How to Build a Conservative Movement, Part 1 | Morton Blackwell, President, The Leadership Institute

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I aim to build a movement, not an empire. And that is why I am very happy to cooperate with other

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Conservative organizations and help them. So the Leadership Institute has just grown extraordinarily.

[00:00:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I founded it in 1979. We have now trained over 300 and 10,000 people.

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Keeping our republic is online and it requires patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_00]: vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_00]: She is an author, a filmmaker, and one of time magazines most influential people in the world.

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_00]: But the title she is most proud of is Mark to her boy girl twins. She has been at the forefront,

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade.

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_02]: The New York City is a delegate for Barry Goldwater in 1964 to organizing the National

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Youth effort for Ronald Reagan in 1980. Well, it's for his experiences working in the

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Reagan White House and his pivotal role in fostering the next generation of Conservative leaders.

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_02]: See tune to your insights from a man whose lifetime of dedication and strategic prowess continues

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_02]: to shape American politics. Well thank you so much for joining me today, Morton. I'm just

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_01]: very excited about this interview with you. I'm very pleased to be with you. I have no

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_01]: you since you were a spark plug starting the incredible efforts of 29 and 2010 with the Tea Party

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Patriots. We were just talking before we got started recording about the New Reagan

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_02]: and you were a delegate for Reagan before, long before he actually became the nominee.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Can you talk about that a little bit? Well yes like most conservators I was really impressed

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_01]: by Reagan's speech at the end of the 64 campaign which was televised nationwide and brought

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_01]: in an avalanche of money so that the gold campaign was lost the election wound up with millions

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_01]: of dollars that they hadn't spent by the time of the election and people began to consider

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Reagan for public office. It took some persuading but California businessmen persuaded him

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_01]: to become a candidate for governor in 1966 and in 1968 there was a boomlet for Reagan and

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_01]: a number of states elected Reagan delegates and a whole lot of units to the Republican National

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Convention and I was elected a Reagan alternate from Louisiana where I then lived in 1968 to the

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_02]: you were also a delegate right in 1964 the youngest delegate. I was the youngest elected

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_01]: delegate for Barrio Water in 1964 and interesting today there are national convention delegates

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_01]: who are 17 years old who are going to turn 18 before election day but it was unusual in those days

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_01]: to be a delegate or even a member of a state central committee unless you had gray hair or

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_01]: none so at 24 I was Reagan's youngest for not to go water as youngest elected delegates.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_02]: That's that is so wonderful and you have been active well you're an active you had to be active in

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_02]: politics before that to be elected delegate right so how long have you been active in politics?

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_01]: How old were you when you got started? Well my first serious interest in politics was sparked by a

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_01]: column in Newswick in October of 1958 the columnist that I admired named Raymond Moli

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_01]: wrote in his column in October of 1958 that the most important Senate race in that off presidential

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_01]: election year was the effort of the labor union bosses to defeat a freshman senator from Arizona named

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Barrio Water and I had seen the name before but I'd never paid attention I started paying attention

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_01]: and the more I heard the more I liked in 1960 there were a lot of delegates for gold water

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_01]: elected go water at the end of the roll call he asked all the delegates who would have for him to vote for

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_01]: for Nixon he said conservatives our time will come we should all get behind Nixon well

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_01]: frankly I was never a great fan of over at your next and but go water said it so I supported Nixon

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_01]: for president we started a little student for Nixon and lodge club at Luzianna State University

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_01]: we didn't know beans about how to organize activities but we did the best we could

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and that started me off and in 1961 early in the year friend of mine at LSU got a packet

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_01]: of material just produced by a new group called in Americans for freedom about how you

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_01]: that packet and their sample constitution and created a conservative student club at LSU

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_01]: and in the fall of 1961 we chartered with young Americans for freedom early in 62

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I co-founded a college Republican club at LSU and later on in the late spring of 62

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I was elected college Republican state chairman of Luzianna not as impressive as you might think

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: because we was a convention composed of four delegates and a friend of mine and i ran against each other

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_01]: and it tied two to two on three ballots and we flipped a coin and i won and became college or

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_01]: a state chairman for and serve for two years and i worked hard at it we went from three tiny

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_01]: clubs with a combined membership of under a hundred two years later we had 15 college Republican

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_01]: clubs in Luzianna some of them including LSU with hundreds of members that's very exciting and so

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_02]: when you first started with the Nixon club you didn't know anything about organizing

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_02]: and then young Americans for freedom are YAF as some people know them and today Scott Walker is a

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_01]: chairman i believe of YAF you said of the young Americans foundation okay today young Americans for freedom

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_02]: is a project of young Americans foundation okay so that organization and then we'll talk about

