I will start by saying that I hate fundraising.
It’s not something that I am any good at. It’s not something that has ever come naturally to me. I don’t have the temperament for it. In spite of this, there are hard limits to what we are able to do as a movement, and the hardest limit of all is financing.
It has been an incredible year. Last summer, I held our first real fundraiser here when Renee – who was my girlfriend at the time – was planning to move to Alabama. In the year that has passed since then, we have gotten married, we have had our first son, and we have organized or participated in nine public demonstrations in the South. We have been everywhere – Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Virginia – month after month, trying to build up support for our cause.
A year ago, I said that we ought to “get mad, give each other courage, and get out into the street and publicly get in the face of the opposition.” I said that we needed to build “institutions through which we can channel our beliefs, resentments, and resources into an organized resistance.” I said that if the Uvalda, GA demonstration was successful, that “we can start to hold similar rallies in other Southern states.”
Looking back, everything that I said back then was still at the conceptual stage. I believed that we could “restore some sanity where it is needed” and cited the transformation of the League of the South, which at that time was still recovering from the Rainbow Confederate cancer, as an example. Last August, I had a notion that one day there could be a coherent, reality-based, active and organized resistance movement in the South, a home for people who are wide awake and fed up, which unlike the stillborn White Nationalist movement, would not be purely anonymous, low trust, disorganized, adrift, plagued by infighting and self detonating psychos, deterred by fear of the opposition, and largely confined to podcasts in cyberspace.
I thought long and hard about why White Nationalism had stagnated in spite of reaching and educating millions of angry White people through the internet. Eventually, I developed a strategy that we have implemented to tackle the problem. Contrary to what some might think, the White Nationalist movement has never had any problem broadcasting and inculcating its audience with its ideas, and the tools of social media like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter has made it easier than ever before.
The main problem is not that our people are uneducated – you shouldn’t need a PhD in Platonic philosophy to stand up for yourself – it is that they are isolated and afraid, and this holds for even some of the most educated, dedicated and articulate people in the White Nationalist movement. They were afraid of the opposition. They were afraid to publicly stand up for their own beliefs and be identified with their own cause. And so they retreated to slacktivism on the internet because venting about our decline was so easy and cost free, and once the internet was allowed to consume and dominate the movement, it was distorted in all kinds of negative and unforeseen ways.
Afraid of what, you ask? The SPLC, the ADL, One People’s Project, people like Jeffrey Imm or our friend “Spelunker,” calling them names in silly little blog posts. For the longest time, our people were actually deterred by that sort of thing, and many of them still are. White Nationalists were certain that all kinds of negative things – complete financial and social ruin, violent attacks by the so-called “anti-fa” – would happen to anyone who stood up to these types in the real world.
After nearly twenty public demonstrations in the South, dozens of malicious attacks by the SPLC and the ADL, hundreds of blog posts by “Spelunker,” counter-demonstrations by “anti-fa,” companies like Lamar Advertising pulling our billboards, in which these types have thrown the kitchen sink at us with their stupid little yellow arrows, we have found that the actual power of the opposition to do us harm has been wildly exaggerated. We’ve weathered all of that quite easily. What’s really holding us back are things like fear, apathy, negativity, extreme individualism, lack of resources and disorganization – internal problems that have practical solutions.
With more resources, we can do a lot more than we are doing now, and we won’t be swayed from our course. If you appreciate the work we are doing here at OD and support the direction we are headed, please consider donating to this website. All the money we raise here will be spent on our activism around the South.
To donate through PayPal, which is the easiest and fastest way to contribute, use the “Donate” button on the sidebar or under the “Donate” tab, or if you prefer to send something through the mail, send cash, checks, or money orders to:
Brad Griffin
P.O. Box 1544
Eufaula, AL 36072
Note: Don’t let these clowns own our streets:
I have also seen this enormous roadblock for a long, long time. I could probably write a book on this topic alone. I’m talking one of those fancy schmancy, smarty pants kind of books. But I’ll spare your eyes and attention span from that torture at this time. I’ll be blunt and try — even though I’ll probably fail miserably — to be succinct.
Four points:
1) While I do share some of the opinions, views and interests of Southern Nationalists, I am not religious, and the idea of religion being paramount and parallel to a type of Racial Nationalism is the antithesis of how I live my life and the standards I’ve come to expect of others. Me + Organized Religion = when the mythical realm called Hell freezes over.
