MEDIA NOTICE: Today (Friday), Jim Babka is scheduled to appear on “Straight Talk w/ Jerry Hughes,” starting at 3:05 PM Eastern. Details can be found on the DownsizeDC.org blog.
Quote of the Day: “If it was easy, everyone would do it.” — Hugh Butler, businessman and friend of Downsize DC
Subject: Membership spiking upwards!
You hear about it constantly — some organization explodes overnight through the viral power of the Internet. How come that hasn’t happened to Downsize DC yet?
Well, we constantly hear about people winning the lottery too, but how many winning tickets have you bought? Fact . . .
There are millions of websites and mailing lists on the Internet. All of them are trying to hit the viral jackpot. Few ever do. Worse . . .
Some of the things that go viral are inane, while great ideas languish. At Downsize DC we believe that if something of ours ever goes massively viral, it will probably be the silliest or least important idea we ever offered.
That’s the way of the world.
In fact, some of the most popular ideas in the small-government movement truly are poor ideas (some are things we’ve tried ourselves in the past). We name no names; point no fingers. We’re NOT the movement’s quality control department. Nit-picking is too common and produces nothing.
We also understand that members of underdog movements are naturally drawn to “magic bullets” and “get-powerful-quick” schemes. But we must break the cycle if we want results.
If building big political movements was easy, everyone would do it. Like a baseball team, we build incrementally – hitting a series of singles, or piling up walks. That produces lots of runs over time. This is our approach. And it’s working . . .
Downsize DC membership is spiking upwards. Why? Because we’ve made one simple addition to our toolbox. We’ve shown DC Downsizers how to ask their friends to join in a way that works. Here are the early results . . .
It took us 176 days to grow the Downsize DC Army from 24,000 members to 25,000 members (NET). Now, in the space of just four days we’ve gone over 18% of the way to 26,000, recruiting 185 net new members.
At that pace we could probably add a thousand net new members in 60 days, rather than 176. But we could probably go faster, if YOU want it . . .
The secret? Asking people to join in a personal way.
If you haven’t done it yet, please try. It’s easy. It works. Check out the DownsizeDC.org blog post, “Personalized Recruiting” (5/4/09).
This is viral growth by design, NOT by accident. With our personalized recruiting instructions you can make the Downsize DC Army surge. But that still wouldn’t exhaust the simple, easy things we could do. If you want . . .
* A huge army working for your goals, and to . . .
* Reach the point where your voice will be heard by everyone, everywhere, every day, then . . .
We need to add direct mail recruiting to our toolbox.
It’s not sexy. It’s old technology. BUT IT WORKS! It asks the right people in the proper way to join YOU in the battle. Right now . . .
We’ve accumulated enough funds to print nearly 20,000 recruitment letters. Renting targeted lists, paying for envelope stuffing, plus postage, is up to you.
To constantly turn the crank that will make the Downsize DC Army grow as fast as possible . . .
Our roster of monthly credit card pledgers needs to constantly grow too, just like our other key indicators. Do you want the Army to grow both relentlessly and faster, month after month? Please start a monthly credit card pledge. https://secure.downsizedc.org/contribute
Your Army needs at least 20 new monthly credit card pledges. $5 a month is 17c per day. Every bit helps. You can help us grow even faster by pledging more. If that fits your budget, consider, if you can, $10, $20, $50, or even $100. Our largest pledger gives $250.
We have 4 new pledges so we need at least 16 more. Go to the DownsizeDC.org contribution page to start a monthly pledge, and let us know on the secure contribution form if it’s okay to publish your name here . . .
NEW MONTHLY PLEDGERS IN MAY: Nancy Kovar, Ryan Ackroyd, WM Michael O’Brien, ONE unlisted
Or, if you’d prefer to make a one-time donation please click on the Contribution Page link, and please also let us know we can publish your name . . .
NEW ONE TIME DONORS IN MAY: Ernest P. Eusea, Chris Reulman, David Anthony, TWO unlisted
Thank you for being a part of the Downsize DC Army. It’s growing. Let’s make it grow even faster. All we have to do is ask more people to join. It’s that simple.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.