The American Civil Liberties Union came out swinging after November’s election.
Months earlier, the nonprofit said Donald Trump would trigger a “constitutional crisis” if his campaign rhetoric — about banning Muslims from entering the country, deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants, and punishing women who get an abortion — became reality. Soon after Mr. Trump’s victory, the group posted a photograph of the president-elect on its website with the message, “See you in court.”
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The American Civil Liberties Union came out swinging after November’s election.
Months earlier, the nonprofit said Donald Trump would trigger a “constitutional crisis” if his campaign rhetoric — about banning Muslims from entering the country, deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants, and punishing women who get an abortion — became reality. Soon after Mr. Trump’s victory, the group posted a photograph of the president-elect on its website with the message, “See you in court.”
It hasn’t let up since.
Mr. Trump’s ascension and the ACLU’s pugnacious messaging have unleashed a torrent of new money for the organization, both from people making small donations online and major donors writing big checks.
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With the Trump administration preparing to take office, the civil-liberties group is scrambling to capitalize on the fundraising opportunity and figure out how to translate the financial support into grass-roots advocacy — looking to an unexpected model, the National Rifle Association.
But as the ACLU charts a path forward, the central question the group has to answer is whether its tough posture toward Mr. Trump will continue to resonate with donors.
At this point, appeals that reference the president-elect usually attract more clicks and donations than those that don’t, says Mark Wier, the organization’s chief development officer.
“I think the question now is: Is there a saturation point with that kind of messaging?” he says.
Caught Off Guard
Like many people across the nation, ACLU staff members were stunned by the results of the presidential election. The organization had spent most of its time before Election Day preparing communications and fundraising appeals assuming Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would win. The group even had a direct-mail letter ready to go that said the ACLU had an “unprecedented opportunity to create change” thanks to Ms. Clinton’s potential Supreme Court appointments.
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The ACLU, which is officially nonpartisan but has traditionally been associated with left-wing politics, has received donations from people across the country who were also caught off guard by the results. The national organization and its dozens of state and local affiliates raised $35 million online from Election Day to the end of 2016 — an unprecedented amount for the organization in such a short period. The group also added roughly 300,000 new members.
The money from the new donors has mostly gone toward the ACLU’s numerous 501(c)(4) organizations, which can engage in political activities. A smaller portion has gone toward its 501(c)(3) entities, which primarily handle civil-rights litigation. The organization is still calculating fundraising totals from direct mail, telemarketing, and canvassing efforts for 2016, according to Mr. Wier.
While much of the support since the election has been spontaneous, fundraisers are also taking steps to capitalize on a period in which some people are highly motivated to give and volunteer because they fear civil-rights advances are at risk.
The ACLU sent its first email appeal the day after the election, and it hasn’t slowed down its outreach to donors since. Fundraisers have increased digital advertising and are sending more direct mail than was planned before Mr. Trump’s win. They’ve also ramped up telemarketing and canvassing efforts.
Meetings With Billionaires
On the major-gifts side, ACLU fundraisers are asking for bigger contributions in their meetings with wealthy donors, and are requesting that some fulfill donation pledges early. The organization is being more ambitious in its outreach to new donor prospects, too.
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This week, Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s executive director, is meeting with several Silicon Valley billionaires and will ask for seven-figure donations from each, according to Mr. Wier. He declined to name the individuals Mr. Romero is meeting with, but suggested they are well known.
“We’ve had a lot of these names on our list for quite a while” but none had previously responded to requests for meetings, Mr. Wier says. “And suddenly they’re all saying, ‘Yeah, we’d love to meet with Anthony. Come to our house.’ "
The organization’s major-gift officers are so busy that they’ve resorted to soliciting contributions from wealthy donors via email — a practice seen as taboo by many frontline fundraisers — because they don’t have enough to time to meet with every prospect in person. “We’ve actually had success with many of those” emails, Mr. Wier says.
Many of the ACLU’s donors have expressed worry about the threat they believe Mr. Trump poses to civil liberties and fear that authoritarianism is on the rise, Mr. Wier says.
