Dear friend of liberty:

What an exciting year 2004 was for the Advocates!

In this special Year-End Report, I'll share with you highlights from this exhilarating year. I'll tell you how...

• We got such an immense number of people flooding our Web site to take the World's Smallest Political Quiz that our Web-hosting company threatened to shut us down. In a minute, I'll tell you what happened -- and how we averted disaster.

• We conducted a study to find out which schools are using the World's Smallest Political Quiz -- and discovered that the Quiz is now a fixture in classrooms from Kansas to Morocco. (That's right: Morocco!) I'll explain why this is GREAT NEWS for the libertarian movement.

• We published three of the most useful libertarian books ever. One had such an immediate, dramatic impact that an LP county chair instructed her friends, "GET THE BOOK!" I'll tell you how these books are making the libertarian movement more energized and effective.

• We unveiled the most significant upgrade of the World's Smallest Political Quiz in a decade. I'll tell you why we did it -- and how it made the movement's most successful outreach tool even better.

There's so much good news to report that I need to get started right away!

Before I do, a promise: In this letter, I won't just tell you what happened in 2004. I'll also explain how these breakthroughs helped the Advocates achieve our core objective -- which is to serve as the "Doorway to the Libertarian Movement."

I'll elaborate on that concept a bit later, because it sums up what makes the Advocates unique -- and so important for the success of the freedom movement.

In addition, I'll do something that you've probably never seen before. At the end of this letter... I'm not going to ask you to make a contribution to the Advocates. Instead, I'll ask whether you think we earned your support.

That's right. If, when you've finished reading this letter, you don't think that what we achieved in 2004 was exciting...

... and don't think what we're planning for 2005 is important...

... and don't think the Advocates is playing a vital role in helping the libertarian movement succeed...

... then we DON'T deserve your contribution.

Because, frankly, we haven't earned it.

But if you are enthusiastic about what we've done -- and impressed by what we have planned for 2005 -- then there's only one meaningful way to show that. And that's by making a contribution to help finance our ongoing work.

The choice is yours. The challenge to earn your support is ours.

Now, let's get to the good news...

THE QUIZ HITS 4 MILLION!

Want to know what it feels like to get slammed by a tidal wave?

We found out in late October -- when so many people swarmed onto our Web site to take the World's Smallest Political Quiz that our Web-hosting company threatened to pull the plug. Here's the story...

It was the final week before Election Day. Over the previous four months, traffic to our Web site had been growing steadily. We were already well ahead of 2003's pace, when 2,500 people a day took the Quiz. (At the time, we were pretty impressed by that!) However, after the Democratic National Convention in July 2004, the number of Quiz-takers soared to 8,000 a day. Interest in politics was heating up, and voters wanted to see where they stood politically during this fiercely contested presidential race.

Then, that final week, everything went crazy.

More than 28,000 people a day logged on to take the Quiz! During daylight hours, 2,000 people an hour -- 33 people a minute! -- were answering the Quiz's 10 questions and checking to see where they landed on the Diamond Chart.

We got a frantic email from our Web-hosting company. They told us: Traffic to our Web site was so sky-high that they might have to shut us down!

Fortunately, for an additional fee, they were able to divert extra bandwidth to our Web site to handle the traffic -- and the Quiz stayed online.

By the time it was all done, an amazing one million people had taken the Quiz in just over four months.

To put this in context, when we first went online, it took four and a half years for one million people to take the Quiz; almost three years to hit two million; 10 months to pass three million... and only four months to top four million!

Think about this. In four months, ONE MILLION people were introduced to the radical idea that politics is not a simplistic line running from Left to Right -- but is actually a more sensible system that includes conservatives, liberals, centrists, statists -- and, most importantly, libertarians.

Even better, one million people can now visualize exactly where libertarians fit in that model of politics.

We've always said the Quiz is the libertarian movement's most effective outreach tool. As a one-on-one method of explaining what libertarianism is -- and for identifying new libertarians -- it simply has no peer.

But, with the huge numbers racked up in 2004, the notion of the Quiz as merely a "one-on-one" tool is obsolete.

