The Libertarian Alliance is the largest and most active libertarian organisation outside North America.

During the past few decades, we have published more than 800 pamphlets. Some of these have been two or four page leaflets. Some have been really substantial. Some have been topical or related to specific campaigns. Some have dealt with issues of political or economic theory. We publish around fifty new pamphlets each year. These are placed on our website, and are read by an average of 5,000 different people each day.

We also take part in around 100 hours each year of radio and television debates - mostly in the United Kingdom, but also in the United States and in various European countries. And we provide speakers on libertarian issues to other organisations, and to take part in debates. We record as much of this as we can and place it on our website.

And we hold two big conferences every year. One we hold at the National Liberal Club in London. The other is held by our sister organisation, the Libertarian International, at a location in Europe. Again, these events are recorded and made available via our website.

We do all of this on a budget that would probably not cover tea and biscuits at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Our biggest expenses are the rent on our London maildrop and our Internet bills. The various Officers of the Libertarian Alliance are lavish with their time, and take hardly a penny in expenses. If one of us attends a conference, for example, he pays for his own transport and accommodation. The subject of reimbursement never comes up, because we all know the money is not there.

We receive no funding from America. We receive nothing from big business. The Americans are more interested in buying up policy institutes in places like Bulgaria and the Ukraine than in the homeland of liberal thought. Big business wants a stable of writers who can be trusted to write fluently about the need to protect or enlarge its state-given advantages. We rely wholly on individual donations and subscriptions.

Now, I am not saying that if you refuse to hand over a penny we will close down the Libertarian Alliance and take the website off-line. Everyone needs a mission to be happy - or, at least, moderately sane - and the Libertarian Alliance is ours. But there is a limit to what we can do. Our President and Director both have young daughters. Our Blogmaster has two sons. Our Listmaster and Editorial Director both have other family commitments. We all have to earn a living.

We do what we do, and will continue doing this. But there is so much more that we could do, if only the funding was there - funding to buy time other than our own, or to allow us to set aside a few hours extra a week from our various jobs.

Among much else, we would like:

• To prepare html versions of all Libertarian Alliance pamphlets. At the moment, these are mostly in pdf. Conversions take the sort of time that none of us can reasonably spare, and that we have no money to buy.
• To start publishing again in hard copy. We gave up on this at the end of the 20th century. Costs were just too high, given our budget, and the Internet had provided another medium. Even so, there are many occasions when a table covered with a selection of our pamphlets can have an effect far greater than the cost - especially if on gloss paper with a splash of colour.
• To republish the best of our output as books. Though many say the book is dead, it is not. It is easier to read than a computer screen, and more durable than a photocopied pamphlet. It also brings much greater prestige. The more printed books an organisation is able to set out on a table, the more seriously it will be taken. The books float around for years and years. They turn up on the second hand market and in university libraries. We have the content. In the Hampden Press, we have a publisher. All we lack is the money to pay printing bills and for the time-consuming work of formatting and proof-reading.
• To increase the number and range of our publications. In particular, we want to start paying our writers. A hundred pounds or dollars can make all the difference between a good pamphlet that gets discussed all over the Internet and the unrealised thought of one.
• To travel round the country, putting the libertarian case at schools and sixth form colleges. Organisations like Civitas already do this. They provide dozens of speakers every year for school debates on leaving the European Union. All state schools in the United Kingdom are required by law to balance their outside political discussion.  For this reason alone, Libertarian Alliance speakers could easily book themselves five years ahead. Again, we lack the funding to cover travel and other expenses.

Now, just as I am not threatening to close us down if you ignore this appeal, I make no promises of success if you do click on the appropriate buttons. Before they can get better, things in this country will probably grow much worse. Indeed, some of us think they will never get better. But the future is always a surprise. Our strategy of slow attrition may begin to show success. More excitingly, there may come a moment of opportunity. I think often of the Institute of Economic Affairs. This operated all through the 1960s variously ignored and despised by the Establishment. Then, in 1975, the Keynesian model suddenly collapsed, and the politicians had to go looking for different answers. The Thatcher Interlude was due largely to the fact that, when these questions were asked, there was in Lord North Street a group of liberal intellectuals to give the right answers, with a substantial body of published writing, and with contacts throughout the wider movement.

Your contributions, let us be honest, will do nothing in the short term to preserve liberty and property in this country. But it is better to prepare for a moment that never comes than to do nothing and then miss one that does come.

Of course, you may not be a libertarian. You may think we are mad and dangerous. You may worship Mr Cameron - or whoever else is leading the Conservative Party when you read this. You may think Civitas or Policy Exchange are more sensible operations than the Libertarian Alliance. You are welcome to your belief. I would only suggest that these other persons and bodies are regarded as moderate, and therefore as potentially sensible, largely because the Libertarian Alliance exists to trace out, and to shout loudly from, the extreme fringes of political debate. Take us away, and some presently very worthy persons start to look "extreme"!

If you are a rich businessman, do not suppose we can be bought to join in some chorus of support for your corporatist privileges. Ask that, and we will throw any money you may push at us straight back in your face. Do bear in mind, however, that we provide the most uncompromising defence in this country of the values that legitimise whatever small share of your profits are not based on return favours from the government.

So give us some money, and bask in our worship and in the thought of a job well done. Indeed, if you sign up for a regular donation, and live anywhere close to Central London, you can look forward to invitations to our monthly top-secret dining club. The requires possession of a respectable suit and a constitution hardened by years of indulgence. Because the club is secret, I cannot say more. Subscribe and find out for yourself.

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