About — Scout Lunar

§01 · The firm

Scout Lunar is an advisory firm for Democratic donors who believe their political giving deserves a plan — and that a plan deserves a partner. We design and execute giving portfolios for families at the six- and seven-figure level, and for the family offices who serve them.

Our work is narrow and deep: Democratic political giving, placed with discipline, reported back cycle over cycle. That is the whole of the practice.

§02 · Why we exist

The arithmetic of a race lost by six-tenths of a percent.

Scout Lunar's founder was in Iowa for John Kerry in 2003 and 2004 — first the caucuses, then the general. Kerry lost Iowa that November by a margin close to six-tenths of a percent. Dollars that had meant to be given and had not, and dollars that had been given in places they could not matter, were the difference between a margin that was closable and a margin that closed.

The arithmetic of that race is the foundation of this firm. Democratic capital is enormous. Democratic capital, placed without discipline, is squandered. Scout Lunar exists so that does not keep happening.

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§03 · The founder

Justin Buell

Justin Buell founded Scout Lunar in 2021, in succession to two earlier practices. From 2009 to 2015 he ran Buell Private Political Management, advising seven American families on political giving — including the Chouinard family of Patagonia — and organizing events for President Obama in three of those families' homes during the Obama presidency. He later served as Development Director in Tom Steyer's office, raising capital across the country for Steyer's climate initiative.

His political work began earlier, in Iowa, where he worked the Kerry caucuses and general election in 2003 and 2004. Across three successive practices, Justin has placed more than $38 million of Democratic capital on behalf of clients, across eleven election cycles dating to 2004 — with a sabbatical in 2016. He lives in California, and he answers every inquiry to the firm personally.

§04 · Our commitments

Four commitments, made in writing and kept in practice.

Democratic alignment.

Scout Lunar serves Democratic donors. We work across the tent — progressive to institutionalist — and we serve the client's convictions, not our own preferences within them.

ii.

Discretion.

Client names are private. Giving amounts are private. Political preferences within the party are private. Our practice depends on the trust that produces.

iii.

Rigor.

Every dollar placed for a reason. Every race chosen deliberately. Every outcome named, and not hidden. The Scout Lunar Method is how we hold ourselves to this.

iv.

Independence.

We do not fundraise for campaigns. We do not sell donor data. We do not take candidate referral fees. We are paid by our clients, and we answer to them.

§05 · Intellectual property

The Scout Lunar Method — Patent Pending.

The intelligence methodology at the foundation of every engagement is proprietary and patent pending — including a fuzzy-matching algorithm that produces, in our experience, the most comprehensive cross-source donor analysis our practice has ever put in front of a client. We do not describe what the patent covers. We hold ourselves to it in private.

Where wealth meets purpose.^™

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