Yes, one-on-one outreach is still crucially important. But think about the value of a tool that introduces one million people to libertarianism in four short months. And shows one-third of them -- 340,000 people -- that they are libertarians. It's staggering.

Here's the bad news: In 2005, interest in politics will fade somewhat. It always does after an election. But we must ensure that people continue to discover the World's Smallest Political Quiz. Without an election to drive traffic, we'll need to rely more on advertising and promotion.

But advertising and promotion cost money.

THREE NEW BOOKS FOR LIBERTARIANS!

In 2004, the Advocates introduced three new "tools" that made libertarians smarter, more articulate, and more persuasive.

Those tools were three new books:

• Liberty A-Z: 872 Libertarian Soundbites You Can Use Right Now by Harry Browne. It offers witty, persuasive libertarian soundbites on topics ranging from education to terrorism to health care.

• Minimum Wage, Maximum Damage by Jim Cox. It's a barrage of economic and moral arguments against the minimum wage.

• Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion by Michael Cloud. It's a "sales manual" for liberty. It explains tools and techniques to compellingly communicate libertarian ideas to friends and family.

Why did we publish these books? Because libertarians need them.

• Libertarians need to be able to answer complicated questions with short, compelling soundbites.

• They need to be able to argue against superficially "compassionate" programs like the minimum wage.

• They need to stop using toxic communications strategies that repel people -- and, instead, use enticing techniques that make people more receptive to our ideas.

How useful were these books? I'll share one story.

Debbie Schum, chair of the Libertarian Party of Delta County, Colorado, had a problem getting local newspapers to print her letters to the editor. So she bought a copy of Liberty A-Z, and started using Harry Browne's smart, snappy soundbites in her letters. Before long, something amazing happened to her letters.

"Suddenly, the papers are printing them," she said, smiling.

Debbie's advice to other libertarians: "GET THE BOOK! I highly recommend it."

Debbie is right. Any one of these books will make you a more effective spokesperson for freedom. More importantly, each of these books is unique. No one has ever offered anything quite like them before.

ONLY the Advocates is offering so many tools to make the libertarian movement bigger, stronger, and more visible.

On that note, it's time to mention one of the Advocates' other major success stories of 2004: In early March, Bill Winter joined our staff as Communications Director.

You may recognize the name. Bill served as the Libertarian Party's Communications Director for a decade, and helped the LP set new records in media coverage and membership. He was the editor of LP News for seven years, and oversaw dramatic improvements in that newspaper.

Now he's working for the Advocates, bringing the skills in writing, design, marketing, and public relations we need to take the Advocates to the next level.

In fact, it was his skills -- especially in editing and design -- that allowed us to publish three books in one year. Without his help, Liberty A-Z might still be sitting in our "To Do" basket -- and Debbie might still be searching for a way to get her letters to the editor noticed.

In 2005, we want to keep Bill Winter working for us, and devoting his talents to the cause of liberty. And we want to publish more books, and offer more tools that make libertarians more effective communicators.

But accomplishing those goals will cost money.

THE QUIZ EMBRACED BY 224 SCHOOLS!

In 2004, the Advocates answered a question that had puzzled us for years: How many schools use the World's Smallest Political Quiz?

We knew some schools used the Quiz to teach students about the political spectrum. Over the years, we got emails and letters from teachers attesting to that. But we had no idea how widespread it was. Was the Quiz used in 25 schools? 50 schools? We didn't know.

So Bill Winter set out to answer that question. He spent several weeks examining online syllabuses, lesson plans, and class assignments from schools around the United States and the world.

What we found delighted us... At last count, 224 colleges, universities, high schools, and elementary schools have incorporated the World's Smallest Political Quiz into their classrooms. Wow!

Even more surprising: We found the Quiz was used in six foreign countries, including Japan, Canada, Turkey, Singapore, Spain -- and even at the Al Akhawayn University in Morocco!

I can't begin to tell you how important this is. This news should lift your heart and give a big boost to the libertarian movement.

Here's why: Assume there are 25 students in each Quiz-using class. With 220+ schools in the USA employing the Quiz, that's 5,500+ students every year who are learning about libertarians -- and where we fit on the Diamond Chart of politics.

