April 2011
Profit from Protests
Advancing liberty should be fun – and profitable for your organization. The following is a short list of ideas for how to make more hay from Tax Day protests and other large gatherings of similar-minded individuals.
- If display table opportunities exist, get one and have staff present during the event to answer questions – and graciously accept contributions.
- Walk through the crowd, dispensing free tea (in cups with your institute's name) and cookies.
- Circulate clipboards throughout the crowd to collect names, phone numbers and email addresses.
- Distribute information about your internships, essay competitions and debate seminars to the youth in attendance.
- Give away pork sandwiches. Brand the wrapping with your organization's name.
- Give away items such as mini U.S. Constitutions with your group's name on them.
- Hold a protest sign / banner contest. Conduct the contest at the event, or have entries submitted in advance. Issue a press release with a picture of the winner and the sign in time to hit the appropriate news cycle.
- Create lower-tax themed T-shirts, which can be given as a premium with tax-deductible donations. The T-shirt design could feature the winning protest sign.
- Think photo opportunities. For example, organize protesters wearing different color T-shirts into a pie chart formation to show where income tax dollars go.
- Videotape and post short personal interviews with attendees describing why they are there, what they protesting, and so forth. As the Institute for Justice would say, personalize, humanize and dramatize the downside of counterproductive regulations, government bureaucracy and taxation.
- Is there a parade? See if your supporters will build a float.
- Conduct an Uncle Sam costume contest.
- Hold a "confusing tax-code provision of the week" competition in the weeks leading up to Tax Day.
- Encourage people to "demand" that Atlas Shrugged be brought to your city or town. (The movie opens April 15.)
