Our mission is to identify, educate, train, and mobilize youth activists committed to “winning on principle.”
END of the YEAR REPORT2012
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.
125,000 activists
378
active and forming chapters
$
5,162
dues-paying members
50 STATES
(and DC) with dues-paying YAL member
$1.42 MILLION dollars raised in 2012
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
IDENTIFY: Leaders
1,356
college campuses nationwide with a dues-paying YAL member, giving YAL a committed presence on 35% of America’s two- and four-year colleges
Personnel is policy, so YAL recruits and grooms principled young people.
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EDUCATE: Students
We’re introducing a whole new generation to the philosophy of liberty.
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TRAIN:
MOBILIZE:
YAL turns eager college kids into skilled, effective campaign activists.
With your support, good liberty campaigns are winning nationwide.
Activists
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for victory
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Fundraising and online growth
98%
5,438
of YAL’s donations come from individuals
YAL donors
$1,423,992
1,500,000
$1,095,000
1,200,000 900,000
$735,000
600,000
$350,000
300,000 0
2009
2010
2011
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.
2012
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 billion 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.
Facebook reach:
Twitter:
2,000
292,000,000 users reached in 2012
15,000,000
users reached in 2011
900,000 user interactions in 2012 compared to 180,000 in 2012
14,000 new fans in 2012
33,000 fans total 2
Young Americans for Liberty End of the Year Report | 2012
new followers in 2012
9,000+ followers total
Top 0.1% of Twitter accounts worldwide in terms of follower count
IDENTIFY:
leaders committed to principle
A revolution on college campuses CHAPTER GROWTH Since our founding just four years ago in December 2008, YAL has quickly become the largest, most active, and fastest-growing proliberty organization on America’s college campuses. Now, YAL’s network boasts 378 chapters nationwide!
YAL 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!
Slippery Rock University
2012: 378
University of Central Florida
Case Western Reserve University
2011: 289
Georgia College and State University
UC-San Diego
2010: 170
University of Central Arkansas University of Denver
2009: 96
University of Texas-El Paso
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NATIONAL STAFF
Jeff Frazee Executive Director
Edward King Director of Programs
Bonnie Kristian Director of Communications
Jack Hunter Director of Outreach
Piyali Bhattacharya Development Executive
Joshua Parrish National Field Director
Ani DeGroot Director of Elections
Corey Hubbard Director of Events
Brandon Cestrone National Field Executive
Justin Page Wood Graphic Designer
LEADERSHIP TEAM YAL’s seven Regional Directors work directly with students in their regions to coordinate quality activism and start new chapters.
Kyle Baumgartner Northwest Region
Keith Carlson Northeast Region Charlie Vidal Midwest Region
Jeremy Davis Mid-Atlantic Region Adam Weinberg Southwest Region
STATE CHAIRS
Reporting directly to the Regional Directors, YAL’s state chairs are proven activists who help chapters organize events, get media, and grow their membership.
Corie Whalen South Central Region AK AL AR AZ CA CA CA CA CO CO FL FL GA HI IA ID ID IN IN KS KY
Natasha Montague Drew Owens Seth Bowman Francis Gonzalez Ryan Smith Benjamin Roden Patrick Ryan Francisco Gustin Sydney Kirchner Phil Futuyma Jessie Markell Katerina Salamis Mary-Ann Ionascu Nicholas Gregory Morgan Pearson Sterling Stoddard Taylor Williams Creighton Harrington Nathan O’Connor William Stewart-Starks Evan Tindle
KY LA MA MA MD MI MN MO MS MT NC NO NE NJ NM NY NY OH OH OK OR
Anthony Rodriguez Southeast Region
Nolan Gray Kyle Aycock Anthony Ardizzone Gregory O’Sullivan Christopher Coard Keith Maskell Timothy Bertram Christopher White Corey Adkison Zach Watson Everett Lozzi Jonathan Mollet Andrew Curran Daniel Kosciuszko Austin Pickrell Paul Hotaling Simeon Morris Zackary Martin Ian Gulley Shawn Coffey Erica Midttveit
PA PA PA SC TN TN TN TX TX TX TX TX TX UT VA VA VA WA WI WY
David Haas Josh Weitzel Steve Straubaugh Zachariah Tollison Eric Sharp Gabriel Harr Shane McGonigal Caitlyn Bates Evan Bynum Terry Furrh Chase Mitchell Noelle Mandell Isabel Gonzalez Brittany Hemsath Angad Walia Nikki West Braedon Wilkerson Kaitlin Callison Jordan Krause Abbey Torkelson
EDUCATE:
students on the philosophy of liberty Your support allows us to keep YAL chapters well-supplied with the resources they need. 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.
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.
$ 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.
