House Parties for Just Health Care

Winning national health insurance will take a sustained education and action program and will cost a great deal of money. Raising funds through house parties is a critical part of building a movement that can make Just Health Care a reality.

The following three components are essential for a successful house party: 1) a committed host (or hosts) with a list of 75 to 100 possible attendees; 2) follow up phone calls; and 3) an effective program that educates and encourages further participation.

First, you need to send out 75 to 100 invitations to get 20 to 40 people to attend your party. If possible, recruit a co-host for your party. This will cut down on the work you have to do, and it will be a lot more fun. Next, the hosts must call personally all the people invited to encourage them to attend. And finally, plan an informative program that secures a commitment from others to make a financial contribution and to participate in the Just Health Care campaign.

We are asking that you set a minimum fundraising goal for your party. Whether it is $500 or $10,000, it is important to set a goal and try to reach it. We recommend that the minimum goal for any house party be $500.

If you follow these steps, and use your own ingenuity, we know from experience you can reach your goal. Twenty people each contributing $25 will raise $500!

Planning a Successful House Party
Time Line And Checklist

Four Weeks before the House Party

• Find a co-host.
• Set a date, time and location for the house party.
• Schedule a speaker if necessary and depending on availability.
• Prepare a guest list – generally, you need to send out 75 to 100 invitations to get 20 to 40 people to attend.

Three Weeks before the House Party

• Mail the invitations.

Two Weeks before the House Party

• Call everyone on your guest list.

The Week of the House Party

• Call anyone on your list you have not been able to contact. Make reminder calls to people who sounded uncertain. Request that they be on time.
• Put together any refreshments, serving items, and extra chairs you'll need.

The Day of the House Party

• Set out a sign-in sheet, money basket, name tags (optional) and Just Health Care campaign materials.
• Set out refreshments, arrange chairs, set up your VCR with the video tape.

After the House Party

• Mail the contributions to the Labor Party.
• Make follow-up phone calls to invited guests who did not attend to ask for a contribution.

What is a House Party?
House parties are the political equivalent of a Tupperware party. You invite your neighbors, friends and co-workers to your home to pitch national health insurance instead of plastic. The goals are to provide in-depth information to 20 to 40 people via a speaker and a question and answer session, to identify others interested in volunteering (at least one commitment to hold another house party should be secured) and, of course, to raise money.

The best time of day to hold a house party is the time when your guests are willing and able to attend. A typical house party is scheduled for two hours; this allows enough time for both the program and for socializing. Some ideas include Sunday brunch, afternoon coffee and dessert, wine or beer tasting, or evening reception.

Responsibilities of the Host
The host is an essential key to a successful house party. Your pledge as a host is to try to raise at least $500 for Just Health Care. Evaluate your situation carefully before you make a commitment. If you can't pull it off alone, team up with another host to pool your resources.

Location: As a host, you provide your home as a meeting place or secure a union hall, community center or other suitable meeting place. Use a meeting room at work and invite your co-workers, if that's an option.

List and invitations: Make a list of your friends, family, acquaintances and co-workers – you'll need to mail or email 75 to 100 invitations to ensure that enough people attend.

Schedule a speaker: You'll need to make the Just Health Care presentation yourself or invite a speaker.

Refreshments: What you decide to serve depends on your budget and does not need to be extravagant. If you need help, ask a few of your friends to bring a dish or supplies such as cups and napkins. Or contact a favorite restaurant or deli to ask for a donation for the event (offer to give them credit at the party).

Who to Invite
To create your invitation list, go through your address book or Rolodex, holiday card list, email address book and encourage others to bring their partners and friends as well. Remember that you want to invite people who will be willing and able to make a financial contribution to Just Health Care.

Use the following list to help you create your invitation list:

• Family members
• Current and former co-workers
• Union members
• Friends
• Neighbors and block association volunteers
• Parents of your children's friends and classmates
• Doctor, dentist, pharmacist, chiropractor, etc.
• People you know from your religious or recreational activities such as the choir, a reading group, gym, etc.

Speakers
Ideally, you'll find an experienced health care reform advocate who can explain our current health care system, national health insurance, the Canadian health care system and the Just Health Care financing plan and campaign. However, because personal experiences are so effective in generating interest and enthusiasm, you might choose a speaker who can address one aspect of the health care crisis such as:

• a nurse or doctor who can explain the difficulty of practicing good medicine in a profit-driven system and how it impacts their patients;an individual who has personal experience with the health care system such as a catastrophic or chronic illness;
• union representative who can speak to rising health care costs and its impact at the bargaining table; or
• an individual who has visited or lived in a country with national health insurance and can compare experiences with the United States.

Since paying travel expenses for a speaker would defeat the purpose of a fundraiser, try to find a local speaker. The Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), which has a speakers bureau and members and chapters across the country, and the California Nurses Association (CNA) are great sources for knowledgeable speakers.

PNHP speakers are listed (many with contact information) on their web site www.pnhp.org or you may contact their office: tel. 312 554-0382; fax (312) 554-0383 or e-mail: pnhp@aol.com. In California, contact the CNA (telephone: 510 273-2255).

