Why Do Liberals Out-Fundraise Conservatives By 700%?
And why does the left have 700% more grassroots donors, and nearly 20,000 more advocacy groups? What's wrong with us?
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NOTE: My friend Richard Viguerie, inventor of political direct mail and “Funding Father” of the Conservative Movement, here has some advice for those who care about the future of America. Take heed. — RDM
by Richard A. Viguerie
February 7, 2026
Do you know why Democrats/liberals raise 700% more money each year than Republicans/conservatives?
And why do they have 700% more grassroots donors?
But it gets worse.
Did you know they have about 20,000 single-issue nonprofit organizations, and conservatives only have about 1,500?
And each liberal nonprofit has six or more leadership positions, including President, Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer, a PR person, a membership chairman, an event organizer, etc. So, that gives the left about 120,000 activists learning how to be leaders and possible future Democrat candidates for mayor, state legislature, governor, Congressman, etc. Conservatives have about 15% of these leaders in training.
Remember Barack Obama, in his 2008 Senate race, self-described himself as a community organizer, and four years later, he was elected President.
How can a political party that is anti-God, corrupt, elite, anti-law enforcement, and favors open borders, raise $21 billion from 20 million donors, and we conservatives only raise $4 billion from about 4 million donors?
Obviously, there are numerous reasons why Democrats/liberals are far better marketers than we conservatives.
But my nominee for the number one reason is:
LACK OF ENTREPRENEURIAL, RISK-TAKING CONSERVATIVE LEADERS.
As my friend Kevin Gentry says, “Lack of entrepreneurial risk-taking by conservatives is maddening. It’s like they have lost the will to win.”
Of course, we have some leaders who are or were not only world-class, risk-taking entrepreneurial leaders, they probably surpass the best from the Left, including:
Dr. Larry Arnn, President, Hillsdale College
Morton Blackwell, Founder and President, Leadership Institute
Tom Fitton, President, Judicial Watch
The late Reverend Jerry Falwell, Founder and President, Liberty University
The late Dr. Ed Feulner, Co-Founder and President, The Heritage Foundation
The late Charlie Kirk, Founder and President, Turning Point USA
And a few others
Each of these leaders have or had their own unique skills and talents.
However, they also have or had important qualities in common, including:
High energy
Boldness
Desire to save Western Civilization
Focus on doing something others were not doing
High moral values and a strong faith
But in my opinion, this is the number one thing they all did that contributed to their success and made the difference in the size of the organization they built, which then led directly to their outsize impact and effectiveness.
They didn’t focus on how to raise tens or hundreds of millions, and in some cases, billions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of donors.
THEY LOOKED FOR AND FOUND A WORLD-CLASS “WHO” TO GROW THEIR ORGANIZATION 1,000%+.
So, don’t focus on how to find new donors and raise more money.
Look for a WHO.
It’s not HOW do you find new donors and raise more money, but WHO will do it.
In other words, if you’re leading a conservative organization, make sure you have the best marketing team available to you.
Once you’ve assembled a top-flight marketing team, what do you do next? It’s simple.
Focus on your unique abilities.
Also make sure that you are not only focused on your unique ability, but that everybody in your organization is also focused on their unique ability.
If so, you’ll have one very powerful organization.
Peter Drucker, the premier business consultant of the 20th century, said that a business (or nonprofit) has two purposes: 1) Innovation, and 2) Find a customer (or donor).
Innovation includes:
Promoting, popularizing, and publicizing ideas and solutions to problems.
Public speaking and writing to promote your ideas, solutions, and organization.
Building and leading a top-flight team.
Organize, lead, and attend meetings to advance your ideas, solutions, and vision.
Give guidance, leadership, and vision to your marketing team.
What are the qualities you should look for in a marketing WHO to experience major growth?
Make sure the WHO shares your views, values, and especially your vision.
High energy. Make sure the WHO hasn’t retired and forgotten to tell you.
The WHO has a hunger to grow their direct mail and marketing skills.
The WHO is a reader. If they’re not spending 1-2 hours or more a day reading and studying marketing now, they’re not likely to start at your organization. Morton Blackwell says, “All leaders are readers, but not all readers are leaders.” At my age (92), I read 4-5 hours a day, and 2-3 of those hours are devoted to studying direct marketing and business.
Boldness. You want a WHO that has a bold, entrepreneurial spirit.
If your WHO candidate lacks some of these characteristics, perhaps it’s because they are young, and if given the opportunity, they can rise to the occasion (I did). However, if they are in their 50s and lack these attributes, their DNA is set and they’re highly unlikely to change and become the WHO you need for exponential growth.
Why should you want exponential growth? Because size matters.
Big organizations with big budgets accomplish big things in public policy.
Small organizations with small budgets have small impact on public policy.
Professor Harry Jaffa of Claremont McKenna College in 2014 said:
“WESTERN CIVILIZATION SURVIVES BECAUSE OF AMERICA.
AMERICA SURVIVES BECAUSE OF THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT.”
If we have any realistic hope of saving America and Western Civilization, we will have to have many more bold, entrepreneurial leaders leading large organizations to compete with the dozens and dozens of large nonprofit organizations on the Left.
Because 95% or more of conservative nonprofits are not led by entrepreneurs, most are small, broke, and ineffective.
Those of you who sit on the Board of Directors of a conservative nonprofit also have an obligation to provide entrepreneurial leadership.
And the same applies to major donors.
Speak up and ask challenging questions, such as “where is the detailed 3–5-year plan to significantly advance our cause?”
“What’s our plan to grow 10x (1,000%)?”
Tell the leadership that what they have been doing is not working.
The Left is advancing — conservatives losing ground. Urge, plead, demand that conservatives running nonprofits get out of their comfort zone and effectively challenge the Left.
And by the way, a plan is not a list of your goals, dreams, wishes, or aspirations.
In a booklet that Kevin Gentry and I produced a few years ago, Richard A.Viguerie’s Four Horsemen of Marketing®, I described how to write a good business plan.
Finally, many of the ideas I’ve discussed in this memo came from one of my mentors, Dan Sullivan. Dan is the co-founder, with his wife Babs, of the organization Strategic Coach. Dan is the world’s best, as well as the best-known, coach for entrepreneurs in the world.
Until conservatives begin to grasp that entrepreneurship is not just for Silicon Valley — and that the left is running circles around them — the future will be very much in doubt.
— For more outstanding marketing and messaging insight from the legendary Richard Viguerie, sign up for his Monthly Marketing Memo at Conservative HQ.
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I believe the Democrats out-perform Republicans in nonprofit fundraising because Democrats are stealing that money from taxpayers via widespread massive fraud against Democrat-created welfare programs of all types.
Whether it’s fake daycare or fake health assistance or fake whatever, recent evidence has clearly brought shockingly massive amounts of deliberate fraud under the glare of sunlight.
I believe it’s a massive money laundering operation designed by Democrats with great sounding program names but they do it knowing full well that the administration of those programs will be handled at state and county levels in predominantly blue areas and will quietly avoid audit and accountability.
Republicans rarely if ever push for new social welfare programs so they don’t or rarely engage in this devious and immoral practice. They rely almost entirely on actual voluntary donations but also from large corporate donors and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Prove me wrong.