I won’t belabor this topic beyond today but I felt the answer to this comment left on the post this morning deserved a post of its own so that it received a broader reading audience…

Submitted on 2009/11/25 at 10:35 AM

“Leah, as you say, times are tight and we all have to watch where we send our cash. Can you tell us exactly what your plans are to fight this extreme group? I think you have to get beyond the blogspot because we who agree with you are the only ones to read and post. I’m willing to support you if I’m convinced that my contributions will make a difference. I just have to be careful that I put my “hard-earned” where it will have an effect. Can you tell us your plans? Thanks.”

I understand your question and this has been a topic lately for a number of us who spend every waking moment of everyday working on exposing dominionism. The following is a summation by a fellow blogger in Alaska:

“1) Smart, effective activists NEVER reveal strategy…unless it’s part of the strategy

2) You are one person doing the work of an army. People are either willing to support you to do those things that they are unwilling to do themselves, or they are not. You don’t need the money from those people who are not and are going to add to your workload.

3) You will keep folks updated on your blog just like you always do…that’s the equivalent of a newsletter, etc…that other organizations offer to their donors.

4) Struggling to overcome financial insecurity interferes with the work. In order to do the work you must have someplace to do it from (home) equipment to do it with (computer, cable service, phone, cell phone), etc…Using donations to keep the lights on is completely acceptable…it’s called “overhead” and almost all of our expenses are overhead.”

I appreciate you bringing this up and giving us an opportunity to address this concern. I will add that my blog posts are not simply preaching to the choir as it may seem. My readership has increased (according to google analytics) 1,546% since June and continues to increase everyday. One of the reasons for that is my posts are being picked up in the blogosphere by other sites and quoted in periodicals such as The New Yorker. Increased readership means successful dissemination of the message.

In addition to blogging each day after reading current articles and research for 3-4 hours every morning, composing and posting blog articles for 2-3 hours, meeting with other activists and researchers for at least one hour per day, I am also deeply into the book project that I am co-writing with Alex Bird (screen name “dogemporer” at talk2action, dailykos, and other sites), “God’s Own Party?: Rebiblicans Caught in a Web”. The details about the book are highly confidential due to the nature of the material which remains proprietary and protected until released.

Additionally, I am being invited for increasing peaking engagements at campuses, district precinct meetings and as fundraiser engagements for others. Then the periodic radio interview coast to coast and an occasional television interview. All of these add up to increasing exposure and a growing impact on contributing to the discussion of the dangers of extremism and dominionism in politics in America.

Alex would like to contribute the following :

Based on this comment, it looks like he wants you to form your own political action committee or 501(c)4 yourself. This isn’t gonna happen for a while, needless to say. That said–if someone asks re finances, the best advise (IMHO) is to note to them that the form 990 for groups like Military Religious Freedom Foundation is publically available. In fact, folks can be pointed right to the 990 via sites like Foundation Center.

One thing to point out to him, too–anti-dominionist activist organizations like MRFF pulls in maybe $550,000 a year in donations and only earns something like $30,000 after expenses are taken into account. (This is including paying Mikey Weinstein for legal fees, of note.) This is compared to–on average–$5-10 million (after expenses) for the average dominionist 501(c)3, and figures in the tens to hundreds of millions for dominionist “ministries” for which 501(c)3 forms are available.

And yes, compared to the dominionists, even the richest of anti-dominionist progressive groups don’t earn that much. People for the American Way pulls in just under $6 million a year (of which only about $1.2 mil is for the org itself and $4.7 mil is for their 501(c)4 wing); Americans United (being the richest of the progressive orgs by far) only pulled in about $9.8 million in 2008; and Interfaith Alliance only pulled in $1.8 million from their 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 wings.

Groups specifically focusing on dominionism have it even worse; at least two groups (Institute for First Amendment Studies and Committee to Defend the Constitution) folded due to lack of funds, Jews On First (a project of the Jewish organisation haMifgash) got a small slice of the around $30,000 for ALL of haMifgash’s projects, and Talk to Action is operating not as a nonprofit but as an LLC (and pretty much relies on donations to pay the server bills).

Literally the ONLY group that earns any considerable amount of money (compared to dominionists) who is active in fighting dominionism is the Southern Poverty Law Center ($192 million)–and most of their funds go NOT into fighting dominionism but fighting other kinds of hate (particularly legal cases involving hate crimes).

This is compared to Mercy Ministries *alone* at over $10 million; the American Family Association at $38.8 million; Eagle Forum at over $20 million (based on 501(c)3, 501(c)4, and state affiliates); Focus on the Family well into the $150 million-plus range between its 501(c)3, 501(c)4 and state affiliates; Concerned Women for America (which is, for dominionist groups, a relative poverty-child at $1.3 million); Family Research Council pulling in $5.5 million between its 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 wings; Alliance Defense Fund with $33.7 million;

…and that’s just the groups we have ACCESS to records for (increasingly, dominionist orgs are incorporating as “ministry groups” and using the “church loophole” to get out of filing a form 990; Wallbuilders is probably the most well-known group doing this). - dogemperor

Then you have activists such as myself who may raise anywhere from $20-$300 in a month, to the more successful ones who might be able to pull in a couple thousand if they are aggressive at fundraising. I hope this has shed more light on the realities of what we are faced with.

Because I donate my time and resources to this as a full-time endeavor you can see that relying on the generosities of those who support what we are working on to continue. As it is there is not enough time in a day to accomplish all that is required in our ultimate goal to expose dominionism and help politically secular republicans reclaim their Party.

I will add that my blog posts are not simply preaching to the choir as it may seem. My readership has increased (according to google analytics) 1,546% since June and increases everyday. One of the reasons for that is my posts are being picked up in the blogosphere by other sites and quoted in periodicals such as The New Yorker. Increased readership means successful dissemination of the message. In addition to blogging each day after reading current articles and research for 3-4 hours every morning, composing and posting blog articles for 2-3 hours, meeting with other activists and researchers for at least one hour per day, I am also deeply into the book project that I am co-writing with Alex Bird (screen name “dogemporer” at talk2action, dailykos, and other sites). The details of what is going into that book is highly confidential due to the nature of the material as proprietary until released. I appreciate you bringing this up and giving us an opportunity to address this concern. A post is forthcoming….