completing this double-matching campaign will generate more than $100,000 of funds for this critical work and that is a high priority goal for this second quarter.

Also, we have maintained dues-paying membership above the 20,000 mark which is historically very impressive.

We are ramping up our efforts on many fronts, to grow our membership, to recruit lots of candidates, to reach out to lots of voters, and to make waves politically.

At the LNC meeting, leaders discussed adding two new staff positions:

Press Secretary and Candidate Support Specialist. These positions are important investments in laying the foundation for big things in 2018 and 2020. We will begin our search to fill these positions soon.

To make these positions a reality, we will have to expand this year’s budget by about $30,000.

As our Chair, Nicholas Sarwark says, “we are going to outmaneuver and outwork our opponents.” This is a long-run game that requires persistence and dedication.

Many thanks to you and the many other Libertarians who are so generous to the party. We ask for your continued and regular support as we build and grow.

If you have any questions about our work, please email me any time at lauren.daugherty@lp.org.

Lauren Daugherty

Head of Development