And still better, many students learned that THEY are libertarians. For example, when Northern Kentucky University instructor Michael Baranowski gave the Quiz to 73 students in two American Government classes, 18 of them -- 25% -- scored libertarian. When those students graduate, get jobs, and start paying more attention to politics, they'll remember they scored libertarian. And they'll be predisposed to support our ideas and our movement.

Let me make this clear, because it's so important... When the Quiz is used in schools, those schools do our outreach and education for us! We don't have to explain to these students what a libertarian is. Or what we stand for. Or how we're different from liberals and conservatives. They already know!

Yes, we still have to convince them that liberty is a practical, desirable option -- but the groundwork has been laid. We can start at Step Two, rather than Step One.

Bill's research laid the groundwork for what we must do in 2005.

It's great that 224 schools use the Quiz. But imagine the benefits to liberty if 500 schools used it. Or 1,000 schools. Or 2,500 schools!

With our research, we've established the educational legitimacy of the Quiz. The Quiz is a bona-fide educational tool. We can point to those 224 schools as proof. Now, we must use that evidence to leverage our way into more schools.

Here's what we want to do:

• Start running advertisements in educational magazines to tell thousands of teachers about the Quiz.

• Do a test-mailing directly to political science and government teachers. We'll explain what the Quiz is, how it can be used, and how to get copies.

For many teachers, the Quiz will be a revelation -- if they get a chance to hear about it.

But advertisements and direct-mailings cost money.

THE QUIZ GETS A FACELIFT!

"How can you improve on perfection?" That's the question one libertarian asked when we said we planned to upgrade the World's Smallest Political Quiz in 2004.

But we're more modest. We know the Quiz -- like everything we do -- can always be improved. Times change. Political issues change. Public opinion changes. The Quiz needed to change, too. So...

In 2004, we gave the Quiz's its biggest overhaul and facelift in more than a decade...

• We updated the Quiz questions to address more topical political issues. And we streamlined the language to make the questions more understandable to the average person.

• We changed the "Authoritarian" quadrant to "Statist" to make it more precise and less pejorative.

• We completely redesigned the famous Quiz cards, adding a new 3-D look for the Diamond Chart and using eye-catching two-color printing.

• We added a list of libertarian resources to the Quiz cards.

Why all the changes to a tool that libertarian activists ALREADY loved? Because we wanted to make a great tool even greater. With these changes, the Quiz is more attractive, more intellectually solid, more informative, and more useful.

In 2005, we'd like to continue this upgrade process -- and make every Advocates tool more professional, attractive, and effective.

But redesign and reprinting costs money.

*     *      *

Those were some of the highlights of 2004. But there's more news!

• In 2004, the circulation of our email newsletter, the Liberator Online, passed 65,000 -- making it the most widely read libertarian publication on the planet! In fact, it's got more subscribers than many famous liberal and conservative political publications like The Weekly Standard and Mother Jones.

• In 2004, we significantly beefed up our Web site, so when people score Libertarian, they get more useful resources -- definitions, quotes, books, links, and ways to help spread the word. In all, we added about 130 pages of new content.

• In 2004, we conducted "Art of Libertarian Persuasion" seminars in Atlanta, Orlando, Indianapolis, and San Francisco. These seminars took libertarians who were anxious to improve their communications skills -- and turned them into more confident, successful "salespeople" for liberty.

• In 2004, we continued all the Advocates' programs that libertarians love. We distributed Operation Politically Homeless kits, gave out our annual Lights of Liberty Awards, and so much more.

*      *     *

Wow! Now you see why we're so excited about what we accomplished in 2004! There's so much good news that we could barely squeeze it into this letter.

But this letter is more than a random collection of good-new stories. You see, all our work in 2004 was part of a bigger plan. It all ties into a concept I mentioned earlier -- the idea of the Advocates as a... "Doorway to the Libertarian Movement."

Let me explain.

The libertarian movement is like a house with many rooms. There's the political room. The intellectual room. The think-tank room. The cultural room. The legal-action room. And more.

At the Advocates, our job is to help people enter that libertarian house. We don't care which particular room they end up in -- we just want them to become part of the growing libertarian team. We're the doorway.

