Fundraising Principles
From Democratic GAIN Wiki
In order to best use your time, there are a few fundraising principles you need to follow. Sticking to these principles will ensure that your campaign takes advantage of all of its best fundraising opportunities, and that both your candidate and your donors are satisfied.
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[edit] Get to Know Your Candidate
Fundraising is a specialized form of marketing where you convince people to invest in your product, in this case your candidate. In order to promote your product and identify your best fundraising prospects, you need to know your candidate.
As soon as you join the campaign, schedule an interview with the candidate. A thorough interview takes at least one full day. At the completion of this interview you should have your first batch of fundraising prospects identified.
Where was the candidate born and raised? What are the candidate’s hobbies? When did the candidate get involved in politics? What are the candidate’s positions on issues such as choice, education, the environment and health care? How did the candidate choose a profession? Why is the candidate running for office?
Work with the manager to obtain research on both your candidate and opponent. If they have previously run for elected office, acquire past fundraising reports. If either is an incumbent, pay particular attention to their voting records. Larger campaigns with bigger budgets may have the resources to hire a research director. This is a tremendous asset to you as you work to identify groups of prospects.
[edit] Identify Your Prospects – Proximity
Once you have a general understanding of your candidate’s background, work with the candidate to identify groups and individuals who you will solicit. Prospective donors include family and friends, business associates, individuals who serve on government commissions or non-profit boards with the candidate, traditional Democratic donors, people who share the same ideological positions as your candidate on key issues or adversaries to your opponent. Prospects can be found in the candidate’s Rolodex, alumni directories, holiday card lists, membership lists for local charities, neighborhood associations, personal calendar, professional organizations, lists of past contributors, the directory from the candidate’s place of worship and on the Internet. Candidates often underestimate the breadth of their circle of prospective donors. Make sure the candidate asks his or her accountant, financial planner, landscaper, even their children’s orthodontist for a contribution. Incumbents who have raised money from the same group of donors in previous election cycles particularly underestimate their ongoing ability to find new groups of donors.
You have a limited amount of time to raise money, so pick the low-hanging fruit first. Prioritize your prospects based on the closeness of their relationship to the candidate, otherwise know nas their proximity to the candidate. Remember that individuals who are extremely close to the candidate, but who have limited financial resources, will often be your best contributors. Proximity to the candidate ranges from hot, where the candidate has a strong or long-term relationship with the prospect, to cold, where the prospective donor does not know the candidate at all.
While you are soliciting your hot prospects, cultivate your warm and cold prospects, making sure that they receive regular updates from the campaign, including invitations to upcoming fundraising and political events. Be as inclusive as possible so that they feel like they are part of the campaign. By the time you have finished picking the low-hanging fruit, your warm and cold prospects will be primed. It is particularly important for incumbents to continue cultivating donors on an ongoing basis.
Inevitably there will come a point on every campaign where finding new prospects seems nearly impossible. Keep in mind that as the campaign progresses the candidate continues to expand his or her universe of prospects. Review business cards that the candidate has collected while out on the campaign trail and lists of people who have attended campaign events. This is also the time to review your past contributors and identify who is ready to be resolicited.
[edit] Where to Find Prospective Donors
- Alumni directories
- Candidate’s Rolodex
- Donors to similar candidates
- Non-profit board lists
- Professional associations
- Programs from arts and cultural events
- Chamber of Commerce directories
[edit] Target Your Prospects – Prosperity
After you have gathered your prospects, research their past giving history and work with your candidate to establish the amount of money that they should give the campaign, otherwise known as the ask. By including the candidate in this process, he or she can share background information on the prospect. If you target prospects by yourself, you will inevitably find that there are interruptions during call time when the candidate disagrees with the targeted amount. When targeting, set specific Ask to Give and Ask to Raise figures. What a person can give or raise is based on their own abilities. There is no set rule.
When prioritizing the order in which to call prospects, factor in the prospect’s financial ability to make contributions, or their prosperity. Be highly sensitive that prosperity alone does not indicate that the donor will give a significant contribution. Combining the prospect’s proximity to the candidate with the prospect’s prosperity enables you to identify the order in which prospects should be called.
