Download - YAL 2012 End of the Year Report
As Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) wraps up its fourth and most successful year, my staff and I put together this End of the Year Report to show you how your support is impacting the next generation.
Now more than ever, our mission to identify, educate, train, and mobilize youth activists committed to winning on principle is changing the direction of our country.
Best of all, the numbers don’t lie. YAL has become the most active and fastest-growing libertarian and conservative youth organization in the country, boasting a vast network of more than 125,000 activists and 378 chapters nationwide. This growth is unsurpassed by any national organization. And this year I was honored to be named one of the “30 top conservatives under 30.” This is a testament to our donors, members, and hard-working staff that make YAL a success.
In 2013, I’m confident our achievements will only continue with you by our side. Personally, I cannot thank you enough for believing in us and supporting our cause of freedom.
For liberty,
Jeff Frazee YAL Executive Director
125,000activists
1,356college campuses nationwide with a dues-paying YAL mem-ber, giving YAL a committed
presence on 35% of America’s two- and four-year colleges
$1.42 MILLIONdollars raised in 2012
5,162dues-paying members
$
50 STATES(and DC) with dues-paying
YAL member
Our mission is to identify, educate, train, and mobilize youthactivists committed to “winning on principle.”
END YEARREPORT2012
of the
IDENTIFY:Leaders
Personnel is policy, so YAL recruits and grooms principled young people.
Page 3 Page 5 Page 7 Page 9
EDUCATE:Students
We’re introducing a whole new generation to the philosophy of liberty.
TRAIN:Activists
YAL turns eager college kids into skilled, effective campaign activists.
MOBILIZE:for victory
With your support, good liberty campaigns are winning nationwide.
378active and forming chapters
2 Young Americans for Liberty End of the Year Report | 2012
1,500,000
1,200,000
900,000
600,000
300,000
0
2009 2010 2011 2012
$350,000
$735,000
$1,095,000
$1,423,992
YAL’s social network presence keeps our members and network engaged with our programs and positions. We strongly encourage you to “like” our Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/yaliberty) and “follow” us on Twitter (www.Twitter.com/yaliberty).
Our numbers are growing rapidly. Most notably, our Facebook posts reached more than a quarter of a bil-lion users in 2012, and our “interactions” grew fivefold. 2012 was without a doubt our most significant year online. Take a look at some of the results.
In December 2008,
YAL was founded with only $25,000 and Ron Paul’s endorsement. Since then, YAL’s fundraising growth has remained consistent year after year. This year, YAL is projected to raise $1,423,992—more than 30% growth from last year. Your investment allows YAL to continually expand and reach thousands more young people. But we are nowhere near reaching our full potential. Next year, we will strive toward even larger goals.
292,000,000users reached in 2012
15,000,000users reached in 2011
Facebook reach: Twitter:
900,000user interactions in 2012compared to180,000 in 2012
2,000new followers in 2012
9,000+followers total
Top 0.1%of Twitter accounts worldwidein terms of follower count
14,000 new fans in 2012
33,000 fans total
Fundraising and online growth
98% 5,438of YAL’s donations come from
individualsYAL donors
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IDENTIFY:leaders committed to principle
CHAPTER GROWTHSince our founding just four years ago in December 2008, YAL has quickly become the largest, most active, and fastest-growing pro-liberty organization on America’s college campuses. Now, YAL’s network boasts 378 chapters nationwide!
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SlipperyRockUniversity
UniversityofCentralFlorida CaseWesternReserveUniversity
UC-SanDiegoGeorgiaCollegeandStateUniversity
UniversityofCentralArkansas
UniversityofDenverUniversityof
Texas-ElPaso
2012: 378
2011: 289
2010: 170
2009: 96
A revolution on college campusesYAL Chapters are the backbone of the youth liberty movement. Our goal is to identify up-and-coming leaders, organize them into chapters, and supply them with effective resources so they can spread the message of liberty on their campuses. We’re extraordinarily proud of these young leaders!
Jeff FrazeeExecutive Director
Joshua ParrishNational Field Director
Edward King Director of Programs
Ani DeGroot Director of Elections
Bonnie KristianDirector of Communications
Corey HubbardDirector of Events
Jack HunterDirector of Outreach
Brandon CestroneNational Field Executive
Piyali BhattacharyaDevelopment Executive
Justin Page WoodGraphic Designer
NATIONAL STAFF
LEADERSHIP TEAMYAL’s seven Regional Directors work directlywith students in their regions to coordinatequality activism and start new chapters.