With the World's Smallest Political Quiz, we introduce people to the concept of libertarianism, and explain where liberty fits on the political map.

The Quiz also allows people to discover if they, too, are libertarians.

That's why upgrading the Quiz was important. It made this unique tool even better at explaining libertarianism and identifying libertarians.

And every time someone took the Quiz online, or in a classroom, or at an outreach booth, we lit that light of understanding for one more person.

The Quiz is a signpost, pointing at our libertarian house.

But once people reach the house, we need to make them feel welcome. We need to address their concerns, and make them feel part of the libertarian family. That's where our new books and seminars come in. We teach libertarians how to persuade folks to take the final step through the doorway -- and how to make new libertarians feel welcome.

• In 2004, we opened the doorway to liberty wider than ever.

• In 2004, we reached millions of new people, and gave thousands of libertarians the skills they need to be more effective.

That said, please don't confuse my excitement with naivete. I read the newspaper. I know there was lots of bad news for libertarians in 2004. In fact, it's easy to list reasons for doom and gloom....

The federal government continued to grow in size, cost, and power. Post-9/11 laws, like the USA Patriot Act, continued to infringe on our civil liberties. American soldiers continued to die in foreign wars. Some libertarian candidates didn't do as well as we had hoped.

But there is a bright spot -- the Advocates for Self-Government.

We never give up. We keep working for liberty. Our tools are optimism, creativity, and perseverance. We understand that when times are tough, it simply means we must work harder. We did that in 2004. We want to do more in 2005.

Earlier, I said that I wouldn't ask you to make a contribution to the Advocates. I won't. Instead, I'll ask you: Have we earned your support?

• Is what we achieved in 2004 exciting?

• Is what we're planning for 2005 important? And...

• Is the Advocates playing a vital role in helping the libertarian movement succeed?

If you answered "yes," then I hope we have earned your support. Because only your contribution will give us the resources we need to do even more in 2005.

Only your contribution will allow us to promote the Quiz more, host more seminars, create innovative new outreach tools, and contact teachers to get the Quiz in more schools.

If you could give $100, that would mean so much. A $100 contribution from everyone reading this letter would give us the resources we need to keep moving forward -- even in tough times.

Some people can't give $100. We understand. Whatever you can spare will help. $50 would be a big boost. If all you can give is $25, that would be appreciated.

Or, for less than the cost of a postage stamp a day, you can become a hero to the Advocates. How? By becoming a $10-a-month pledger. It's a small amount on a monthly basis, but it will give us an enormous vote of confidence -- and will help us turn our 2005 plans into reality.

The Advocates for Self-Government is not a rich organization. Without your support, we have no budget. Without your support, it all stops.

The choice is yours. Have we earned your support? If so, please make a generous donation. Again, $100 would make an enormous difference. But anything you can give will be appreciated.

Thank you so much -- not only for the help you've given us in the past, but for all that your generosity will allow the Advocates to do in 2005.

                                                                                                    For liberty,
                                                                                                   
                                                                                                    Sharon Harris
                                                                                                    President, Advocates for Self-Government


PS: I'm still stunned that one million people took the online World's Smallest Political Quiz in four short months! And I'm delighted that 340,000 of them scored libertarian. Can you imagine the impact it would have on the libertarian movement if we could get those folks to become ACTIVE in our movement?

Is it worth $100 to you to make sure the Quiz continues as a powerful tool for liberty in 2005? If so, please make a generous contribution. Thank you.

PPS: I almost forgot -- 2004 was also a breakthrough year for the Advocates in the media. Read our Media Update for more details.

PPPS: If you make a $100 contribution (or a $10-a-month pledge), I'd like to give you a special gift to show our appreciation. It's a tape of a speech by John Mackey, president of Whole Foods. You won't believe his story. He's a former hippie who used to hate capitalism -- and now he's a libertarian who runs a $3 billion business.

And you won't believe his advice. He thinks the notion that companies exist just to make money is wrong. He thinks libertarians need to shut up about certain cherished issues. And he thinks libertarians need a completely new marketing plan. This tape will shock you -- and force you to think about what you believe!

Learn more and see how to get a copy of this mind-blowing speech.

Use our secure Web page to make your donation now. Thank you!