Some Antiwar Groups Plan Long-Term Fund Raising

The fund-raising coffers of antiwar groups have benefited from the recent news coverage of their protests and

numerous special appeals. Yet even as U.S. troops remain in Iraq, some peace organizations have started to make plans for how to keep momentum for their work going after the spotlight has shifted to other issues.

In recent weeks and months, many peace groups say they have been barraged with mostly small gifts, and have collected thousands of dollars in foundation grants. Among the efforts that have buoyed the charities’ hopes for fund-raising success as they plan long-term solicitation strategies:

• United for Peace and Justice, a new coalition of 200 organizations that opposed the war, has raised more than $320,000 since December, some of it from passing collection buckets at a February rally that the charity helped organize in New York. “Ninety-five percent comes from individuals in small donations of $100 or less,” says Leslie Cagan, one of the charity’s leaders. “The movement is a grass-roots movement, and so is the fund raising. There is not a sugar daddy someplace.” The group has received one $15,000 gift, its largest donation from an individual.
• Physicians for Social Responsibility, in Washington, a disarmament group that also opposes gun violence and supports environmental causes, says a January appeal raised $100,000, double the revenue the group had anticipated, says Mark S. Epstein, the group’s chief operating officer. The letter, which looked like an urgent cablegram, focused on a last-ditch effort to stop the war and was sent to the group’s 24,000 members — people who have donated at least $15.

In addition, a December appeal sent to potential donors drew double the percentage of donations the group anticipated, with 1.6 percent of all recipients making a gift. The appeal earned $20,000, even though it was expected to lose $40,000. Although the solicitation did not mention the war in Iraq, it contained information about the organization’s efforts to block the use of nuclear weapons in general.

“It’s clear people are concerned and joining because of this issue,” says Mr. Epstein.

The strong response spurred the charity to double the size of its April appeal to new donors, to 300,000, and the group is considering adding a May appeal to attract new donors.

The organization also has prepared a newspaper public-service announcement that it hopes will raise awareness about its work and bring in additional donations.

• Peace Action, a grass-roots charity in Washington that promotes peace and disarmament, decided in the summer that President Bush’s focus on Iraq might make it worthwhile to send two direct-mail appeals to new donors, instead of just one. The appeals focused on opposition to a perceived agenda of “perpetual war” in the name of fighting terrorism, which the group contends will give “the green light” for other countries to solve problems through violence. The extra mailing resulted in gifts from 1.6 percent of respondents, 0.4 percent more than expected. The strong response and higher-than-usual average gift of $32 helped the charity double its expected revenue from new donors, to $160,000 last year.

“We started out the year with very modest expectations,” says Peter Deccy, director of development. “We were floored by the response.” The group receives 85 percent of its $1.1-million budget from individuals.

The mailings’ success prompted fund raisers at Peace Action to persuade former donors to start giving again. The charity hired a company last year to contact 13,000 donors who had not given in the last four or five years. Since December, 1,300 people have made gifts, and calls are still being made.

“The heightened concern and impending war in Iraq increased interest in our work,” says Mr. Deccy. “We looked for other avenues to take advantage of this moment in history where once again attention is turned to war and peace issues.”

The group also plans to revive its national canvassing program within the next month, in which representatives of Peace Action will knock on doors in neighborhoods and ask for support. The program, which will start in Washington and then spread around the country over the next few years, is expected to raise $75,000 this year.

Internet Appeals

Many peace charities have used the Internet as a quick way to disseminate information and ask for support. United for Peace and Justice has raised a third of its donations so far through its Web site. The charity sent two e-mail appeals to the 40,000 people who have signed up to receive electronic notices from the coalition. Organizers say they cannot track how many donations came specifically from these online appeals.

Even without formal appeals, donations have been on the rise at the Web sites of peace charities. Since the war started last month, the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, a group that works to improve humanitarian conditions in Iraq, has been receiving about 20 donations every few days through its Web site, says Erik K. Gustafson, the group’s executive director. Previously, it has taken a month for the organization to receive that many.