STATE CHAIRSReporting directly to the Regional Direc-tors, YAL’s state chairs are proven activ-ists who help chapters organize events, get media, and grow their membership.
AK NatashaMontagueAL DrewOwensAR SethBowmanAZ FrancisGonzalezCA RyanSmithCA BenjaminRodenCA PatrickRyanCA FranciscoGustinCO SydneyKirchnerCO PhilFutuymaFL JessieMarkellFL KaterinaSalamisGA Mary-AnnIonascuHI NicholasGregoryIA MorganPearsonID SterlingStoddardID TaylorWilliamsIN CreightonHarringtonIN NathanO’ConnorKS WilliamStewart-StarksKY EvanTindle
KY NolanGrayLA KyleAycockMA AnthonyArdizzoneMA GregoryO’SullivanMD ChristopherCoardMI KeithMaskellMN TimothyBertramMO ChristopherWhiteMS CoreyAdkisonMT ZachWatsonNC EverettLozziNO JonathanMolletNE AndrewCurranNJ DanielKosciuszkoNM AustinPickrellNY PaulHotalingNY SimeonMorrisOH ZackaryMartinOH IanGulleyOK ShawnCoffeyOR EricaMidttveit
PA DavidHaasPA JoshWeitzelPA SteveStraubaughSC ZachariahTollisonTN EricSharpTN GabrielHarrTN ShaneMcGonigalTX CaitlynBatesTX EvanBynumTX TerryFurrhTX ChaseMitchellTX NoelleMandellTX IsabelGonzalezUT BrittanyHemsathVA AngadWaliaVA NikkiWestVA BraedonWilkersonWA KaitlinCallisonWI JordanKrauseWY AbbeyTorkelson
Jeremy DavisMid-Atlantic Region
Corie WhalenSouth Central Region
Keith CarlsonNortheast Region
Charlie VidalMidwest Region
Anthony RodriguezSoutheast Region
Adam WeinbergSouthwest Region
Kyle BaumgartnerNorthwest Region
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One of the best things about working with YAL is the top notch activism resources. Thank you so much to the donors who make it easy to advance the cause of liberty!
— Bryant Moy
Freedom is a message that sells itself, but YAL’s resources make the process of recruiting new members a lot easier. My favorite thing to hand out is the “Philosophy of Liberty” palm card.
— Isabel Gonzalez
The resources YAL has given our chapter have helped us execute activism more effec-tively. While the pocket Constitutions and bottle openers are popular recruiting tools, it is the grants that have funded innovative and success-ful activism projects.
— Mary-Ann Ionascu
EDUCATE:students on the philosophy of liberty
Your support allows us to keep YAL chapters well-supplied with the resources they need.
YAL custom-designed pocket Constitutions with a foreword by Ron Paul.
The fastest way to get information about YAL and the liberty philosophy is to give an interested student a palm card.
YAL banners, stickers, and pins galore! Your support allows us to equip chapters with activism kits.
Activism grants support our chapters’ projects and help them stand out on campus.
In 2012, YAL distributed record numbers of these important resources.
90,000pocket Constitutions to date
$
60,200palm cards
45,000copies of YAR
$27,800in activism grants
431activism kits
Young American Revolution (YAR), the official publication of YAL, is the premier publication for young anti-statists of all stripes. 2012 saw the
publication of YAR Issues 8, 9, and 10, with contributions from Rep. Ron Paul, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Jim DeMint, Sen. Mike Lee, Jack Hunter,
Michelle Fields, Dr. Tom Woods, Brittany Darby, Ani DeGroot, Judge Andrew Napolitano, and many more leaders of the liberty movement and rising student writers.
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6 Young Americans for Liberty End of the Year Report | 2012
10 National Activism ProjectsIn 2012, YAL chapters organized more National Activism Projects than ever. With each event, our goal is to recruit new students, educate them about liberty, and earn media attention to magnify our message.
GlennGreenwald,JacobHornberger,andBruceFeinspokeattheSpring Civil Liberties College Tour.
InOctober,welaunchedaFall Civil Liberties College Tour ontheWestCoast.