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_02]: in a few minutes everything that you've done have this long lasting legacy of training young people

[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_01]: on how to become active well as state college Republican chairman i had clubs out there and i

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_01]: wanted them to succeed and i had to learn how to organize students myself and i learned by trial and

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_01]: are mostly there weren't any examples around this that how to do it and in 1965 of the year after

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_01]: i had finished being state chairman by an extraordinary combination of circumstances

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_01]: the newly elected college Republican national chairman who was Tom Paukin of Texas

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_01]: invited me to come to Washington to be executive director of the college Republican national committee

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_01]: and up until then i hadn't figured out any way that i might possibly get a salary working in politics

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_01]: i was a conservative activist i i read enormous numbers of fundamental conservative books and

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_01]: director of the national college Republicans off and on from the summer of 65 through the November 1970 elections five

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_01]: and a half years and i served as nation executive director under four consecutive college Republican

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_02]: national chairman wow that's very exciting and you were able to really coach them i'm sure a lot because

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_01]: you you had done it so i've learned it and that my greatest learning experience with when i was

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_01]: doing field work for the college Republicans i i spent some time in Kentucky in 67 when they had a

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_01]: governor's race going i drew up a plan to give to the college Republican state chairman of

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Kentucky about how to run what i called a mass-based youth effort for Louis none the Republican

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_01]: nominee for governor and the state chairman asked the national chairman to lend me to Kentucky

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_01]: for the balance of the campaign and and that's what happened and i put together a different

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_01]: kind of youth effort which really was mass-based with thousands and thousands of members quickly recruited

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and they did a lot of good work and Louis none who was behind in every single poll up until

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_01]: election day but creeping forward he won with 51.2% of the vote and people credited

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_01]: a big youth effort that i had organized so i started in 68 the next year training youth

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_01]: organizers and i did that through the college Republicans in 1968 69 and 70 my first training

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_01]: of youth organizers was in the early summer of of 68 20 people in the class many of them

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_01]: went out to be youth coordinators a young man from Kentucky that i trained in 68 was that year

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_01]: the youth organizer in Kentucky for the Republican candidate for senate and a marlow cook

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_01]: and cook one and he hired his youth coordinator on senate staff and he worked there for six years

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and then went back home to Louis Kentucky and built his career and that young man was named

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Mitch McCall. Wow that's amazing so um and i bet you have so many different stories about the

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_02]: people who you have gone on to train who have gone on to to do something i've gone through

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_02]: l.i training and did that before the tea party movement got started and i think part of

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_02]: the reason that i was prepared to be all of a sudden the movement gets started and we had the

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_02]: tax-state protest and my goal was to take that moment in time and turn it into a movement i know

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_01]: earthly idea how to do that but well you you will recall genie bath that once you had begun

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_01]: organizing your tea party patriot's group that i called you and i said i'm in the business of

[00:12:52] [SPEAKER_01]: training and service how to be effective and i want to help your organization and i'm prepared

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_01]: to come and do training for as many of your grassroots people as we can recruit and we've been

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_02]: ever since that's right that's absolutely right and i wanted to take advantage of that because

[00:13:10] [SPEAKER_02]: i'd gone through training with you and then what was called covered-out leadership training in

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Georgia um and in the covered-out leadership training it's now called republican leadership training

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_02]: or something in Georgia be it was named after the former senator who is now dead Paul covered-out

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_01]: he was a great man covered-out is one of the few politicians that i know of who actually turned out

[00:13:40] [SPEAKER_01]: better and it wants to elected so many of them disappoint us but covered-out was a man who

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_01]: the longer he served here the higher his regard by conservative movement activist all around the

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_02]: free his law his death was a great law it it was a great loss and he and newt both understood the

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_02]: importance of training people and making sure they were building a field team and because i'd gone

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_02]: through that training and through algebra training and through go pack training even though i wasn't

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_02]: running for office i knew it was my congressman so we wound up having go pack training in Georgia

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_02]: when this movement started i was prepared and and ready to be able to help figure out how we

[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_02]: turn it help all these groups and when you reached out it was such a good thing because people needed

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_02]: that training they had this passion and this love for the country and anger about what was

[00:14:38] [SPEAKER_02]: happening for the country but they didn't know what to do with it and sort of like how you said

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_02]: they didn't know beans about organizing a lot of them didn't know beans about organizing and needed

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_01]: that training well every type of activity that you enter into it is different there's a

[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_01]: different vocabulary there are different rules there are different ways to be effective and

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_01]: we don't have time to make all the mistakes and learn lessons the hard way it certainly makes sense

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_01]: for conservatives to study the techniques of how to win and some of them are counterintuitive

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_01]: and elaborate on that how are they counterintuitive well my favorite example is fundraising letters

