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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / They Need a Hand

They Need a Hand

by | 52 Comments

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The ACLU has a funding problem:

A longtime anonymous donor to the American Civil Liberties Union has withdrawn his annual gift of more than $20 million, punching a 25 percent hole in its annual operating budget and forcing cutbacks in operations.

Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the A.C.L.U., acknowledged in a written statement that a “family” had told the organization in September that it could not make its annual gifts, at least for next year.

“This family, that has sought to protect its privacy by arranging its gifts anonymously, notified us last month that due to market conditions it will be unable to make its expected sizable donations of over $20 million,” Mr. Romero said.

Twenty million is a sizable hole in any nonprofit’s budget, so if you have been holding off on renewing your membership, now would be a good time to go give.

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    Sly

    And for those who’ve never donated to them, the biggest benefit I’ve found (besides helping a good organization) is that you actually get to call yourself a “Card-Carrying Member of the ACLU” to all your conservative friends and family members.

  2. 2.

    geg6

    @Sly:

    LOL! True! I do this all the time.

    Our local ACLU is teh awesome. So, yeah, I’ll head on over and renew.

  4. 4.

    Halteclere

    Yea, but the ACLU is the prime aggressor on the War on Christmas!

    (/snark – I’ve contributed to them ever since I got out of college)

  5. 5.

    dr. bloor

    Smells like more of Bernie Madoff’s handiwork.

    I did an internship with them one summer while in college. Nothing pleased me more than to be despised by the sort of people who despised us.

  6. 6.

    Brian J

    They claim that they lost a big chunk of support, but how can we be sure that they are being honest? I mean, how can we be sure this isn’t some sort of scam, along the lines of those Salvation Army volunteers outside of the malls at CHRISTmas, the Red Cross, or public universities? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

  7. 7.

    Napoleon

    Well according to the story Peter B Lewis, whose money comes from the company that has something like 5200 employees in my village of 3200 (and helps keep my taxes low) appears to have covered my donation.

  10. 10.

    tomvox1

    I think this unfortunately does point out the problem with relying on “Super Donors” for huge percentages of NPO budgets. Not sure there are other paradigms that work but the human tendency to assume that a quarter of one’s budget is “guaranteed” can lead to complacency in fund-raising efforts, I’d imagine. And when that huge chunk is not there, it’s impossible to make up for it immediately.

    Also, this is more strong evidence for the fact that donation-reliant advocacy groups and charities get it in the neck during lean financial times.

    Maybe if they take on the Climategate hackers as free speech cases, they will get some of that sweet, sweet Exxon-Mobil money…

  14. 14.

    Edwin

    I’ll donate if I can figure out how to do so anonymously. Last time I contributed I was inundated with calls, letters, and e-mails from every progressive political org/charity in the world. It was a damned nuisance.

  16. 16.

    henqiguai

    Great. That was a chunk of change I didn’t have to give up to some (worthy and appreciated) organization. Used to be a card-carrier, then serial layoffs (my next life I won’t be a technologist; real iffy job security when we ratcheted down the whole pending worldwide Armageddon thing) forced a retrenchment of all charitable giving.

    But thanks for the heads-up. I really did want to re-up (and was tired of the guilt trip every time they called).

  17. 17.

    artem1s

    be a little wary. I recently renewed my membership with them and they started calling me weekly to ask for more $. I told the first one that the annual membership was all I would be able to do this year and he still kept pressuring me. I had to get mean and asked him to take me off their call list. they called again a week or so later and I had to threaten to call the AG to get them to understand. I normally don’t even argue with these people, just hang up, but I wanted them to understand how much they were damaging their rep by acting this way. Obviously they have hired some noxious professional fundraising company to do this campaign. given the way they have behaved so far I fear that it is a bit of a “story” to boost their take. I hope not, but from now on my $ is going to the local chapter, not the national one.

  20. 20.

    ellaesther

    a 25 percent hole in its annual operating budget — holy crap!

    I’ll renew, and I’ll spread the word a bit further, too. To me, they feel like the finger in America’s dike.

  24. 24.

    Bill H

    I keep remembering that scene from the movie “An American President” where Michael Douglas calls out his opponent,

    “Yeah, whatever, I’m a card-carrying member of the ACLU and what I want to know is why aren’t you?”

    But as for contributing to them; not unless, like Edwin et al, I can find a way do do it without them finding out who I am. I did it once and was hounded almost to death, to the point that I wished I’d never heard of them. Never again.

  25. 25.

    AngusTheGodOfMeat

    I’m a longtime ACLU member and contributor as many of you know, but don’t let that dissuade you from helping them out. Maybe I just have mad cow disease, but I think we have to stand together with our tails into the rain in a situation like this.

    I checked my barn and it looks like I am about $19,999,975 short of making up this deficit for them, so please be as generous as you can.

  32. 32.

    RobertB

    My experience was the same as Artem1s’. I was donating about $50 a year, then they got pushy enough that I basically told the guy on the phone that he could go pound sand and they weren’t getting another goddamn dime. Hunting up the local is a good idea though.

  37. 37.

    diakron

    They could be a lot stronger on Amendment No. 2; that was why I let my membership lapse a few years ago (and I don’t even own a gun or really care to). But if I had a steady income right now, I’d re-join.

