I can't contribute, I need contributions myself...

Dear Liberator Online reader,

The Advocates for Self-Government is facing an unexpected fiscal emergency. I must ask you for help.

Without your help, I'm not sure how we'll get through the next few weeks and months.

Here's the situation: Every year, we mail out a Year-End Report to our supporters. The letter talks about our achievements during the past year and outlines our plans for the coming year.

The letter also asks for donations. We're a nonprofit organization, so ALL our funds come from people who voluntarily support our libertarian outreach and educational efforts.

The Year-End Report is our single biggest annual source of revenue. It provides the funding we need to keep going through the Winter and into the Spring.

We always mail our Year-End Report at the end of November -- right before the big Christmas mail rush. That early mailing date allows our supporters to make a donation by December 31st, so they can deduct it from this year's taxes.

Normally, by now, donations from that Year-End Report would be pouring into our office.

Not this year. So far, we've only received FOUR responses. Even worse, I contacted 20 regular donors from around the country -- and NOT ONE OF THEM has even received the letter yet.

Obviously, something is drastically wrong.

So, on Thursday, I started making phone calls, first to our mail house and then to Post Office officials.

It was frustrating, as I'm sure you can imagine. When dealing with a government monopoly like the Post Office, information is hard to come by. And getting through the layers of bureaucracy can be a challenge.

Eventually, here's what we learned: The Post Office told our mail house they THINK our Year-End Report was shipped from their facility in Jacksonville, Florida. (Third Class mail is shipped in batches from central locations to local post offices around the country.)

But the Post Office is not 100% sure that it actually WAS shipped.

And if it was shipped, they are not exactly sure WHEN.

And if it was shipped, they can't tell us exactly WHERE it is in the mail process -- or when people around the country might receive it.

Because of this confusion, we can't figure out exactly what went wrong. It could be that our mailing house messed up. It could be that the Post Office's central facility misdirected the mailing. It could be that local postal services are running horrifically late in delivering it. We just don't know. We haven't yet been able to find out.

In other words, our Year-End Report mailing -- the Advocates' single most important fundraiser of the year -- has disappeared into a postal "Twilight Zone."

This puts us in a terrible bind. We need the revenue from the Year-End Report to keep operating through December and January.

Without that revenue, I don't know how we'll continue to fund the programs libertarians count on -- like our Liberator Online newsletter. The World's Smallest Political Quiz. The Lights of Liberty Awards. Operation Politically Homeless. And so many more.

You see, we're on a very tight budget. We don't have big cash reserves to get us through difficult times.

If our Year-End Report is delivered two weeks late, we'll suffer. If it's a month late, we'll face a real crisis.

Yes, we could reprint and re-mail the Year-End Report, but that would take several weeks. And the cost would consume much of the funds we were expecting from the mailing. (And we'd still have to wonder whether the Post Office would actually deliver that new mailing.)

That's why I'm turning to you. I need your help.

Could you, right now, make an emergency donation to help the Advocates get through this crisis?

If just one or two people reading this message could give $5,000, that would make all the difference. (I wouldn't ask for such a large amount if the situation wasn't so serious.) If you CAN afford $5,000, now is the time it will do the most good. You can be a real hero!

If that's too much, $1,000, or $500, or $100 would be a huge help.

Even $25 or $50 will help us fight our way through this emergency.

We're in real trouble -- and we need your help. ANYTHING you give will help us to stay afloat long enough for our annual contributors to (eventually?) get the Year-End Report -- and respond in their typical generous fashion.

Again, we don't how long that will be. It could be a week. It could be two weeks. It could be a month.

But we can't wait a week, or two weeks, or a month to ask for help. We have bills that are due right now. And we don't want to curtail our important libertarian outreach and educational efforts.

We need your help, right now.

Anything you can give will be appreciated. Please click here to make a contribution:

Thank you in advance for your support. It makes me proud that the Advocates has supporters like you whom we can count on at a time like this.

                For liberty,

                Sharon Harris

                President, Advocates for Self-Government

PS: You may be wondering if the Post Office might have deliberately "lost" our Year-End Report because they don't like our libertarian ideas.

I don't think so. I think this is just a case of a government monopoly that faces no competition -- and therefore doesn't have to offer good customer service. It's just another example of WHY libertarians support the free market.

But we don't have a free market. So we're at the mercy of the Post Office.

Fortunately, we have YOU on our side. We know we can count on you. Our generous and principled supporters have never let us down. We know you won't let us down now.

Your donation at https://securecommanders.com/advocates/donations_01.asp will help us get through this emergency. Our donation page is safe and secure. You can make a donation with 100 percent confidence. Thank you!