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_01]: if you get a room full of conservatives and you ask them which would be more successful

[00:15:38] [SPEAKER_01]: a very good short letter or a very good long letter and the majority will say well

[00:15:45] [SPEAKER_01]: i would rather read a very good short letter well the truth is the trial and error and testing and

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_01]: testing has demonstrated absolutely that in almost every case a good long letter will be more

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_01]: financially successful for you than a good short letter but unless you've been told that by

[00:16:07] [SPEAKER_01]: somebody the only way you to learn it is by the school of hard knocks and when you're doing fundraising

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_02]: and mailing things that can be an expensive lesson to learn you got it um so how you so you went on

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_02]: you came to Washington DC you worked for the college republicans is the executive director for

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_01]: five different presidents for four different groups over five and a half years and then i left

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER_01]: in the November 1970 and my salary often on for five and a half years was little or nothing

[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_01]: sometimes it was little sometimes it was nothing i enjoyed every minute of it literally i sometimes

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_01]: went to bed with unable to afford my minimum supper which was a can of Vienna sausage

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_01]: but when i left college republicans i had a developed a reputation i developed a training program

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_01]: that trained youth organizers and who went out and helped win campaigns all across the country

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and i was hired in early 71 by the american enterprise institute a conservative

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_01]: think tank the biggest conservative think tank and DC at the time and i was there director of computer

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_01]: projects not because i was expert in computers but because they had a program for identifying

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_01]: conservative college professors and getting data on them and they were recommending conservative

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_01]: professors to the Nixon administration for jobs and i had just finished five and a half years

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_01]: i'd worked it with people in every state and lots of college people and if i didn't know somebody

[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_01]: on a campus i knew somebody who knew somebody on a campus so i went to work for them

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and it was a fine job i worked with them for a year and a half and in May my friend Lee Edward

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_01]: introduced me to his friend Richard Vigory all three of us had arrived in DC in 1965

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_01]: i hadn't low known Lee because he would come in lecture to college republican groups about public

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_01]: relations for me and i also provided college republican volunteers for all the major

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_01]: rallies and things that he organized. Lee terrific guy he is not a tall and stature but he is a

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_01]: towering hero of public relations and and so the New York Times was called Lee Edward's

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_01]: voice of the silent majority and he set up a luncheon with Richard Vigory who had built

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_01]: already a massive direct mail operation and had a fabulous reputation Richard Vigory

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_01]: did not attend conservative meetings he was a reclusive went to work early and worked late

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_01]: and he didn't go to any of those meetings he was rumored to have behind his desk the giant

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_01]: faucet that he could turn on and money would pour into the treasury of any group he would take

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_01]: on as a client but i did not met him we've been the same town had the same principle he had been

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_01]: the go water campaign as head Lee and I and we hit it off well with lunch Lee Edward Richard

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_01]: and I to be slater he said morning once you to come back to the Mayflower hotel and have another

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_01]: lunch with me and he offered me a job and he said morning i've decided to go public as a conservative

[00:20:12] [SPEAKER_01]: leader and I want you to come help me build a conservative movement i'll teach you fundraising

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_01]: and you can be my political assistant as we start to seriously build a mass-based

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_01]: conservative movement i took the job and worked for Richard for seven years and what did you do for

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Richard well just what he promised he promised that he would teach me direct mail fundraising

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_01]: which he did and I helped him organize in normal meetings of people who were already

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_01]: conservative leaders who were who had the potential to be conservative leaders we concluded

[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_01]: that what the conservative movement needed was to dramatically increase the number and effectiveness

[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_01]: of conservative activists and that meant helping existing groups recruit a whole lot more

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_01]: members and owners it would also required the creation of many new conservative groups

[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and truthfully some leaders of existing conservative groups were not happy about the sudden

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_01]: springing up of other conservative organizations but people like Paul Warrick and Ed Fulner

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_01]: put together the heritage foundation they put together the House Republican Study Committee

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_01]: the Senate steering committee whiracles particularly prolific he helped create

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_01]: elect the American legislative exchange council many many other organizations and through the

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER_01]: 70s the number of conservative organizations multiplied the number of big conservative

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_01]: organizations multiplied we wound up recruiting a theological conservative pastor of at a

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_01]: television program Dr. Jerry Falwell and Warrick went down with a group of friends of mine

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_01]: to Lynchburg talk with Jerry Falwell and said we were hoping that he would lead a national

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_01]: conservative Christian group and he said to Dr. Falwell I believe there is a conservative

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_01]: moral majority out there ready to organize and a couple of minutes later Falwell said well I

[00:22:50] [SPEAKER_01]: like that I think I'll use that he said Paul said what do you mean he said moral majority that's