2) Having said that, I do realize that the overlap of views and interests that are there are of such importance that indifference to the disagreements is at least a desirable alternative — assuming that agreement and seeing eye-to-eye is an impossibility — that would be welcomed by those that understand the gravity of what the future holds for White America.
3) I hate…. no, I HATE to see fundraising from the pro-White sphere. Not because I think it’s not needed or those that seek to raise funds aren’t deserving, but because I know how fickle and unreliable pro-White support and supporters can be. Financial support shouldn’t have to be a constant barrage of reminders and dire messages about needing money; it should be insulated and pushed to a point where the bulk of support comes from a more self-sustaining model. Since you said that you don’t have the temperament for fundraising, you would probably agree. Yes, I’m being somewhat vague here, but this is intentional.
4) If you are ever in the Nashville area again, I’d love to give you some “support” and throw out ideas and suggestions about how you and other Southern Nationalists can keep growing. I can’t necessarily support the entirety of the SN framework for the reason I’ve already mentioned, but I can support messages within that model that I agree with.
If there are two things that I hate, it is fundraising and public speaking, but I have come to accept that both are necessary and indispensable if we are going to move forward and achieve our goals, and that I have to get much better at doing both.
In my case, it is a matter of having a wife and child and wanting to continue to participate in activism. It costs money to travel. I don’t mind traveling because I would rather do something to advance our cause than sit at home and watch SEC football.
That’s a major difference from all the years I spent in WN. These activism events create positive energy and reinforce what we are doing. There’s a feeling of everyone being in the same foxhole. It is a motivating factor, loyalty to comrades, that sustains our movement.
In WN, everyone spends all their time on the internet, most of it fighting with other anonymous people, and it creates negative energy that demoralizes and drains people and causes them to lose heart and drop out. It doesn’t have to be like that, but relying so much on the internet as a medium to get our message out has that effect on the movement.
I will elaborate on this later, but I am preoccupied at the moment. Basically, once people decide they are wide awake and fed up, the next step has to be to provide them with an institutional home that reinforces their decision to join the movement. WN is good at educating people and good at getting them outraged at what is going on, but fails at providing them with a home to channel their collective energies.
Brad, I’ll get a check out to you in the next few days. Have you looked into Patreon? It is a site that puts content creators with supporters by allowing supporters to pledge a certain amount a month to go towards the creator.
Also as far as opposition you did not mention one or two hotels that backed out of its group deal with the League. I remember specifically Best Western for the Murphresboro event but for some reason I’m thinking there may have been another one.
The webpage for Patreon.
http://www.patreon.com/
Thanks, Harold.
I believe so. I will look into that. And yes, the “Tennessee Anti-Racist Network” got our hotel reservations cancelled twice in Shelbyville. That was a minor setback. We learned our lesson, adapted our approach, and haven’t had a problem with hotels since then.
It was the same way with the Montgomery Secede billboard. When Lamar Advertising took it down, it was a minor setback, but we adapted and found other places to put up Secede billboards. There were also the ineffective counter-protesters in Murfreesboro, Richmond, and Dickson. They were never able to stop us from building our movement.
In spite of the the SPLC, ADL, and Imagine2050 articles, One People’s Project and Liberty Lamp, and hundreds of blog posts from Spelunker which were the product of thousands of hours of Facebook stalking, not one person who participated in our demonstrations lost their job.
None of that proved to be nearly as formidable an obstacle as any of the things I mentioned above: fear, apathy, extreme individualism, lack of resources, disorganization, slacktivism, etc. Yes, the media said all kinds of nasty things about us, but they hate the Tea Party too. Golden Dawn is hated by the media, but that hasn’t stopped them either.
The sort of individualism described by Alexis de Tocqueville is the root cause of lots of our problems – countless petty arguments like whether or not people are allowed to bring their favorite flag to events, which miss the point of what we are trying to accomplish.
Patreon is much like an idea I thought about several years ago. In this case, however, you don’t want to rely too much on third-party applications like that when you are dealing with fundraising. You will be targeted and removed. The solution for pro-White people is going to have to be the driving force or impetus of a trend, not riding a trend that others have set.
