Your help still needed
NRLC Membership Drive a Success

By Don Parker

The strength of National Right to Life, like any citizen organization, is found in its members. Members provide the needed funding for our work, volunteers for lifesaving projects, and leadership for our chapters. Educated members also provide the base of citizens who call or write their elected representatives and help us pass vital legislation.

National Right to Life brings in new members throughout the year, but our main membership drive occurs in the months of January, February, and March. This is when members are sent their annual membership card and asked to respond with a contribution.

Past contributors are also called during this time and asked to support specific programs of NRLC. We also begin programs to attract new members during this time of year.

If you haven't yet made your membership contribution for the year 2000, please do so now. NRLC's programs that save so many lives, from our federal and state legislation, to legal defense of state partial-birth abortion bans, to our various educational and outreach programs, all depend heavily on the funds we receive during this membership period. Many of these programs not only need to be maintained, but expanded if we are to save as many lives as possible.

In addition, the success we have with our membership drive literally determines much of the budget for the following year. National Right to Life's fiscal year begins in May, after the results of our membership renewal drive are clear.

When the membership renewal has gone well, we can realistically budget to expand some of the programs that can best save lives in the coming year. Your contribution now truly does make a difference for the entire year!

Pro-abortion groups envy our active pro-life membership, which is the true strength of our movement.

But obviously, as vital as that is, a movement like NRLC cannot grow by only renewing its current members. National Right to Life is constantly seeking new pro-life members. New members provide energy and activism for the movement, as well as future leadership and funding for our programs.

With groups such as Planned Parenthood receiving so much government, corporate, and foundation money, we must rely on our strength, which has always been people power. To take advantage of this strength, we must keep expanding our lists of members, volunteers, chapters, and citizen lobbyists. Our opposition is very envious of our legions of people who perform these tasks for unborn children, and rightfully so!

Soliciting new members at this time of year takes two forms. First, NRLC is phoning likely pro-lifers around the country and asking if they will help the cause by making a small contribution. Anyone who gives $16 or more then receives a one-year subscription to National Right to Life News, the "pro-life newspaper of record." Since an educated membership is one of our strengths, this might be one of the most important functions of our membership drive.

Citizens who read NRL News hear the truth about life-and-death issues. NRLC has a reputation on Capitol Hill and around the country for providing factual, well-researched information. A member can always rely on the validity of any item that appears in NRL News.

The importance of this in our current media climate is impossible to overstate. The major news outlets in our country rarely report objectively on the life issues - in fact, they rarely report on them at all. For pro-life citizens to be able to make an impact on these issues, they must have the facts.

NRL News makes our members better advocates for the unborn, better citizen lobbyists, better pro-lifers. This is just one way in which membership strengthens our movement.

Another way to attract new members is through our "Partners for Life" program, which is about to begin its third year. Partners for Life allows you as a member of NRLC to help us bring in new members to the movement. NRLC sends volunteers a packet, which contains several envelopes and information about us and the pro-life issue.

The volunteer sends these envelopes to friends, relatives, and others who might be pro-life and asks them to join NRLC by sending a small contribution. This allows thousands of new people to join our cause, people who we might not have been able to reach without the help of our volunteers.

Together, our new membership programs are now bringing in over 100,000 new pro-life members every year! A movement is built with people, and we are only as strong as the people who stand with us. It is exciting that, as the American people reassess the issue of abortion, as polls show support for abortion decreasing, we are able to add tens of thousands of new pro-lifers to our cause.

We believe that every new pro-lifer we bring on board brings America that much closer to the day every child is legally protected from the tragedy of abortion. And knowing this makes us work that much harder.

If you have not had a chance to renew your membership yet, please help us with a greatly needed contribution. The funds you provide keep our programs going. If you have made a membership contribution already, we hope you will be generous with our other appeals throughout the year. We are working on several programs this year that will help determine the fate of many lives for years to come, and it is vital that we not be limited in funding these needed programs.

Many members probably know others who would like to join the pro-life movement if they were only given information about us. If you know some people like this, perhaps you would consider being a Partner for Life this spring. It is easy - mailing letters about the pro-life issue to people you know in your community and returning the contributions to NRLC. Consider being a Partner for Life and helping our movement grow!

For the past three years, NRLC has been rated among the 10 most effective public policy organizations in Washington by Fortune magazine. Fortune has written that the most effective groups are membership organizations whose members actively respond to appeals to contact their congressional representatives. This describes NRLC perfectly!

Membership contributions or inquiries about Partners for Life may be sent to NRLC Development Office, 419 7th St., NW, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20004. Or call the Development Office at 202-626-8813 during business hours. Thanks for your support - you're a lifesaver!