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_01]: what I'm going to call my organization and if and Falwell started involving conservative

[00:23:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Christians in politics and it but up until that time my people young people can't

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_01]: even conceive of it but up until that time most theologically conservative pastors thought

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_01]: the politics and the public policy process was not part of their calling and yet Falwell became

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_01]: enormously famous I think they were probably more people in the United States who could name the

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_01]: pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church then could name a Catholic Arnold I mean and other

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_01]: theologically conservative religious broadcasters noticed that lightning did not strike Jerry

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Falwell and it was successful and it was good and so in the latter part of the 70s there

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_01]: people who were theologically conservative became active and that enabled us to nominate an

[00:24:09] [SPEAKER_01]: electoral ring and how did that help nominate an electem? Well in political context over time

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_01]: the winner the winning side is determined by which side has the greatest number of effective

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_01]: activists and leaders you don't win just because your heart is pure you don't win by being

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_01]: able to prove that you are right it one side has a greater number of effective

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_01]: activists on the other side over continued period of time that that side is going to win and if

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_01]: you are on the side that doesn't study how to win and doesn't increase your activists then you're

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_01]: to lose no matter how right you are. That is such an important lesson for people to understand

[00:25:04] [SPEAKER_02]: sometimes they get behind a candidate or a cause and they know that that is the right cause

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_02]: and they just want the answer and they want the solution and they want it right the second.

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Well they think if I can prove that I am right then eventually I'm going to win because I'm right

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_01]: victory will fall into my deserving hands like a ripe fruit off of the tree because I am right

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_01]: well that is not the real nature of politics if you believe your side deserves to win then

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_01]: you owe it to your philosophy to study how to win how to organize how to communicate how to raise funds

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_01]: all the thousands of skills that are necessary to win in government politics and the news media.

[00:25:55] [SPEAKER_02]: And I want to come back to Reagan and we'll do that in a few minutes but let's keep talking

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_02]: about what you were just talking about. You have made it really your life mission since you were

[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_02]: college to train people on all of those aspects of it so they understand what skills they need to win.

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely I aim to build a movement not an empire and that is why I am very happy

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_01]: to cooperate with other conservative organizations and help them in various ways new organizations

[00:26:31] [SPEAKER_01]: come up and just like I did with Tea Party Patriots I call them up and say we can help you

[00:26:39] [SPEAKER_01]: you have wonderful committed activists let us teach them how to be effective and many of them say yes

[00:26:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and so the leadership institute has just grown extraordinarily I founded it in 1979 we have now

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_01]: trained over 300 and 10,000 people it's amazing we've last year we did more than 2,000 separate training

[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_01]: programs we have over 2,600 active conservative or libertarian local club local campus clubs

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_01]: we have a powerful website that exposes leftist abuses and bias on campus last year we had over

[00:27:32] [SPEAKER_01]: 8 million viewers on that and it's working wonderfully both programmatically and financially

[00:27:43] [SPEAKER_01]: leadership is currently in our greatest period of growth last year we trained 31,000 people

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_01]: which was a 100 and 7% of the number we trained to previous year and that's 10% of the total number

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER_02]: you've ever trained. That's amazing actually when you think of it that way that 10% from starting in

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_01]: 79 all the way through the end of 2023. Yeah last year alone we trained more people than we did in

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_01]: the first 22 years of the leadership institute and we've been able to attract a growing number of

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_01]: supporters last year we acquired 63,000 new donors with an average first gift of over $70.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Congratulations. And our revenue is growing rapidly 2020 it was 23 million and we're over

[00:28:46] [SPEAKER_01]: new the next year we were 30 million the next year it was 39 million and last year we had a total

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_02]: revenue of $42 million. That is wonderful and I think there's something really important for people

[00:28:59] [SPEAKER_02]: to understand if they're just getting started your growth is phenomenal and the numbers

[00:29:07] [SPEAKER_02]: 41 million in a year is something you should be so proud of but it took years to get to that point

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_02]: and it took tireless dedication to a cause that you knew was worthy and you became the expert at

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_02]: and you were willing to train as many people as possible and not say all of it is mine you wanted

[00:29:30] [SPEAKER_02]: to help other people grow and you did that consistently over years. Well when I decided years ago

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_01]: that we were going to do a fundraising school teaching direct mail my staff question that we were

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_01]: already noted for success in direct mail and some of my staff said but born and if we teach other

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_01]: groups what we know about direct mail then they're going to go out and send letters to the same

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_01]: base of conservative donors and there'll be competitors and I said repeat for me please

[00:30:07] [SPEAKER_01]: what I thought you is the mission of the leadership institute which is to increase the number

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_01]: and effectiveness of conservative activists and leaders in government politics and the news media

