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2009 Election Candidate Forum:
The Questions

What is your vision of ways to finance the Club's Chapters, Groups, and volunteer structures in the next 2, 5, and 10 years? Would you support mechanisms such as national-chapter fundraising partnerships, new types of grants, allocation of funds based on non-demographic criteria, or general assistance in outside fund-raising? Suggest other ways. Please be specific.

Boldman, Lane

The stability of our funding is the single largest factor that is holding us back, jeopardizing the consistency and success of our programs. It is challenging for volunteers and staff alike to spend resources building a successful program and to then lose their funding. The ability for donors to give to local and regional projects is very attractive, yet it diverts core energy from local activists when they have to focus instead on fundraising. Partnering our knowledge and limited resources within the Club should be considered. We need to get a handle on how we can allow more entities in the Club to apply for grants without being in competition among ourselves. Professional assistance in identifying foundations and potential donors of all levels would be a tremendous help. This may also require a fundraising manager, who can identify the most appropriate strategies for approaching multiple levels of donors.

Gibson, Laurence

It appears that national is well underway with financial planning under Treasurer Joni Bosh. The Rio Grande Chapter has done well because we are quite active and the Sierra Club’s name is still quite meaningful to donors in New Mexico. I feel that fundraising is a responsibility of each level of the club, with each level having an obligation to support its component entities. Generally speaking, it is the “big fish” that National courts, the large regional donors supporting Chapters, and the Groups getting what they can locally in addition to chapter help and dues subvention.

Mann, Robin

I strongly support the development of collaborative national-chapter fund-raising partnerships, in support of our new Climate Recovery Partnership in particular.  I also believe we must provide support to chapters and volunteer entities in identifying appropriate local and regional foundations to approach for support.  It seems important to evaluate the merits of non-demographic criteria for allocating funds, given the highly varied donor communities our chapters face.  I also expect the Convio system to help chapters build much more effective fund-raising programs through the addition of online giving.

Morris, Frank

I know how to raise money.  I do it almost everyday. People donate to organizations that they believe in.  Raising money is based on two things:  TRUST and RELATIONSHIP.  If a person TRUSTS that their money is going to be put to good use, they will contribute.  If a person has a healthy RELATIONSHIP with the organization and the organizations mission, they will contribute.  New types of grants etc, is secondary to the good work of organizing to protect the ecology.  If Sierra Club continues to support the grassroots membership, continues to help to elect good environmental candidates, continues to consistently support energy efficiency and truly renewable energy, (not natural gas), continues to lead the fight to protect watersheds and open space habitats, we shouldn’t have any problem raising money.  When we compromise our mandate, when we get trapped into paying for a redundant self serving bureaucracy, fundraising will lag.

Reyes, Rafael

This is an area where the Club faces perhaps its most complex organizational challenge.  Social changes are challenging the Club’s traditional notions of members and volunteering.  Fewer people send checks in the mail for membership and younger people in particular are looking for much more flexible and specific ways to have an impact. The Club is already seeing declines in its traditional small member donor base.  This is the same experience other similar organizations are having.  In the coming years, it is likely that the Club will need to adapt with three major avenues for financial support: a) large scale major donors, b) more specific and decentralized small donor support, and c) private sector partnerships.  For chapters, this will likely mean that a portion of chapter funds may be 501c3 restricted funds and greater utilization of online tools for small donor fundraising but tied more clearly to specific campaign requests.

Scott, David

Chapters must be able to rely on the dues subvention as a source of income.  And where we have well-funded national programs -- for instance, our coal campaign -- the staff involved in those campaigns must work closely with chapter leaders on our common goals.  I'm glad the Club created a management position to ensure that happens.

Realistically, the future of funding for aggressive chapter and group-level work is likely to have to rely more heavily on chapter-level fundraising efforts.  Fundraising training can help, and I also support the intensive Leadership Development Training now provided by Volunteer Services.  But we also need to give chapters ongoing hands-on help in fundraising.

Regarding non-demographic criteria for distributing funds, putting too much emphasis on legislative success would open a can of worms.  Few victories have single causes, and red-state chapters face greater challenges.  I'd support some fair incentives and rewards, though.

Warshaw, Chris

Local chapters and groups are a vital part of the Sierra Club. The national Sierra Club needs to ensure that Chapters have the expertise, training, and infrastructure to finance themselves over the long-term. The first step to accomplishing this vision is to make sure that Chapters have the most robust technological infrastructure possible. This infrastructure should include software to enable local chapters and grassroots to send emails to their members, self-organize events and collect RSVP’s, and manage their membership.  Second, we should do more to enable local Chapter staff and volunteers to have the training they need to be effective by expanding our Leadership Development Program or running a larger set of grassroots trainings. Third, we should develop matching grants to provide Chapters with incentives to fundraise locally and build their infrastructure.  Finally, we should partner with chapters to raise money for local initiatives in the Climate Recovery Campaign.

Wheeler, Phil

The next two, five and ten years: Our approach to financing our volunteer work will surely change in the next decade as we transition to depending more on strongly restricted c(3) funds from a time when unrestricted c(4) and c(3) funds were prevalent.  Likely no one has the crystal ball to fully anticipate this financial future, just as in 1999 we could not predict where we are now.

I fully support more innovative funding approaches such as those proposed in the question – subject to any regulatory and Club policy constraints.  Last July the Board established a Chapter Funding Allocation task force to study this issue from a broad perspective including the impacts of funding changes on chapters, some of which could be quite subtle. As a 2009 Board member I will look forward to deliberating on these results in early 2009 and taking positive and progressive action on their recommendations.