If you are confident enough to go it alone, you might want to begin the presentation with a video such as "Canada's Single Payer Health System: A Model for Reform" and prepare talking points to start a discussion after the screening (see Sample Agenda below).

Follow-up Calls
Follow-up calls are the most critical factor in the success of any house party. Two weeks before your house party, start calling each person on your list. Even if you ask people to RSVP, only a small number of people will call you first. Divide the calls with your co-host and spread the calls over several evenings.

Keep track of your calls and responses. It will help with follow-up after the party. If you mail 75 to 100 invitations and make follow-up calls to every one, you will have 20 to 40 people at your house party.

Encourage those who cannot attend the party to make a contribution. Send them the Just Health Care campaign materials and call again after the house party.

Sample Agenda For a House Party
During the first 20-30 minutes, guests will continue to arrive. As the guests come in they should sign in and pick up informational materials. People can also start on the refreshments while they're waiting for the program to begin. You might want to provide name tags for guests if they don't know one another.

I. Introduction: 2 to 5 minutes
Introduce yourself and thank your guests for attending. Let them know why you decided to host a house party for Just Health Care and briefly outline the agenda for the party.

II. Video: 17 minutes (optional)
The video "Canada's Single Payer Health System: A Model for Reform," introduced by Senator Paul Wellstone, debunks many of the common myths about the Canadian health care system by interviewing Canadian health care consumers and providers. It is a good starting point for discussion. Produced in 1994 by Off Center Video, the statistics on the number of uninsured Americans are out of date, but even that makes our point well. Copies are available for a suggested contribution of $15 from Off Center Video, 1300 A Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709, telephone: 510 486-8010.

III. Presentation: 20 minutes
You, or the speaker, should cover the following points: 1) why our health care system is in crisis, 2) what is national health insurance; and 3) Just Health Care financing plan and campaign. Ask your speaker for biographical information so that you can say a few words about his or her background.

IV. Question and answer: 15 minutes
Prepare a question for your speaker or ask a friend to have a question ready for you. Other guests will ask questions once someone else gets things started. If you or your speaker cannot answer a question, tell your guest that you will try to find out. We are all still learning about this complex issue.

V. The Pitch: 5 minutes for presentation and 5 minutes to collect contributions
The host gives a five-minute appeal for money, explaining how the money will be used and the activities of the local area's campaign. The host then asks people to take out their checkbooks and make a contribution on the spot. Also ask for a commitment to host a house party and for volunteers for any other local campaign activities.

VI. Adjournment: People can mingle, ask further questions of you or of the speaker and enjoy the refreshments.

Tips on Asking for Money
The host is the most effective person to ask for money and to personally collect the contributions, since the people at this party know you in one way or another. Since the guests are there because of you, they will not want to let you down.

Before people give money, they want to know where their contribution is going and how it will be used. You can tell your guests that the Labor Party is a non-profit organization that has national health insurance as one of its principal goals. Contributions go to pay for materials, to hold educational workshops and run ballot initiatives.

Tell your guests your goal for the evening – $500, $1,000, $5,000 or more – and that you need their help to reach it. Tell them that you know they don't want to live in a country where people hold bake sales to raise money for cancer treatment. Refer to local health care issues that have been in the news recently or that you know are of interest to your audience. Ask for a specific minimum contribution and challenge people to give more than they expected to give.

Before the party, ask a friend who is planning to give a big contribution to announce, "Here's my check for $250," and put it in the basket. Give your guests a few minutes of silence to write their checks and pass around the basket.

Contributions to the Labor Party are not tax-deductible. However, the Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute (DJDI), the cultural and educational arm of the Labor Party, is a nonprofit organization to which contributions are tax deductible. DJDI supports the educational projects of the Just Health Care campaign. If guests wish to make a tax-deductible gift, ask them to make checks payable to Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute.

Asking for Volunteers
In addition to asking for a financial contribution, make sure to have very specific tasks to assign to volunteers, such as:

• hosting or co-hosting a house party
• going door-to-door in their neighborhood for the Committee of a Million (have several outings scheduled and ask for specific commitments to those dates)
• participating in other local campaign events

Follow-up Organizing After Your House Party
Congratulations on a successful house party! Immediately after the party, go through the checks and make sure each one has a corresponding form filled out and that the amount checked on the form equals the amount on the check. If a check is not made out correctly or is not signed, call the person back right away and have them send you a new check.

Review the sign-in sheet and call anyone who did not attend and ask for a contribution. Follow up with each person who volunteered for a specific activity to remind them of their commitment.

The next day, send the contributions and corresponding forms to the Labor Party. All money collected must be sent to the Labor Party's national office. Please do not send cash in the mail. Make out a personal check or purchase a money order instead. Include comments and suggestions for future house parties if you wish.

The Labor Party will send a thank you letter to each contributor, which serves as a record of their contribution, and add their names to the Committee of a Million database.