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and if we teach good conservative groups how to be more effective then they're going to go out

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_01]: and increase the number and effectiveness of the conservative activists and leaders. I confess I went

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_01]: home and told my wife what we were doing because you're going to teach it well that's why and then she

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_01]: says more than are you going to teach telemarketing she says if you teach telemarketing I'm going to

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_01]: divorce you. Oh no why did she say that? She hated telephone market and she got over that she didn't

[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_01]: divorce me but we teach the whole broad spectrum we have a comprehensive school of fundraising

[00:31:04] [SPEAKER_01]: that's four days long which covers every major element of fundraising and it's a little bit

[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_02]: by a little bit by a little bit building over time on and on and on and not giving up and you've

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_02]: you have seen amazing wins you you were a delegate for Reagan in the 60s you went on to see him

[00:31:27] [SPEAKER_02]: become president but you also have seen presidents who certainly are not conservative not even

[00:31:32] [SPEAKER_02]: Republican and you didn't you just kept going even with all the defeat that you've seen you kept going

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_02]: how what kind of advice do you give to people who are just starting out? Well in 65 when I came

[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_01]: to DC to be executive director of the National College Republicans every time I drove by

[00:31:52] [SPEAKER_01]: the White House I thought that's where Lyndon Johnson lives he's the enemy and it turns out

[00:32:04] [SPEAKER_01]: that eventually in 1981 I got hired on to Ronald Reagan's White House staff and I was working

[00:32:12] [SPEAKER_01]: in the building so you have to keep your perspective on this and it's not ordinary in that you're

[00:32:20] [SPEAKER_01]: going to win every time and you've got to keep your eye on the ball and when you lose you've

[00:32:31] [SPEAKER_01]: got to figure out what did you do that you could have done better what did you fail to do

[00:32:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and you accumulate knowledge and you accumulate donors frankly even though we try in our schools

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_01]: emphasize the importance of taking good care of your donors quite frankly most groups with a broad

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_01]: base of donors do not treat their donors very well and my staff here me all the time I say

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I want us to treat our donors better than any other group treats their donors and I drill that into my

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_01]: staff's minds and I'm not sure that we do that but we certainly try and that has helped us grow.

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_01]: How do you take care of your donors? Well you have to you have to be as personal as you can with the donors

[00:33:40] [SPEAKER_01]: on a thing as simple as writing a thank you note there are some groups and they're not big

[00:33:47] [SPEAKER_01]: groups but there's some groups that don't even bother to thank their donors and there are other

[00:33:53] [SPEAKER_01]: groups which have a printed thank you note and they write in their blanks in it and say and it's a

[00:34:07] [SPEAKER_01]: much for your contribution of and you add that and there's a printed signature on this thank you note no that's

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_01]: wrong some people wait weeks before they thank their donors we have a rule here and almost always we

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_01]: adhere to that rule if when we get contributions come in one day and sometimes we can have a

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_01]: thousand or three thousand donors if there's been a big mailing our rule is my staff doesn't leave the

[00:34:47] [SPEAKER_01]: office and for laughter they have put into the computer the data relating to every new

[00:34:55] [SPEAKER_01]: contribution so that the next day these donors are mailed a personalized thank you letter thanking

[00:35:05] [SPEAKER_01]: them for their contribution and and most groups certainly don't do that. I think that is right and it

[00:35:15] [SPEAKER_02]: makes me think I need to go make sure we're doing all of our thank yous right with our organization

[00:35:19] [SPEAKER_02]: when we started we were very very fortunate these would a lot of donors who responded to direct mail

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_02]: initially and I will admit that we it was so many and we didn't have the infrastructure we were learning

[00:35:36] [SPEAKER_02]: how I knew how to organize small groups and how to be active what I didn't know was how to do fundraising

[00:35:42] [SPEAKER_02]: and how to think people and all of the infrastructure related to that and we've had to go back in

[00:35:48] [SPEAKER_02]: established relationships with donors but we're making sure we're much better about it now than we

[00:35:54] [SPEAKER_02]: were when we began we learned a lot of hard lessons and it's amazing how much just a small touch like

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_01]: a thank you how much difference that makes to people and for people who give more than just a few dollars

[00:36:13] [SPEAKER_01]: so many give you $50 or $100 it is probably worthwhile for you to call that owner and if a

[00:36:24] [SPEAKER_01]: donor gives you a big donation for sure you want to call them and donors are frequently called and

[00:36:34] [SPEAKER_01]: by people who are asking for money and they're the cringe at that but if they've just sent

[00:36:39] [SPEAKER_01]: a thousand dollars into an organization and then three days later they get a telephone call for

[00:36:47] [SPEAKER_01]: the organization they can be pretty sure that the group isn't going to be asking them for money so