Activism grants support our chapters’ projects and help them stand out on campus.
YAL banners, stickers, and pins galore! Your support allows us to equip chapters with activism kits.
— Isabel Gonzalez The resources YAL has given our chapter have helped us execute activism more effectively. While the pocket Constitutions and bottle openers are popular recruiting tools, it is the grants that have funded innovative and successful activism projects. — Mary-Ann Ionascu
In 2012, YAL distributed record numbers of these important resources.
45,000 copies of YAR
90,000
$27,800
60,200
431
pocket Constitutions to date
palm cards
in activism grants
activism kits
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10 National Activism Projects In 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.
Glenn Greenwald, Jacob Hornberger, and Bruce Fein spoke at the Spring Civil Liberties College Tour.
In October, we launched a Fall Civil Liberties College Tour on the West Coast.
Constitution Week 2012 was our biggest activism event to date, with 103 chapters participating, including YAL @ Georgia Tech.
In November and December, YAL chapters were encouraged to Choose Charity to help their communities and fight the welfare state, like YAL @ American U did.
One of the April ideas was building 40-foot debt clocks to Visualize the Debt, like this one at Cal State-Fullerton.
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Taking advantage of the election buzz, YAL hosted seven Campus Debates nationwide to focus on the important issues.
At the end of the spring semester, YAL launched April All-Out Activism, asking chapters to finish the school year strong like YAL @ Arkansas State did.
Many chapters chose to Occupy the Honor Roll as a satirical way to protest income redistribution, shown here at UCLA.
Young Americans for Liberty End of the Year Report | 2012
In March, we protested the TSA in an event called Government Gone Wild, shown here at the University of South Florida.
The Price Is Wrong for big government game show project was a big hit at UC-San Diego.
TRAIN:
youth activists to be effective
Thank You!
Your student sponsorships made this possible. 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 successful careers carrying out our mission of “winning on principle.” YAL’s Jeff Frazee presents Rep. Ron Paul with the first annual Ron Paul Legacy Award.
Sen. Rand Paul speaks to the 267 YAL members at our National Convention.
723 applicants
44 states represented
267 attendees
31 expert speakers
185 different schools
4 days of training
represented Convention attendees raise their hands to indicate that they were inspired by Ron Paul.
“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
Ron Paul 1 inaugural Legacy Award
“The speakers were incredible, and the information gained was invaluable—not to mention the once-ina-lifetime experiences throughout the week!” — Rebekah Johansen
Training Partners In addition to organizing our own campus and campaign trainings, YAL also partners with a number of great conservative and libertarian organizations to prepare our members for action.
Will Stewart-Starks
Field Coordinator at Americans for Prosperity
“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.” Rachel Kania
State Field Director at Ted Cruz for Senate
“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!” Cory Chenard
Executive Assistant to Ken Cuccinelli, Cuccinelli for Governor
“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 relaunched 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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Young Americans for Liberty End of the Year Report | 2012
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.
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: Rep. Justin Amash (MI-03): Rep. Justin Amash: 53% Dr. Steve Pestka: 44%
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.
YAL members worked full-time during election season
176
campaign-related positions filled by YAL
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%
YAL members volunteered for the Ron Paul campaign
$112,027
raised for YAL PAC candidates
THANKS TO YOU, the YAL PAC bundled $112,027 to support these victories!
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Here’s what some of our winning candidates had to say about YAL.
YAL Midwest Regional Director Charlie Vidal presents Rep. Justin Amash with a check from the YAL PAC.
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.
PAC Advisory Board: How we choose the candidates
– 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.
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 government, foreign policy, civil liberties, the Federal Reserve—or in a nutshell—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 Congress and beyond. We expect many great things from these YAL PACendorsed candidates. Stay tuned.
– Rep. David Schweikert (AZ-06)
Jack Hunter 10
Young Americans for Liberty End of the Year Report | 2012
SUPPORT: YAL in 2013
I recently received this note from Lauren Evans, one of YAL’s besttrained 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, taxdeductible 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 To make sure Young Americans for Liberty has the resources to accomplish their mission, I would like to support their efforts with a contribution of: $10,000
$5,000
$500
$1,000
$100
$50
Please make your check payable to: Young Americans for Liberty Foundation If you would like to make a contribution by credit card, please complete the form below: Please charge my:
Name:_ ___________________________________________
Phone:______________________________________
Address:_________________________________________________________________________________________ City:_________________________________________ State:_ __________________ Zip:_______________________ Card No.:_____________________________________________________________ Exp. Date: ________/________ Signature:___________________________________________________ Email:_______________________________
Make my donation a recurring monthly contribution.
Young Americans for Liberty Foundation is a 501(c)(3)non-profit organization. Donations are unlimited and deductible for federal income tax purposes.
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