[edit] Select the Best Method to Solicit Prospects
After selecting your targets, select the most appropriate and efficient way to approach them. Is this prospect capable of raising a significant amount of money? Would a face-to-face meeting increase the amount of money that the prospect would consider raising? Would an invitation to an event be more appropriate? Does the individual typically make small contributions and would therefore respond to direct mail solicitations? Should the prospect be included in the call time program? Is someone other than the candidate better suited to approach the prospect?
When determining which method is the most appropriate to approach a prospective donor it is helpful to factor in the relative response rates of each method. However, you must consider how efficient a particular method is compared to another. While it would be ideal to conduct every solicitation face-to-face, if you pursued this tactic with every donor you would never be able to approach enough prospects to meet your budget.
[edit] Select the Best Message to Persuade Prospects
The message to persuade prospects, or the pitch, should be tailored to each audience. Is this a friend or family member who is committed to your candidate’s success in any endeavor? Is this a business partner who has a vested interest in your candidate’s political success? Is this a peer who serves on a government commission or a non-profit board with your candidate and respects his or her community service? Is this a traditional Democratic donor who cares about defeating Republicans and building Democratic majorities? Is this person ideologically aligned with your candidate on the issue? Is this person focused on defeating your opponent?
[edit] Elements of the Ask
The number one reason that people don’t give money is because they are not asked. Whether your candidate is asking a prospect to make a contribution face-to-face or over the phone, the elements of an ask are the same. Your candidate should:
- Establish a rapport with the prospect. The best way to establish a rapport is to determine what type of relationship the candidate has with the prospect. Briefly discuss common interests or mention the individual who suggested that you contact him or her.
- Make a compelling case for support. Frame you argument based on the candidate’s personal relationship with the donor, mutual interest in winning or shared ideology. Explain why you will win based on recent endorsements and polling and how much money you have raised-to-date. Answer any questions that the prospect has about the campaign and your positions on the issues. Explain how expensive it is to run a winning campaign and that the donor’s contribution will be used to communicate with voters. It can also be helpful if you convey to the donor that their contribution will be used to purchase specific items, such as mail, phones, radio or television.
- Establish the urgency of receiving the contribution by setting a deadline. This could be the next deadline with the Federal Election Commission or your state board of elections, a deadline to purchase mail, phones, radio or television or an internal deadline in order to meet cash flow projections.
- Ask for a specific amount. If you ask for anything except a specific dollar amount, it isn’t worth wasting the time making the call. “Can I have your support?” or “Will you make a contribution to my campaign?” isn’t good enough. Donors are often looking for the candidate to guide them toward an appropriate contribution and without a specific pledge you are unable to accurately project cash flow.
- When making a personal solicitation, after the ask pause so that the prospect can reply. Don’t talk over the prospect – he or she may be making a pledge as you speak. This can be uncomfortable and seem to last forever. A useful trick is to keep a glass of water nearby so that you can take a sip after making the ask for a brief break in the conversation.
- If the prospect says no, negotiate. Before you attempt to reduce the original amount over your ask, ask the prospect if they would be willing to satisfy their pledge over a number of payments. Then, ask the prospect to give half the original amount. If he or she is still uncommitted, ask if you can send him or her some additional information about the campaign and call them back at a later date. Pin down a specific date and time to call the prospect back.
- Once a pledge is received, say thank you and move on. Donors are busy people and continuing the conversation is like trying to win same vote twice.
- Always say thank you!
The number one reason that people don’t give money is because they aren’t asked.
[edit] Fundraising 101
- If you don’t ask, you won’t receive.
- Always ask for a specific dollar amount.
- Establish urgency by setting a deadline.
- Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize – pick the low-hanging fruit first.
- Target based on proximity (relationship between the candidate and the prospect) and prosperity (financial ability to make a contribution).
General: Fundraising | Fundraising Plan | Fundraising Principles | Fundraising Technology
Spending: Budgeting
Compliance: Overview
Techniques: Call time | Fundraising mail | PAC Fundraising | Events | Online Fundraising