[00:36:53] [SPEAKER_01]: they'll get on the phone and you can then thank them promptly so personal business with donors

[00:37:02] [SPEAKER_01]: are important one of the things that we have found in recent years is that it has proved

[00:37:09] [SPEAKER_01]: very effective to us financially to increase the number of development officers that we have

[00:37:17] [SPEAKER_01]: so that we go out and meet with more donors than we used to do and it pays off and some of our

[00:37:29] [SPEAKER_01]: just donors are people who started off with $25 or $50 gifts and then two or three or five years later

[00:37:40] [SPEAKER_01]: they give you a gift for a hundred thousand dollars even though you may not have had any idea

[00:37:45] [SPEAKER_02]: that they could afford to get such a gift and you've had people who've left you in their will as well right

[00:37:50] [SPEAKER_01]: absolutely we're very good at that last week we received a legacy gifts from a person who had

[00:38:03] [SPEAKER_01]: only contributed by mail and not very often and the gift was $1.9 million dollars

[00:38:12] [SPEAKER_01]: but they've been getting our news letters they've had personal contacts we have

[00:38:19] [SPEAKER_01]: telephone town halls we invite the donors to call in and I'll talk with donors and answer

[00:38:26] [SPEAKER_01]: questions that it's a lot to be done and any organization that wants to be very successful financially

[00:38:34] [SPEAKER_01]: needs to be trained on what works and what doesn't work with respect to fundraising so I invite you

[00:38:41] [SPEAKER_01]: to people who are listening to contact the leadership and find out what our schedule of training programs

[00:38:49] [SPEAKER_01]: is we do charge but tuition at these schools but our tuition coming in is currently less than 1%

[00:39:02] [SPEAKER_02]: of our total revenue right and I've seen and I'm sure that you've seen that when you're doing events

[00:39:10] [SPEAKER_02]: if somebody pays a little bit of money it it it helps them mentally be committed to what they're doing

[00:39:18] [SPEAKER_01]: they take it seriously people instinctively think if it's free maybe it doesn't work anything

[00:39:25] [SPEAKER_01]: right and so if you charge them 25 dollars and offer them free lunch at the event

[00:39:34] [SPEAKER_02]: people may come that's right I want to go back to something you were just saying about that I've

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_02]: noticed as well how some groups get very bothered when new groups pop up instead of embracing

[00:39:49] [SPEAKER_02]: the fact that we were growing as a conservative movement it's just if they're afraid of the

[00:39:55] [SPEAKER_02]: friendly competition and and we are capitalist we are supposed to like competition and

[00:40:00] [SPEAKER_02]: understand that competition can help help you be better and competition improves the quality

[00:40:07] [SPEAKER_02]: of what everybody is doing right I think that is exactly right and also even if they're doing

[00:40:15] [SPEAKER_02]: something then is very very similar to what you're doing when we're fighting such a massive

[00:40:25] [SPEAKER_02]: government overreach it is so large there's no way that even with all the groups across the entire

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_02]: country whether they're small campus groups or our national groups or somewhere in between state level

[00:40:37] [SPEAKER_02]: county county level whatever it may be there's still aren't enough of us to compete with a federal

[00:40:43] [SPEAKER_02]: government in the growth of the federal government and then the seat and local governments on top of that

[00:40:50] [SPEAKER_01]: well that is true it is difficult however I think it is certainly true the conservative groups

[00:40:58] [SPEAKER_01]: which are funded by voluntary contributions are more efficient in the use of their funds than a

[00:41:06] [SPEAKER_02]: government bureaucrat might be absolutely that it's true and it's good that we have more

[00:41:12] [SPEAKER_01]: more groups coming in I'm all for it but last week we had the school we hold about three times a

[00:41:20] [SPEAKER_01]: year I call it the conservative organizational entrepreneur and it's specifically for people

[00:41:28] [SPEAKER_01]: who have in their mind that they want to start their own group so we come and give them a

[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_01]: two-day intensive course on what to do and what to avoid in building your own organization

[00:41:42] [SPEAKER_02]: I think that's a really good idea and and they need that and we need them to start so it's very

[00:41:49] [SPEAKER_02]: exciting and as I was saying it went through a lot of training before the movement started and I

[00:41:57] [SPEAKER_02]: I am constantly reading and trying to learn more because I think I can always improve

[00:42:04] [SPEAKER_02]: my daughter is active on her campus and she started a conservative club in high school

[00:42:12] [SPEAKER_02]: and she got material from from leadership institute from YAF and from turning point USA

[00:42:20] [SPEAKER_02]: and she's been through training with leadership institute you do weekend trainings for students

[00:42:29] [SPEAKER_02]: and she did one down I think it was in West Palm Beach and she arrived on a Thursday

