CRNC Financial Details
Written by Mark Harris on March 2nd, 2005Well I did a little digging and found out some very disheartening facts about the College Republican’s current financial situation, at least according to their publicly released papers:
Year Amount Raised Amount Spent
2001 $928,388 $763,192
2002 $7,517,515 $9,887,519
2004 $5,498,325 $11,275,019
Source: The Center for Public Integrity
Now I am no mathematician, and we’re obviously missing 2003, for some reason but it seems to me the CRNC spent way beyond its means, running a deficit of over 5.5 million dollars for 2004, though since we don’t seem to have information from 2003 its hard to tell if maybe they had that money on hand, either way they can’t have much left in the bank, and more than likely they are in some serious debt. This is an angle of the story we have not heard much about, maybe this would explain why they are flooding mailboxes with fundraising letters still.
But the rabbit hole goes deeper, as they say….
Recipients of at Least $10,000 Amount Spent
Response Dynamics, Inc. and related firms $11,238,670
U.S. Postal Service $3,737,995
Direct Response Data Management $2,023,286
The Best Lists Inc. $530,390
Washington Intelligence Bureau $295,018
U.S. Bancorp $174,713
PrimePay, Inc. $151,907
Citigroup $103,477
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn $69,624
Dell Computer Corp. $68,774
Republican State Leadership Committee $60,000
MBNA Corp. $37,137
Bonahoom & Bonahoom $26,568
Pitney Bowes Inc. $26,051
FDX Corp. $13,509
APEX Advertising, Inc. $13,198
Sprint Corp. $12,492
American Express Co. $11,515
Greenberg, Traurig, Hoffman, Lipoff, Rosen & Quentel $10,000
Source: The Center for Public Integrity
The italicized entries are all fundraising expenses (The USPS expense may be partially programming / administrative, but still…), meaning that almost $18million was spent by the CRNC on fundraising with little left over for actual programming. Now I am not saying that this is unethical, just that it isn’t very smart. I can’t confirm it, but rumor has it the CRNC doesn’t even own its “house” fundraising list, which if true makes this whole thing near criminal in its stupidity. To spend all that money prospecting and hitting your houselist and to have only 10% to show for it plus no long term list you actually own. Words can not describe how out of the ordinary such an arrangement is.
All the information contained in this post can be verified at The Center for Public Integrity.
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FYI. The 26,000+ expenditure to Bonahoom and Bonahoom was the first refund the CRNC made to anybody.
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excuse me for asking, but where the hell do COLLEGE REPUBLICANS fall in this budget?
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hahaha…. good question. Probably right between the “Gourley legal defense fund” and “paper clips.”
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So, does the CRiNC have a $7 million deficit?
What’s with $3.7 million for postage, if you’re paying a company $11 million to handle your mail.
Even if the CRiNC scraps its direct mail program, it should be able to fund itself through ‘07 on high dollar donors. Considering the fact that they raised $2million in soft money in the last cycle.
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It has the amount raised, but is it the total amount that the CRNC has in its accounts? The 2003 goal was probably INTENSE fundraising for the 2004 election (hence, shady letters & other, more upright, efforts), but the numbers are missing. They may not have necessarily been in a deficit. The CRNC accumulates cash in the years leading up to a presidential election then blows their wad - as you can see in the 2004 expenses. This year they had dozens of field reps, all over the country, and that’s expensive as hell. Not to mention having to send Hoplin & crew on a 2-week, 5-state tour ending in his home district (running for Congress, anyone?). But really, where ARE the 2003 numbers? That could explain a lot.
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According to http://www.OpenSecrets.Org, the CRiNC took in $13,048,268 but spending $21,168,236. $7,824,571 comes from individuals who describe their career as retired, and $627,772 from those who describe themselves as homemakers. This is for the ‘04 cycle, so that includes donations for ‘03 and ‘04. The CRiNC was also very low on cash all the way through the end of the fall, as they often weren’t able to pay the staff.
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