    Agreed that “Super Donors” are a foolish funding scheme, in good times or bad.

  40. 40.

    catclub

    OT: All it took was 14 years of courtroom delays, laid over
    100 years of stealing, to get the Indians to take pennies on the dollar of their claims.
    The real trick was getting them to say they liked it that way.

    Same technique worked for Swiss banks holding Holocaust
    victims bank assets.

    Dontcha love big gangs of organized lawyers.

  41. 41.

    AngusTheGodOfMeat

    I have no cel phone. Those leather cases you people carry them in are offensive to me, I think you can imagine why.
    But my human friends say that they don’t get any phone solicitations as a result of online donation activity.

    Even a cow can afford a Magic jack number, even if we only use it for its fine voicemail feature which sends email when voicemails are left. It costs less than two bucks a month, and well worth it even if you never actually use the VOIP connection itself. Also it’s a totally portable phone line that you can take anywhere and use wherever there is a broadband connection.

    Use the Magic Jack number as a blind for online activities and never get a nuisance phone call again. The device does not need to be connected in order for the voicemail to work.

    We ungulates are more tech savvy than you might think.

  43. 43.

    catclub

    Angus @ 41

    I know some flax and cotton plants that have strong feelings about
    ‘green’ linen or cotton clothing, too.

    HT Douglas Adams

  45. 45.

    roseyv

    But as for contributing to them; not unless, like Edwin et al, I can find a way do do it without them finding out who I am.

    Go to the post office, buy a money order, stick it in a plain white envelope, address it to them, put a stamp on it and drop it in a mailbox. That’s what I’m gonna do.

  46. 46.

    New Yorker

    Ugh,

    One of the wonderful aspects of being underemployed is that I can’t give my normal amount of money to the various nonprofit groups I usually do (a mix of environmental groups, human rights/refugee aid groups, and food banks/homeless assistance groups). This year, I think I’ve cut my normal check to the Nature Conservancy (my favorite organization and one that will never lose my support) and cut a much slimmer check to my alma mater.

    So instead of my normal $1,000+ in donations, I ended up giving out about $100. I’m not happy about it, but what can I do?

  47. 47.

    Tsulagi

    @Sly:
    True that. About five years ago during a heated “9/11 changed everything” argument with my dad I told him I’d just become an ACLU card carrier. The look he gave me was priceless and alone worth the price of admission. Mom could have told him to go pack the Rapture was starting and he would have looked less incredulous.

  48. 48.

    jakethesnake

    I would have to agree, you must be careful when dealing with the ACLU. I renewed my membership a couple years ago and a month later I got a phone call asking me to renew, then a couple days later I got another one. The guy gave me some bullshit story about having me in their DB twice. I might believe it if it was the first time this type of thing has happen with these people. I have asked the ACLU many times to take me off their junk mail list, and every six months or so they put me back on it. Unfortunately my love for the ACLU was overcome by my hatred of pushy salesmen years ago. If they want anymore of my money, they will have to clean up their process first. No matter how just your cause, I will tell you to go fuck yourself if you start in with the pushy salesman shit.

  49. 49.

    henqiguai

    @diakron (#37):

    They could be a lot stronger on Amendment No. 2

    Well, while the ACLU is busily protecting your First Amendment and other issues of Constitutionally guaranteed civil rights, you can always turn to that bastion of 2nd Amendment rights, the NRA. They’ll gladly take your money.

    (Yeah, snowed in and can’t remote link in to the office system, so I’m available to be an annoyance.)

  50. 50.

    noncarborundum

    @geg6: Actually I’m puzzled by all the talk of pressure tactics. I’ve been a member since early 2002 and I don’t get anything more annoying than the occasional e-mail alert or fund-raising letter in the mail (both of which are easy to ignore).

    My wife says they called once and she asked them not to call again, and they haven’t.

  51. 51.

    chrome agnomen

    what possessed board members to, even ‘anonymously’, rat out the donor? it seems that that anonymity was a condition of his gift. sounds remarkably short-sighted. rethug moles?

  52. 52.

    ADM

    Have I been reading too many political blogs, or is there a discrepancy between the author’s assertion and the ACLU’s executive director’s statement? The author, Stephanie Strom, says the ACLU lost 25% of its annual operational budget. But ACLU executive director Anthony Romero says a certain big (anonymous) donating family won’t be able to make its usual 20+million dollar donation. That could mean a 20 million dollar donation without the plus, or it could mean anything under, down to zero. The article certainly shows the ACLU acting as if its lost 25% of its annual operating budget – canceling meetings (and associated costs), cutting staff, hiring freezes, etc. So maybe I’m trying to play internet-lawyer too hard, but it’d be nice if this was spelled out a little more clearly, considering times are tough all around and even the ACLU isn’t above resorting to cliches, like desperate times call for desperate measures. Especially if the ACLU’s hiring this project out to a professional fundraising org. God only knows what kind of gimmicks professional solicitors pull.

    The ACLU’s an important institution and a worthy cause, but just be careful. Just cause some high-speed, low drag liberal institution has its hand out doesn’t mean we need to rush to put money in it.

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