Kiss your pro-White ass goodbye is what they are saying if you read between the lines.
And if ever in doubt, just be sure to read their TOS where it says that you can NOT:
You call it separatism, they call it racism.
You call it Nationalism, they call it Supremacy.
You call it truth and facts, they call it racism and hate.
You call it pride and heritage, they’ll swear you want to kill non-Whites.
You won’t win working from within that model. You’re going to have to be a pioneer at some core level. It will take a lot of hard work and ingenuity, and people will definitely have to step out of their comfort zones, but it will be worth the trouble.
Fear, apathy, and negativity are three of our biggest problems:
– We succeed in educating people and getting them outraged, but a negative attitude, which usually comes in the form of “all is lost,” prevents them from doing anything positive to advance the movement.
– We succeed in educating people and getting them outraged, but they shrug their shoulders and decide to do nothing. That’s apathy.
– We succeed in educating people and getting them outraged, but they are afraid of losing their jobs or social ostracism by friends and family. That’s our friend fear which holds us back.
This is the best description of extreme individualism that I have ever seen:
“I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is as a stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind. As for the rest of his fellow citizens, he is close to them, but he does not see them; he touches them, but he does not feel them; he exists only in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country.”
@harold
The minute you start to raise significant money on Patreon or PayPal, pressure will be brought to bear and they will ban you. Bitcoin is a form of payment, that is everywhere and no where and so cannot be controlled by anyone. Unfortunately almost no one uses Bitcoin right now, because its new technology, but like anything you have to start somewhere, so I encourage our people to learn it.
@Celestial Time and EricD, ya’ll are certainly correct. Any service such as Patreon or PayPal is definitely prone to be pressured to cut off service to those who are pro-white or pro-heterosexual for that matter. I wonder if there is an overseas service less subject to political pressure from the Left.
Congrats on an outstanding year Brad. I’m sending in a solid donation to you. Maybe I can get Stephen D to contribute and we can have a challenge fund raising contest between Midwestern supporters of Southern Nationalism and true sons of the South.
God bless you Brad and God bless your growing family.
Use bitcoins as an additional way to accept donations! Somewhat anonymous and send/receive in an instant!
Two Rules of Politics: 1) Politics costs money. 2) Bullshit walks, money talks.
Hunter and Renee have a demonstrated work ethic, and you know that any money that you send them is money well spent.
That group should protest Dunkin’ Donuts’. Good Lord! Look at the girth.
Hey Stephen D – let’s you and I start a Midwesterners pro South fundraising contest with 100% Southerners.
I am in for $100 can you add something?
Hey Southern good ol boys, how about saving on booze $ this weekend and match us?
I sent $100.
What was the final total?
Who were our best contributors – true sons of the South? Pro Southern Midwesterners? Folks in the West?
How did we do?
$575 through PayPal
$175 through the P.O. Box
Total: $750
The best contributor was actually from England. The second best was from Montana.
No offense, but that doesn’t bode well for the notion that Southerners are capable of sustaining themselves in a bubble of pro-Whiteness calling itself Southern Nationalism. Just using the most basic and scaled-down model, it will take tens of millions of dollars just to begin to push back against the forces that pull the strings of society and create public perception. Obviously, your website/activism doesn’t need to account but for a fraction of a fraction of that kind of revenue stream, but considering how rare your kind of activism is in the US, you should be more than a little irritated, if not angry, that the bulk of monetary support has to come from those outside The South.
How long will $750 last a guy who has to manage a website and travel to different parts of the country with wife and baby in tow? That’s basically a modest 3-day trip with all of the travel expenses. Poof! Gone!
You need better marketing, and you also need to treat yourself and your activism as a commodity. No, I don’t mean proselytize for whomever comes along with the most $$$$. What I mean is that you need to fully embrace a reality that is dictated by decisions revolving around the idea that your time is probably the most important thing you can ever give someone. Stop giving your time away to people that aren’t giving back and might not deserve it to begin with…… I’ll stop there….
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/171296
https://www.udemy.com/blog/non-profit-fundraising-ideas/
The best thing to do is create a shadow organization, and fundraise that way, so anti-Southerners can’t say “this is a ‘racist-hate’ group” and scare away the potential donors. This is what political organizations do all the time; they have a dozen different websites, facebook groups, mailing lists, etc. getting money from different kinds of people who wouldn’t necessarily have given to the main political body otherwise. However, all the money goes to one place. I’m sure you could get plenty of donations if you mailed directly to Southrons’ houses.