[00:42:33] [SPEAKER_02]: live location yeah it is a nice location and she said well and there was a scholarship so if

[00:42:40] [SPEAKER_02]: your active leadership institute has scholarships available especially for students

[00:42:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I may have made possible by donors who appreciate what we're doing right and she went to that

[00:42:51] [SPEAKER_02]: and she said mom we start at 7 o'clock in the morning and we are not finishing until 10 o'clock at night

[00:42:57] [SPEAKER_02]: so well you know that's what a scholarship does they're making sure you learn and

[00:43:01] [SPEAKER_01]: when she winds up and she probably already has working in campaigns campaign

[00:43:08] [SPEAKER_02]: hours or at least that bad at least it sometimes I mean there are I know that during

[00:43:16] [SPEAKER_02]: campaign season there is going to be several all-nighters during the campaign season and I just

[00:43:21] [SPEAKER_01]: buckle up and prepare for it. Well don't you think some of the lefties stay awake

[00:43:26] [SPEAKER_02]: late at night working of course they do and one of the trainings that she did

[00:43:33] [SPEAKER_02]: she did it before the dobs decision came out and she wound up being in front of the Supreme

[00:43:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Court with students for life when the dobs decision came out and I noticed that her social media

[00:43:45] [SPEAKER_02]: feed she posted a photo and it was a moment of stay and she posted a photo and she was getting

[00:43:51] [SPEAKER_02]: trolled online and some of the students who had been through the training with her through

[00:43:55] [SPEAKER_02]: your training who were not there jumped in and we're helping defend her social media while

[00:44:02] [SPEAKER_02]: while she was there and I just thought that was amazing and it's just it's that pulling people

[00:44:08] [SPEAKER_02]: together like that you're training them and you're building a network and they're able to

[00:44:11] [SPEAKER_01]: support each other across the entire country. It helps to work and comfort. It really does

[00:44:19] [SPEAKER_02]: um you mentioned that you have a lot of groups that you're active on campuses even so how

[00:44:27] [SPEAKER_01]: what I'll tell people about that they may not be aware. All right well what we're doing on campus

[00:44:35] [SPEAKER_01]: does not really lend itself to a lot of publicity because I decided many years ago

[00:44:42] [SPEAKER_01]: that it was important to increase the number of conservative groups on campus and there are

[00:44:49] [SPEAKER_01]: campuses that have eight or ten different groups that could be called conservative or libertarian

[00:44:58] [SPEAKER_01]: but I said I have for five and a half years the latter half of the 60s and 1970.

[00:45:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I was executive director of the College Republicans and it's a membership organization which

[00:45:13] [SPEAKER_01]: have clubs and the clubs have a month in a given club in a state federation and certainly

[00:45:21] [SPEAKER_01]: in the national organization there are political fights and credentials battles

[00:45:28] [SPEAKER_01]: and fused within the organization and I said I've been through that for five and a half

[00:45:34] [SPEAKER_01]: years with the College Republicans and we increase the number of college Republicans while I was

[00:45:42] [SPEAKER_01]: there from 450 to 911 clubs but I said I don't want to have the job of supervising these clubs

[00:45:52] [SPEAKER_01]: so here's what our plan is every year we do training and we train about 70 people

[00:46:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and then higher perhaps the 25 best of them to start off when school begins in the fall

[00:46:09] [SPEAKER_01]: they visited campuses most often campuses that have no conservative or libertarian

[00:46:18] [SPEAKER_01]: student groups and their hundreds of them still in the country. So they identified by various

[00:46:27] [SPEAKER_01]: means card table on the sidewalk talking to students who walk by their online ways to find students

[00:46:37] [SPEAKER_01]: we find conservative or libertarian students we invite them to come to a meeting and we

[00:46:44] [SPEAKER_01]: preserve the place and tell them where and when the meeting is going to be and when they come

[00:46:50] [SPEAKER_01]: and there may be 50, 70 people that are feel staff are doing their jobs right

[00:46:57] [SPEAKER_01]: and we tell them that we're here to help them start one or more conservative groups

[00:47:04] [SPEAKER_01]: on campus and we say we do not have leadership institute clubs on a campus there are 16

[00:47:13] [SPEAKER_01]: national organizations that have that are conservative or libertarian that have

[00:47:20] [SPEAKER_01]: campus chapters and we pass out packaged at all the students who have come and here's the 16

[00:47:29] [SPEAKER_01]: groups and we ask that you all talk with each other and come up with subsets of you who want to

[00:47:37] [SPEAKER_01]: start a club of one of these national groups you give us your contact information we'll send it to

[00:47:45] [SPEAKER_01]: the national group and they'll almost certainly take you on as a new chapter some of the groups

