Trail Blazer, Non-Profit and Political Talk!

Just got my copy of this fall 2008’s “Nonprofit News” and came across an article from Jon Pratt (Executive Director for Minnesota Council of Nonprofits’) on 990 changes.

In it he points out that the new Part VI – Governance, Management and Disclosure – has 22 new yes/no questions about organizational policies and board procedures.  The suggestion he has is to take a dry run at the document now, if you have not already done so.

This is very good advise and I am hoping that everyone reading this will take that advice and make sure they can answer the questions, just don’t leave it to the accountants to do.

Traditional wisdom is that nonprofits have a delayed recession effect.  But we are hearing that nonprofits are being hit very hard right now.  Our thoughts are with everyone struggling.  

We are building new tools and partnerships to improve our performance and the results that you see in your fundraising and your activism.

With that in mind we joined the “Minnesota Council of Nonprofits” about a year ago and I came across a link that might help some of you on their web site.  http://www.mncn.org/moneysavingtips.htm

Hope it helps.   

Last week the RNC was in St Paul and Minneapolis.  It was an interesting time, some of us were able to get tickets to the convention hall and I can tell you it was very interesting.  Since we work with all stripes, in regards to our political clients, here at Trail Blazer we looked at the event as interested observers.  I have to tell you if you have never been to a political convention they have some very colorful people attend, and this national convention was no exception.  Everyone was very nice, very talkative and very much in love with their party.  Lot’s of delegates collected pins and buttons, t-shirts and hats.

I have to say we at Trail Blazer really enjoyed the time we spent at the convention events.

Breakfast this morning (9/3/2008) for Oklahoma and Louisiana was something we did to thank the many republican clients we have in Louisiana.

While we are a non-partisan firm with so many of our clients in Louisiana being republicans we thought this breakfast was a good way to thank them and there supporters.

The Oklahoma delegates were very nice.

The speaker that was lined up for this breakfast was amazing, former congressman from Oklahoma  J.C Watts, Jr (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JC_Watts) he was dynamic and funny and really kept the audience in his grasp.

After the breakfast we handed out our information to the many people who attended.

Later that day I just happened to walk by the area was the Oklahoma delegates were getting their photos taken for the convention.  I got stopped because they had questions about Trail Blazer.  It was very nice to see that so many people remembered us and asked more questions about Trail Blazer.’

We at Trail Blazer have some friends in Louisiana and Gustav has caused a lot of concern.  With the RNC happening this week we joined some of our friends who are with the Louisiana delegation to the RNC for breakfast this morning.  It was announced that Cindy McCain would appear to say a few words but who should appear with her but Laura Bush.  That was a good treat.  They had kind words to say and good wishes for all in the Gulf Coast area.  We here at Trail Blazer are thinking of all the Gulf Coast area in this time of bad weather.

I can not believe it has been about 3 months since I last posted.  We have had quite the run in the last few months, signing lots of new non-profit and political clients.  We even had a brush with Jesse Ventura’s ‘people’ when he was considering running.  So the excitement has been non-stop. 

This all came to a head back in July around the 15th and we might have been having a funfest except we signed not one but two US Senate candidates (well it was pretty fun but very busy).  Getting statewide databases up and running with their ancillary pieces usually takes about 4-7 days.  We did it in 2 days total for both new accounts!

Well I just got back from well deserved week long vacation and only had 300 emails waiting for me, so I will get back to them for now!!

Cubicles, seemed like I was done with them when I started here.  But as of today I really like it.  Living free, having open space office plan is not all it is cracked up to be.  No privacy, everyone over hearing your phone calls.  Yuck.

So this week we have been moving our computers and files back and forth to make room and then setup our new cubicles. 

By the way if you’re in the Twin Cities area and are looking for a good deal on cubicles check out Office Liquidators, Inc. 925 North Highway 169 Plymouth, MN 55441 on the web at www.affordableofficefurniture.com they were great price and service.   First talked to them at 12:45 Monday, ordered Monday Night at 5:15 PM.  Delivered at 1:30 PM Tuesday (and installed very professionally in 2.5 hours).

So with the addition new work surfaces (cubicles) we are building a stronger company. 

I'll try and get a couple of photo's up later....

I get asked "How do I win my election" all the time.  There is no trick to it, figure out the number of people likely to vote in your election and divide by 2 then add 1.  The famous “50% plus 1” rule.  Then get that number of people to vote for you.

Then you need to start and figure out who will vote for you - keeping a tally.  By the way Trail Blazer Campaign Manger helps you keep track of that information.  You didn’t think I would not put in at least one plug, did you?  So the day you start you should have a tally of at least 1 (you).  Hopefully you have a few family and friends that have said they will vote for you.  Build that number up by phone calling and going door to door.  Be sure you have a visual way to keep that tally in front of you everyday of the campaign.  You will want to make sure your tally contains variables for strong support and soft or leaning support. Remember to keep that database, you know - Trail Blazer J, up to date with that information.  Another key don’t guess, ask them.  Many people will say that they like you, be sure to ask “will you vote for me or my opponent”.  In other words if they hedge they are not a strong supporter, mark them as only leaning to you.

If you are not a 3^rd party or independent candidate you can skip to the last paragraph.

We work with a lot of 3^rd party and independent candidates, the 50% plus 1 doesn’t always apply.  One of the misunderstandings for these candidates is that if it is a three way race they need 33% plus 1.  In some areas and elections this is true; see the Minnesota Governors race of 1998 for example.  But in most cases the districts or wards or other political boundaries have been divided to give one party a “stronghold”.  For example we, Trail Blazer,  worked with a third party campaign in a district that was heavily one party, usually in presidential going as high as 70% and in congressional going on average in the 65% range for the primary party.  The other, I’ll call it the minor party, getting 30-35% of the vote.  You can’t win with 33% plus 1 in that race, the dominate party will get 34-40% because even if the dominant parties candidate is a sleaze ball with all kinds of negative press, most party loyalists will not “break ranks”.  That goes for the minor parties candidate as well.  The reasoning for this is a topic for another day.

So the math on this is a little fuzzy, but in my experience you should think like this if you take 40% of the dominant party’s support (at 65% of total) giving you 26% of total that leaves the dominant party with 39%.  The next trick is doing the same to the minor party.  If you can get the same percent (which is an unlikely feat given you have appealed to the dominant party’s support) from the minor party (at 35% of total) you will have 14% of the total, giving you 40%.  That percent or some reasonable assimilation should be used to get your target voter count.  It is also a pretty nice trick if you can pull it off.  By the way with the dominant party's base level of support at 70% of the vote, and you only getting 40% of the dominant party's and minor partys support it really is not winnable, using math.   

In conclusion to win an election you need to know how many people will vote and how many it will take to win.  Tally and keep track of everyone that will vote for you, keeping in mind that you will need to have a plan for the last days and hours of your election.  In most circles that plan is called the GOTV (Get out the Vote) plan.  So keep those people tallied and marked in your database as supporters will be the key to that plan.