What is the payout of your investment? Below, you’ll find a compilation of various program costs, concretizing how the dollars you send to ARI are invested. Beyond these specific returns on your investments, there is a less tangible, but profoundly important payout: Your investment secures the very existence of such an organization as the Ayn Rand Institute—a functioning, publicly visible “center for the advancement of Objectivism”, fighting for reason and individualism. For me, that’s a good buy; I hope it is for you too.

$35 pays for:

• One week of a telephone scholarship for an OAC student to attend class via teleconferencing, or
• Printing and mailing Fountainhead/Anthem essay contest announcements to 96 high school teachers and administrators, or
• Sending videotapes of ARI media appearances to three TV talk-show producers and booking agents, or
• Mailing three videotaped lectures and study/discussion material to a college club for showing on campus, or
• Translation from Russian to English of one page of the many letters to Ayn Rand from her family.

$100 pays for:

• A one-on-one tutorial session with an OAC student and a faculty members, or
• Initial, semi-final, and final judging by Objectivist graders of 64 Anthem essays submitted by high school freshmen and sophomores, or
• The purchase of one database of top radio talk-show booking agents and contacts, or
• Printing and mailing “club-start” materials to 22 college students interested in starting campus Objectivist clubs.

$500 pays for:

• One month’s use of a teleconferencing system with a capacity of 100 OAC students, or
• Printing and mailing 400 follow-up packages to essay contest entrants, inviting them to send for more information about Ayn Rand and Objectivism, or
• Distributing one op-ed or press release to 21,000 major newspaper and magazine editors, or
• Printing and mailing 1,000 copies of Ayn Rand’s “Philosophy: Who Needs It” to student clubs for distribution on university campuses.

$1,000 pays for:

• The purchase and shipping of 350 copies of Ayn Rand’s nonfiction works offered free to university professors, or
• Printing and mailing of 890 teachers’ kits for Anthem and The Fountainhead to schools across the United States, or
• Eleven thousand posters to be posted on each of ten major university campuses, announcing public talks by members of ARI’s speakers bureau, or
• Obtaining 1,500 microfilm pages of Ayn Rand-related historic documents from a museum or library.

$5,000 pays for:

• An academic grant for an Objectivist intellectual working on a scholarly paper featuring Ayn Rand, or
• Sending 425 marketing kits to schools and teachers to promote the teaching of Ayn Rand in high school curriculums, or
• First prize in the annual Anthem essay contest for high school students, or
• Four lectures at major universities by an ARI speaker, including travel and security.

$10,000 pays for:

• An academic grant for an Objectivist graduate student finishing a Ph.D., or
• Nine advertisements in educational and teen magazines promoting the high school essay contests, or
• First prize in the annual Fountainhead essay contest for high school students, or
• Writing, editing and production of six op-eds for media distribution.