You can also learn from charity organizations like the Shriners. The main thing to remember is that you need to come up with a separate name for a fundraising body, if you’re going to hold a public fundraising attempt (like how people don’t automatically connect the Shriners to the Freemasons). If we could get the SCV/UDC to join us, they could serve as the donation/fundraising arm of the League. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to start doing something similar on your own.
You’d hit the jack pot if you found a rich Southron oligarch who’d help in all this.
Logan and Celestial.
I work with Vdare a lot. They are amongst the best in the Alternative Right, race realist world at fundraising. They raise about $500,000 and pay their writers a modest income as full time writers.
I strongly suggest OD does what vdare does and that includes shutting down the blog until fundraising goals are met. Also, Hunter should set up a way that supporters can cut a check to OD, not to the blog owner personally.
But, I am pleased that we did a small, modest, successful fundraiser. Let’s build on this modest success.
I don’t think it would be productive to shut down a website in hopes that it will prod or even scare people into donating. Keeping on keeping on with monotonous stories about the slow implosion of society shouldn’t be the underlying goal. People could just go to any other pro-Whiteish website to get that stuff. I thought the goal was to foster more activism and more real world contacts. In that case, this website is simply a tool that does no good if it is just being treated as a static entity that only exists to try and get money out of the few people that read it. This should be a place of inspiration and encouragement to action, not simply another online watering hole where people donate today just so they can be asked to donate again tomorrow. That’s what places like Stormfront do, and they have been flatlined for years in terms of actually doing something positive for White people.
We see the pro-White world differently. VDare doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t see much value in online chatter that isn’t directly tied to some kind of face-to-face camaraderie. I’d much rather have a single person give me 10 hours of their time than to send me $100. And if I’m being really honest and blunt here, then I can tell you that I don’t have much respect or tolerance for most people calling themselves writers nowadays. Most writers are highly self-absorbed, bore me to tears, and are nothing more than regurgitators of news and stories — not many real visionaries that I can see. And while I can run my mouth and keyboard with the best of them, I am much more interested in building something tangible and concrete than I am just talking/writing about building something. In short, there are too many writers and not enough builders and laborers.
Hunter has put himself out there and is trying to do so at a grassroots level. Even though I’m not necessarily a Southern Nationalist, I can at least see the value in that kind of activism. The type of activism he’s trying to gear himself toward is far more valuable to me than most of the people who just write about the problems of society or write about what needs to be done. Not that my way of seeing things is the only way or the “right” way, but it is my way.
Re: Celestial Time
I have been planning to write an article about this, but the essence of what I am doing can be summarized in a comment:
1.) If you read the same websites that I do, you have probably noticed that virtually all of them are focused on two things: education and outrage.
2.) Education and outrage are necessary, but there has to be a step beyond that. No one seems to have any plan beyond converting people to their ideology and getting them mad about all the things that are wrong with the world.
3.) I go to all these conferences and demonstrations with the purpose of meeting people in real life and building up a real world network of activists across the South. It has grown to the point now where the network extends well beyond the South into the Northeast, West, and Midwest.
4.) Contrary to what some might think, we don’t have a problem educating people over the internet and getting them outraged about all that is going on in the world. We have successfully educated and angered countless thousands of people over the years.
5.) The real roadblock to moving forward is that because of things like fear, apathy, negativity, lack of trust, extreme individualism, scapegoating, infighting, disorganization, slacktivism, and lack of resources – all of which are magnified by the anonymous environment of the internet, which keeps people isolated – none of that education and outrage that has built up over the years “catches fire” and results in anything.
Hunter, is there a way for people to contribute cash? Yes, there are risks of money getting lost in the mail, but some people do not want to deal with any kind of electronic transfer. Checks and such can also be traced.
There can be an impromptu verification system that works something like this: the contributor includes with the cash a codename (e.g., T Jones). When you get the money, post the code name on the website as an acknowledgement.
This could get more people sending in $$$.
Re: R Moreland
Yes, I have a PO Box.
Hunter, I couldn’t agree more with your points.