[00:47:55] [SPEAKER_01]: that are founded as a result of this field work decide not to fill the egg with any group

[00:48:00] [SPEAKER_01]: some of those are few but there are a number of them they'll say we want to have the East Kansas State

[00:48:08] [SPEAKER_01]: conservative club and they want to be independent of their anybody else but we feed hundreds

[00:48:16] [SPEAKER_01]: of new groups to these national organizations many of these groups take advantage of our

[00:48:24] [SPEAKER_01]: training programs about fundraising or communications or political activity but it works

[00:48:33] [SPEAKER_01]: extraordinarily well and each new group gives an opportunity for leadership to develop in that

[00:48:42] [SPEAKER_01]: group and we can use these groups as a pool to recruit for all the 55 different types of training

[00:48:49] [SPEAKER_01]: programs that we offer so it works well it also keeps us with wonderful relations with almost

[00:48:57] [SPEAKER_01]: all of these 16 groups they love us because who else is out there beside their own staff

[00:49:06] [SPEAKER_01]: organizing new groups or so it works very well and we now have over 2,600 of them and in my experience

[00:49:14] [SPEAKER_01]: there are some groups that exaggerate what they have on the ground leadership institute prints up

[00:49:21] [SPEAKER_01]: a directory by state and then by campus and then by group on campus and it this directory

[00:49:29] [SPEAKER_01]: includes the name of the head of the group mailing address and phone number that's smart

[00:49:37] [SPEAKER_02]: well and you don't have to exaggerate you have I mean other groups shouldn't be exaggerating anyway

[00:49:44] [SPEAKER_01]: but but they do one group and I won't mention it one and it's not one of these 16 groups and

[00:49:55] [SPEAKER_01]: frankly it's not a college group but one group that I got two fundraising letters from last

[00:50:04] [SPEAKER_01]: year and a group that I have been associated with in the past and they claimed that they had

[00:50:14] [SPEAKER_01]: 100,000 members and they claimed a certain number of clubs that they had and when you divided

[00:50:26] [SPEAKER_01]: the number of members by the number of clubs was easy simple to do you could do it in your head

[00:50:36] [SPEAKER_01]: they were claiming that each of their clubs has 600 members well I know this organization

[00:50:42] [SPEAKER_01]: if they have three clubs and the whole nation that has 600 members I'd be surprised

[00:50:48] [SPEAKER_01]: but people lie about it it's a human thing to exaggerate you one of the things that

[00:50:55] [SPEAKER_01]: is a clue that somebody is blowing smoke at you is if they claim 100,000 members I mean

[00:51:03] [SPEAKER_01]: one zero zero comma zero zero zero is that realistic nobody know highly unlikely there's a

[00:51:13] [SPEAKER_01]: group that has exactly a hundred thousand members that that's why we printed up a directory of

[00:51:19] [SPEAKER_01]: so when I say have 26 hundred groups I could go up to my desk and hand you a cattle a directory

[00:51:27] [SPEAKER_01]: of these clubs and you could call them and they're actually there and it makes it makes a huge

[00:51:35] [SPEAKER_02]: difference because when you are able to keep up with that information and you're reaching out to the

[00:51:40] [SPEAKER_02]: people who have groups in your in communication with them well you can be more effective it helps you

[00:51:45] [SPEAKER_01]: in so many ways I go visit a donor in Missouri and I tell them how many clubs we have in Missouri

[00:51:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and they say oh well that is very nice and I said here let me show you and I had them the

[00:52:02] [SPEAKER_01]: directory we opened up to Missouri and there are dozens of clubs in the state and I give them

[00:52:10] [SPEAKER_01]: the directory and I invite them if they are interested in a particular campus to call the

[00:52:16] [SPEAKER_01]: cobb leader and that local campus for them credibility is extremely important a lot of people

[00:52:24] [SPEAKER_01]: have been burned yes I groups making false claims and so when they find a group that can verify

[00:52:34] [SPEAKER_01]: what they're claims they think or highly of them more and this is such a fascinating conversation

[00:52:41] [SPEAKER_02]: I want to be able to be sure that we can get all of it in so I think we're going to break this into

[00:52:46] [SPEAKER_02]: two podcasts and we'll be back with the second podcast very soon wonderful the Jenny Beth Show

[00:52:53] [SPEAKER_00]: is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin produced by Kevin Mooney Hand and directed by Luke Livingston

[00:53:00] [SPEAKER_00]: the Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots Action for more information visit

[00:53:08] [SPEAKER_02]: TeaPartyPatriots.org if you liked this episode let me know by hitting the like button or

[00:53:14] [SPEAKER_02]: leaving a comment or a five star review and if you want to be the first to know every time we drop

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