In 1960 a young clerk working for an oil company in Houston, Texas, fresh out of college and in the Army Reserve, wrote his first fundraising letter, a one-pager, for a U.S. Senate campaign. 

Little did he know that this would become his life’s work. 

In 1965, Richard A. Viguerie started his advertising agency with one employee in an office over a fraternal lodge. It didn’t take him long to discover that advertising was a rough and tumble business, as within a few weeks, he lost his only client. At the time, Richard and his wife Elaine had two small children and no other business on the horizon.  

It was during this difficult time that he made a decision never to look back and never to lose faith in the call upon his life. More business came and eventually Richard Viguerie helped change the future course for non-profit organizations for decades. Viguerie combined computer technology with the art and science of direct mail marketing, helping hundreds of causes to flourish that would not have otherwise succeeded.

Viguerie’s pioneering marketing principles are alive and well in the new digital age, funding the work of hundreds of non-profit organizations, public policy groups, magazines, colleges, and political campaigns.  And Viguerie is still providing millions of Americans a voice and an opportunity to participate in public policy debates, to contribute to non-profit charities, and to support the neediest here in the United States and around the globe. Today Richard continues to pour himself into efforts that are close to his heart—efforts that assist children, aid veterans, support seniors, shore up religious institutions and causes, and strengthen colleges and universities. It is these nearly five decades of extraordinary achievement that prompted Ray Shultz, editor of Direct magazine to assert, “Every non-profit mailer, whatever their political persuasion, owes Viguerie a debt.”