He says one donor who usually gives $5,000 each year decided during a recent 15-minute phone call to increase her annual gift to $50,000. She said she was anxious about what she saw as a rise in xenophobia and racism in the country.
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“It’s a level of emotional response that we’ve honestly never seen,” Mr. Wier says.
Retention Challenges
It’s unclear how many of the ACLU’s post-election donors will continue to give in the years ahead. Roughly 320,000 of the group’s donors since the election made one-time gifts instead of setting up recurring contributions. For now, the organization is wary about counting on many of those donors to give again, Mr. Wier says. He compared the donors to those who contribute to relief organizations after a natural disaster.
“Getting those donors to stick with you is really tough,” he says.
The organization is going ahead with its normal welcome packages for new, small donors. For donors who give $20 or more, that includes a membership card and a subscription to the nonprofit’s biannual magazine. Mr. Wier says the organization has tried to encourage as many people as possible to become monthly donors, because those supporters tend to keep giving year after year. The “See you in court” message, which is still on its homepage, encourages people to “Donate Monthly.”
Before the election, the ACLU tested several elements of its website and made tweaks meant to increase the likelihood people will become monthly donors. For instance, its one-time donation page tells new contributors that a monthly gift “does even more to protect civil liberties.”
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Since the election, the organization has doubled the number of donors who give monthly to about 100,000. Those supporters will bring in about $2 million a month.
Staffing Up
With the spike in revenue, the ACLU plans to hire 50 to 70 more employees, most of whom will be lawyers, Mr. Wier says.
Fundraising will get a boost, too. Mr. Wier says he’s going to request at least six more development-staff members to start in 2017. Some will be frontline fundraisers while others will work in digital and support roles. If the organization keeps attracting gifts at a high pace, it’ll likely hire even more employees, he says.
In addition to keeping the momentum going in the post-election period, the new fundraisers will help the ACLU meet goals it had set before the election.
The group is looking to overhaul the way it communicates with donors who give to both its 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) entities so that supporters don’t receive redundant communications. It is also in the quiet phase of its centennial campaign, in which it hopes to raise nearly $1.3 billion by 2020; the campaign has brought in about $800 million so far.
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The ACLU also hopes to become a stronger political and legislative advocate.
Why am I supporting the ACLU? One word: Trump.
“We want to have more grass-roots power — in some ways like the NRA has,” Mr. Wier says, explaining that the gun-rights group’s members wield tremendous influence over lawmakers.
The ACLU is still developing its strategy to mobilize grass-roots campaigns going forward, but Mr. Wier says fundraising and communications will be key to those efforts. “We want to be a stronger, people-based organization, and not simply this elite group of lawyers arguing at the Supreme Court.”
Finding the Right Tone
The group also has yet to determine how much of its messaging in 2017 will focus on Mr. Trump. Some fundraising experts think the organization would be wise to continue with its tough messaging against the president-elect unless the communications stop resonating with supporters.
“The ACLU doesn’t have to be nice,” says Doug White, the former director of Columbia University’s Master of Science in Fundraising Management program. “They have to promote their mission and their values, and Donald Trump is pretty much against all of those values.”
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Mr. White says the organization shouldn’t worry about alienating supporters with its aggressive tone. In fact, had it not come out combatively against Mr. Trump, it might have angered many more supporters, he says.
As one ACLU member told the organization along with her gift: “Why am I supporting the ACLU? One word: Trump.”
Mr. Wier anticipates that the ACLU will pivot to communications that deal with specific issues or news items as Mr. Trump settles into office.
One of the biggest challenges going forward will be maintaining a balance between tough and defiant messages and optimistic, unifying ones, says Michele Moore, the group’s chief communications officer.
“It can’t always be this doomsday, apocalyptic kind of messaging,” she says. “We ultimately believe that we can make a difference.”
Sandoval covered nonprofit fundraising for The Chronicle of Philanthropy. He wrote on a variety of subjects including nonprofits’ reactions to the election of Donald Trump, questionable spending at a major veterans charity, and clever Valentine’s Day appeals.