A New Way To Make Money

State Sharing Programs Create Funds At All Levels
Emily Citkowski, Operations Director of the Green Party of the United States

Unlike the Democrats and Republicans, the Green Party doesn’t take corporate cash. We are building a people-poweredónot a corporate-poweredóparty by organizing and mobilizing at every level.

But the reality is it takes money to organize campaign schools. It takes money to run a successful ballot access drive. It takes money to run print, radio, and TV advertisements. To be successful, we all need to roll up our sleeves and pitch in.

Does it sound daunting? No worries, we’ve made it easy for you. The national party has developed the State Sharing Program that will allow state Green Parties to utilize a number of fundraising tools that we’ve developed.

State Sharing Program Overview

The State Sharing Program is a partnership between State Green Parties and the national office. All money raised by the program is shared with 60 percent of the money raised going to the state party and 40 percent to the national. You and your state party are in charge of promoting the program, spreading the word, and soliciting the donations. The national is in charge of setting-up the program for your state and all of the administrative aspects including overhead costs: we send the thank you letters, process payments, handle the financial reporting and send out any premiums associated with the fundraising campaign.

Step One: Choose from our menu of tasty fundraising programs

Green Party Card Program:†For $36 or more a year, the contributor receives a personalized card to show the world they stand committed to Green values, a subscription to Green Pages, a bumper sticker, button, information about party history, and a list of committees and caucuses. Most importantly, they get the contact information for your state’s Green Party so they can get involved and active as a Green. The national office also sends their contact information to your state’s Green Party so you can get them involved immediately. The national office will send a renewal letter every year. The majority of Green Party Card holders are new donors to the party. This program is a great way to get new people involved in the Green Party.

Sustainer Program:
Green Party sustainers are supporters who contribute $10 or more monthly, or $25 or more quarterly to the Green Party. They are truly the backbone of the party. By building the sustainer program, we can have a reliable ongoing source of income for funding the ongoing expenses related to running the party (on a state level or national level) and allowing for additional revenue towards funding special projects. All of our sustainers receive an exclusive sustainer lapel pin and a subscription to Green Pages.

Green Pages:
For $20 or more a year the supporter receives a subscription to Green Pages so that they can stay in formed about the Green Party nationally and globally.

Merchandise:
The merchandise committee offers a bulk merchandise program, which allows your state party to buy Green Party materials at a discount and resell it for a profit. We also offer a tabling kit, which includes a “how-to” notebook with a sampling of Green Party merchandise, literature holders, templates, and everything else you need to set-up a merchandise table. We are also introducing a new service where we will arrange to have customized t-shirts printed at a discount by a sweatshop-free union vendor for your state party. If your state party or campaign wants to produce your own merchandise, we can provide you with a list of sweatshop-free, union vendors.

One-Time Donation:
No frills, no bells and whistles. Sup porters send in a one-time donation to help grow the Green Party.

What Else? You decide. We are always thinking of new programs to help support state fundraising. If you have ideas, please send them our way.

Step Two: Choose How to Best Promote the Program

On Line:
Take advantage of the on-line fundraising system that the national office already has in place. We will set-up a customized donation page for you to post on state and local party Web pages, blogs, e-bulletins, etc. The donate page will have a unique code which will allow us to track the donation and ensure that it gets credited to your efforts.

In Person:
Whether you decide to host a house party, table at a community fair, fundraise at a concert, or talk to your family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers we will provide you with all of the forms and templates you need to get started. As with the on-line donate pages, these forms will have a tracking code, which will allow the national office to credit the contribution back to your state party.

To summarize, the State Sharing Program is a shared effort: the state is in charge of promoting the program; the national office is in charge of the set-up, administration, and overhead costs. You decide which programs you would like to work with, and whether you would like to promote on-line or in-person. Please note that you can choose more than one program or more than one method. In fact, this is more successful. As in nature where biodiversity is more successful than monoculture you’ll find it will be more successful to offer your supporters a number of ways to support the party.

The best kind of organizing is grassroots, and that goes for fundraising too. We need to raise money in our communities and from the people who believe in us the most. In order to build a people-powered Green Party, we need to raise money from the bottom up. Will you help us?

For more information, check out www.gp.org/statefundraising/, or email Emily@gp.org