This Sunday, April 19th will be the one year anniversary since our new administration took over management of the New York Young Republican Club. We are happy to report that during this time we have achieved numerous quantitative successes in terms of growth.
Since taking over in April of last year our Club’s finances have grown tremendously. We have more than doubled our cash on hand, rising from $18,722 in April of 2019 to $39,276 today – a 109% increase and a net increase of $20,554. This was despite losing money on three events this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
During this time we maintained an average monthly cash-flow of $2,279. This was done by cutting back monthly expenses and expanding our income sources beyond just membership dues.
One of our first changes was implementing a recurring membership system where memberships renew automatically. This allows us to budget every year as we have a guaranteed income which will also grow each year with new members rather than resetting every year to zero. We also expanded the number of membership tiers and their offerings, including the Sustaining Membership and a Preferred Membership tiers.
Speaking of memberships, our membership has grown from 93 dues paying members in April of 2019 to 465 today. That is a 400% increase and a 372 net gain. This is the highest membership level the club has had in many years and makes us the largest Young Republican organization in the nation.
You could clearly see this membership growth from our event attendance which has averaged at around 164 per event excluding our annual gala, with our Ann Coulter event bringing in over 400 attendees. Our most financially successful event outside of our annual gala was our Michelle Malkin speaker series which grossed over $9,000 for the Club.
We have successfully held at-least 2 events per month since taking over (prior to coronavirus), with some months having as many as 4 events.
On social media we have also seen massive growth. Our Facebook page has grown from 2,101 likes in April of 2019 to 13,195 today – a 527% increase and a 11,094 net gain. We have seen similar growth on our other platforms specifically Instagram and Twitter. Further we created the Club’s first YouTube channel and Instagram TV and posted much of our video content from events to these platforms for the first time.
We have successfully turned the Club from a money losing institution with stagnant membership growth into a profitable enterprise with expanding annual membership and ever enlarging event attendance.
In terms of non-quantitative growth, beyond launching a new website and logo we have also established an official Club policy platform along with issuing numerous legislative, policy, and candidate endorsements over the last year, something which the Club had not done in a very long time.
We successfully compiled our Club’s history going back to 1856 (Including a full list of Club founders and presidents) which entitled us for inclusion on Wikipedia.
We have established partnerships with numerous organizations from the Free Speech Alliance, MavPac, MirYam Institute, Zionist Organization of America, Beretta, Tikvah Fund, London Center for Policy Research, Black Conservative Federation, Republicans for National Renewal, We Build The Wall, and the National Republican Hispanic Assembly.
We strengthened our relationship with the national party and have hosted senior leadership from the Republican National Committee, specifically Co-Chair Tommy Hicks Jr. and our board was invited to an exclusive Trump campaign fundraising event in the Hamptons. We also co-signed a letter to President Trump that was retweeted by Donald Trump Jr.
Internally we have established a Club Code of Conduct and a Free Speech Policy and created a new Board of Advisors comprised of leading figures in the conservative movement. Further, we have seen many in our Club’s leadership being appointed to positions in both the national and state Young Republican organizations, something which has not happened in many years. We also led numerous successful philanthropic activities including a supply drive for our veterans.
We are looking forward to another year of growth in 2020. We hope to come back after the Chinese Virus has been defeated stronger than ever. We thank all of our loyal members and supporters for making this growth possible.