InMarch,weprotestedtheTSAinaneventcalledGovernment Gone Wild,shownhereattheUniversityofSouthFlorida.
Constitution Week 2012wasourbiggestactivismeventtodate,with103chaptersparticipating,includingYAL@GeorgiaTech.
Takingadvantageoftheelectionbuzz,YALhostedsevenCampus Debates nationwidetofocusontheimportantissues.
InNovemberandDecember,YALchapterswereencouragedtoChoose Charitytohelptheircommunitiesandfightthewelfarestate,likeYAL@AmericanUdid.
Attheendofthespringsemester,YALlaunchedApril All-Out Activism,askingchapterstofinishtheschoolyearstronglikeYAL@ArkansasStatedid.
OneoftheAprilideaswasbuilding40-footdebtclockstoVisualizetheDebt,likethisoneatCalState-Fullerton.
ManychapterschosetoOccupy the Honor Rollasasatiricalwaytoprotestincomeredistribution,shownhereatUCLA.
The Price Is WrongforbiggovernmentgameshowprojectwasabighitatUC-SanDiego.
TRAIN:youth activists to be effective
Your student sponsorships made this possible.
ThankYou!
The YAL National Convention is an invitation-only event for the top youth leaders in our movement. Many of the convention attendees will go on to suc-cessful careers carrying out our mis-sion of “winning on principle.”
“The YAL National Convention gave me the necessary skills and resources to carry the message of liberty across my campus and my community.”
— Ari Kaplan
“I shook Ron Paul’s hand on the day of his greatest legislative victory [passage of Audit the Fed in the U.S. House]. Enough said.”
— Hassan A. Sheikh
“The speakers were incredible, and the information gained was invaluable—not to mention the once-in-a-lifetime experiences throughout the week!”
— Rebekah Johansen
723applicants
44
31
1
4267attendees
185different schools represented
YAL’sJeffFrazeepresentsRep.RonPaulwiththefirstannualRonPaulLegacyAward.
Sen.RandPaulspeakstothe267YALmembersatourNationalConvention.
ConventionattendeesraisetheirhandstoindicatethattheywereinspiredbyRonPaul.
expert speakers
days of training
inaugural Ron Paul Legacy Award
states represented
8 Young Americans for Liberty End of the Year Report | 2012
Training Partners
In addition to organizing our own campus and campaign trainings, YAL also partners with a number of great conservative and libertar-ian organizations to prepare our members for action.
Will Stewart-Starks Field Coordinator at Americans for Prosperity
Rachel Kania State Field Director at Ted Cruz for Senate
Cory Chenard Executive Assistant to Ken Cuccinelli, Cuccinelli for Governor
“Young Americans for Liberty gave me a platform to become a student leader at the University of Kansas and gave me a formal introduction to youth and grassroots organizing. I was recommended for a Field Representative position with Leadership Institute and am now a Field Coordinator for Americans for Prosperity in Kansas City, MO. The wealth of resources and network YAL makes available to students to break into politics are invaluable.”
“Interning for YAL was by far the best decision I have made. I realized my strengths and weaknesses while working for something I am truly passionate about. I grew tremendously over the course of the internship, throwing myself into any projects and taking advantage of every networking event. My time at YAL led to one internship and job after another. YAL certainly opened up many doors for me and helped me realize my one true passion: fighting for liberty. Thank goodness for YAL!”
“I’ve been involved with Young Americans for Liberty for more than two years now. Because of the intense training I received from YAL, I was able to get a job on the Ron Paul 2012 campaign. While there, I was able to utilize the skills I learned from YAL training to help win all of the delegate and alternate spots for the Congressional District I coordinated. This is the premier organization advancing our principles of limited government and the Constitution.”
To improve the skills of our YAL members who are most active in electoral politics, YAL re-launched its Winning on Principle newsletter (WPN) this year. The WPN teaches political activists throughout the nation the nuts and bolts of campaign operations, like how to:
• Design a campaign plan • Cultivate grassroots infrastructure • Fund a campaign • Turn out voters on Election Day
With guest writers like campaign operative Carlyle Gregory and American Majority’s Matt Robbins, readers learned from decades of experience to analyze the attributes of winning campaigns. Through this email series, we cost-effectively reached nearly 3,000 principled candidates, campaign staff, and volunteers around the nation.