Mr. Gustafson attributes the increase in part to e-mail alerts he sends one or two times a week to keep supporters up to date on the war. The alerts do not ask readers for a gift. In fact, the March 31 alert solicited contributions to the Working Assets Iraqi Emergency Relief Fund, which will distribute donations to relief groups working in Iraq. Still, the alerts keep the charity present in the minds of the 15,000 people who receive the messages.

Foundation Support

Emergency foundation grants have also been a strong source of recent support for peace charities. In October, an official of the Solidago Foundation, in Northampton, Mass., called the Institute for Policy Studies, a research center that focuses on peace and nuclear disarmament, among other issues, in Washington, to ask how the foundation could help the peace movement in general and the institute in particular.

John Cavanagh, director of the institute, says the conversation helped lead to a grant of $7,500 from the Solidago Foundation, as well as a second grant for the same amount in November. The money helped pay for the group’s Cities for Peace program, which urges city councils around the country to pass resolutions opposing the war. The grant money also helped pay to produce a pamphlet in January, “Understanding the U.S.-Iraq Crisis: A Primer,” which includes a history of relations between the two countries, the global consequences of a war, and alternatives to war. The money came in addition to an annual $25,000 grant the group receives from the foundation.

Since last fall, the institute has also received $10,000 from the Town Creek Foundation, in Easton, Md., and $11,000 from the New World Foundation, in New York, for its work to promote peace. The grants were received within weeks or days of the institute’s request.

The group also received $30,000 from the Iraq Peace Fund, a $500,000 emergency fund administered by the Tides Foundation, in San Francisco, that combined donations from individuals and foundations. The money was raised in September and early October and entirely paid out by early November. The Tides Foundation is soliciting donations for a new fund, the Peace Strategies Fund, to support international and national charities working on civil and immigrant rights, peace issues, and humanitarian aid. “I don’t remember a period in my 20 years at IPS where there was such urgency, both among groups like IPS and funders,” says Mr. Cavanagh.

About two-thirds of the group’s $2.2-million budget comes from foundations. “These are all funders that already know the organization and there is a trust level involved,” says Mr. Cavanagh.

Nonprofit organizations also hope to see new grants in coming months from large foundations that have supported work on peace issues in the past, such as the Ford and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundations and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Help From Others

In some cases, antiwar organizations have gotten financial help without any effort of their own. Several have benefited from small fund-raising events in which outside organizers did the work and forwarded proceeds to the charities. Peace Action received $8,000 from a comedy show staged as a fund-raising event in Los Angeles. Code Pink, a new women’s antiwar group, in Washington, received $1,000 from an afternoon event at a Washington restaurant, organized by an employee of another local nonprofit organization, at which 70 people paid a minimum of $20 to hear music and remarks from a Code Pink representative.

Merchandise sales have helped some peace charities increase their coffers. Pax Christi USA, a Catholic nonviolence charity in Erie, Pa., is about $24,000 ahead of projected revenue from merchandise sales of items such as small prayer cards, says Jo B. Clarke, development director. Donations to the charity are also $11,000 ahead of projections for the year, even though the group has not sent a specific direct-mail appeal to its supporters mentioning the war in Iraq.

Brisk sales of T-shirts, buttons, and other merchandise are also helping other charities raise money. Code Pink says sales of such items on its Web site last month raised $10,000, and $5,000 came from sales at the group’s office and the antiwar rallies, says Victoria Cunningham, an organizer with the group. Supporters can buy lapel pins for $15, bumper stickers for $2, and even pink pashmina shawls for $75.

While the news media’s focus on the war and on antiwar activities sparked merchandise sales and donations, peace organizations realize their issue won’t be so visible forever.

Leaders of Code Pink and United for Peace and Justice are now discussing what the long-term role of their organizations should be after the U.S. presence in Iraq ends.

Some organizations, such as the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, plan to start raising money for efforts to foster democracy in Iraq.

Peace Action hopes not to repeat an earlier bad experience, when it lost five-sixths of its members after the cold war ended. This time the organization is making plans to stay in closer communication with its donors by mailing information about the organization’s work more regularly and polling donors about their feelings after the troops return home.

“When war ends, there is a natural sigh of relief,” says Mr. Deccy, of Peace Action. “Donors won’t necessarily think, ‘What peace issue can I give to next?’ It’s up to us to keep those members engaged and to find out what they think are the next critical issues.”