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MOBILIZE:
In the 2012 election cycle, YAL placed 123 activists on 176 campaigns or in campaign-related positions (like independent PACs) at all levels of government around the country—including the Ron Paul Campaign.
In addition to paid staff, more than 520 YAL members volunteered for Ron Paul’s “Get-Out-The-Vote” efforts in key early primary states: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, Colorado, and Washington.
Dozens more YAL activists manned the phones 12 hours a day, 7 days a week to educate voters in Kentucky and Texas, leading up to important congressional primaries. These dedicated young people made more than 282,000 calls to likely voters, informing them of the candidates’ positions on our issues—and finding that many wanted to vote for liberty by the end of the call.
This year, YAL launched an affiliated PAC to endorse principled candidates and bundle money for their campaigns. Thanks to your support, eight YAL PAC-endorsed candidates were elected to Congress. Here are the results:
THANKS TO YOU,the YAL PAC bundled $112,027 to support these victories!
Rep. Justin Amash (MI-03): Rep. Justin Amash: 53% Dr. Steve Pestka: 44%
Kerry Bentivolio (MI-11): Kerry Bentivolio: 51% Syed Taj: 44%
Ted Cruz (TX): Ted Cruz: 57% Paul Sadler: 41%
Walter Jones (NC-03): Walter Jones: 63% Erik Anderson: 36%
Raul Labrador (ID-01): Raul Labrador: 63% Jimmy Farris: 30%
Thomas Massie (KY-04): Thomas Massie: 62% Bill Adkins: 35%
David Schweikert (AZ-06): David Schweikert: 62% Matt Jette: 33%
Ted Yoho (FL-03): Ted Yoho: 65% J.R. Gaillot: 32%
campaign-related positions filled by YAL
YAL members volunteered for the Ron Paul campaign
raised for YAL PAC candidates
176
YAL members worked full-time during election season
$112,027
10 Young Americans for Liberty End of the Year Report | 2012
Here’s what some of our winning candidates had to say about YAL.
I am proud to have the endorsement and commitment of Young Americans for Liberty. Thanks to their tireless efforts and financial support, I’ll be returning to Capitol Hill next term to continue my work in support of limited, constitutional government, free markets, and individual liberty. I hope YAL PAC continues its important work supporting principled candidates for office who will join the fight with me.
– Rep. Justin Amash (MI-03)
With the help of Young Americans for Liberty’s PAC and the more than 200,000 phone calls made by the young activists in their network, I won my May primary. Now, I’m honored to represent the great people of Kentucky and follow in the footsteps of Rep. Ron Paul and Sen. Rand Paul. While in Washington, I will always vote in line with the Constitution, I will fight to slash wasteful government spending, and I will preserve our personal and economic liberties.
– Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-04)
I’m grateful for the enthusiasm and support that the YAL PAC played in my primary this year. More importantly though, it is critical that young people remain engaged in the fight for limited government and economic freedom; I commend the work that YAL is doing to ensure that a new generation of voters is informed and can advance these values.
– Rep. David Schweikert (AZ-06)
PAC Advisory Board:How we choose the candidates
YAL PAC’s Advisory Board chose potential candidates to support during this election based on their answers concerning the issues of importance to the liberty movement: limited gov-ernment, foreign policy, civil liberties, the Federal Reserve—or in a nut-shell—the Constitution.
We knew going into this that there would never be another Ron Paul. But we were surprised by how many wished to follow in his footsteps. We were pleased to endorse a number of candidates—and help them win—who will now be able to take the liberty message to the halls of Con-gress and beyond. We expect many great things from these YAL PAC-endorsed candidates. Stay tuned.
Jack Hunter
YALMidwestRegionalDirectorCharlieVidalpresentsRep.JustinAmashwithacheckfromtheYALPAC.
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I recently received this note from Lauren Evans, one of YAL’s best-trained activists and former interns. She now works in video production at the Cato Institute, a top libertarian think tank. As Lauren writes, it’s thanks to YAL—and supporters like you who make everything we do possible—that she has a career in the liberty movement. Please take a moment to read her note, and then make your most generous, tax-deductible contribution to give YAL a head start in 2013, as we continue our work to identify, educate, train, and mobilize youth activists like Lauren committed to winning on principle.
Jeff Frazee YAL Executive Director
Please mail your contribution to P.O. Box 2751, Arlington, VA 22202
SUPPORT:YAL in 2013
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