Welcome back, Saturday Campaign D-I-Y’ers! For those who tune in, welcome to the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic campaign. Each week, we discuss issues that help drive successful campaigns. If you’ve missed prior diaries, please visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide.
Every couple of months I revisit fundraising. Not because fundraising is fun, or that it is the most important element, but because successful fundraising helps lay the groundwork for successful campaigns. As we enter into an off year, many Democratic organizations and candidates really struggle to keep bringing in funds to grow their campaign accounts. While federal off years are a lull in fundraising, they are still years where significant expenses are incurred by the organizations themselves.
So, how do you develop an off year fundraising plan that keeps the doors open and gives you the best opportunities going forward?
County, State and even political organizations have continuous expenses. Even when there are no elections ongoing, salaries have to be paid, research has to be done, and outreach has to happen. In many ways, off year periods of cycles are the most important for a party, as it represents the one time where you can get out and recruit candidates and start training candidates on how to run. To make all of that possible, you have to build effective fundraising.
Developing a capital campaign.
When you hear the terms capital campaign, most people are talking about fundraising to buy a building, expand a non-for-profit or acquire a significant asset. While political organizations do that in some cases, their ongoing efforts require the exact same skills that go into a traditional capital campaign.
In order to make your capital campaign work, you first need to clearly establish who is responsible for leading and directing it. Off year fundraising campaigns that are just thrown out there without a point person or a plan rarely succeed. If you have a single person, or a team of individuals, who spearhead your fundraising effort you can make sure that the effort stays on task and actually raises money. This encourages people to feel as though they have bought in from the beginning, and they feel a commitment to the outcome. Randomly generated email or hastily thrown together events can cost you in time, frustration, and resources.
Capital campaigns are best when they follow some specific guidelines:
- Announce a specific purpose to the funds being raised.
- Have a specific and reasonable fundraising target
- Have specific timeframes.
- Make sure you have “rewards” developed to recognize significant donors.
- Have a rewards program for recurring donors.
Time for SWOT.
The period between elections and the next legislative cycle is the ideal time to do an internal SWOT. SWOT is simple: it is a study that reflects your Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Political entities have a tendency to think of election post-mortems or candidate recruitment as SWOT. They are wrong.
For a political organization, SWOT is about assessing the internal strengths & weaknesses of an organization beyond just recruiting, but also developing an understanding of the basic needs to succeed. Is the organization spending too much on failed digital work, or too little on an electronic campaign? Maybe you have employees who are underutilized or those who are working too much. SWOT is about both the big picture and the real small-ball needed to run an organization.
Strong SWOT work can give you a real starting point as to how much money you actually need to raise, and how to be really effective with what you raise. It also makes others in your organization and beyond recognize that when you are asking for funds, you aren’t doing so because you picked a number out of the air, but because you have studied how much you need.
Multiple Phases of a Capital Campaign
In the first few jobs I had in the real world, I worked with non-profits who needed to raise money. As a result, I spent a lot of time around people who dealt with Raiser’s Edge and other tools designed to help them build and sustain their organization. One of the most important things I learned was that a successful campaign to raise revenue isn’t only one thing. Instead, it requires a truly multi-pronged approach.
Your state or county party will likely have at least one, and maybe more, state meetings that act as a major fundraiser. Whether it is a dinner, a gala or a weekend retreat, most state and county parties build in one or more major events into their fundraising plan.
Instead of thinking of these events as their own entity, if you think of them as another phase of your overall capital campaign, your organization can better plan for success.
The first phase of most non-profit capital campaigns is an ongoing effort for political organizations. Significant donors and organizations are the individuals who are a party or organization’s quiet campaign. There is not a day that goes by where your party chair, county chair or elected official will not be calling or contacting potential interested parties about whether they are willing to help commit to your goals. Having a strong SWOT gives you something to talk to them about. Too often, we have focused on threats—think “We’re DOOMED!” email. Instead, most capital campaigns that succeed are build around understanding the threat but promoting the O, opportunities.
Your ongoing donations representing another phase, and events yet another. If you plan this way, with major donors as a phase one approach, events as a phase two approach, and ongoing fundraising as your phase three, you can keep track of different revenue streams with their own goals and targets and be better prepared to succeed.
Recurring donors are your life blood.
It is easy to get entirely focused on major donors. Or to hope people give one time. But recurring donors are the lifeblood of any organization. Because all organizations have monthly expenses, a campaign that is built on small, repeatable donations can make sure your base costs are covered and that the party remains healthy. The more individuals who can contribute $5 a month, or $10 a month, the better the health of your organization.
So, how do you build that kind of effort? The easiest way is to make people who commit to help support your efforts see something tangible come out of their donations. That means that they should receive updates on the way the funds they are donating are being used.
In nonprofit construction projects, even someone who donates $20 receives an email or a notice with pictures and a look at the building or project being completed. Recurring donors to a political organization who receive updates about what is going on are more likely to feel as though their commitment to the organization is worth it. Sending out an email newsletter is pretty straightforward. Remember, though, don’t just talk about the threat, talk to your donors about the opportunities as well. Presenting donors with both the problems and possibilities makes them feel more invested and less badgered.
Finally: Acknowledgement. Big & Small.
Major capital campaigns often provide major acknowledgment for significant donors. A building named after them, a plaque on the wall, a scholarship named after them, or any other way to recognize their input. Universities and nonprofits for years have utilized this method for generations.
Small donors to a political party are often the same individuals who will work to help elect your candidates. You can’t acknowledge every donor every month—but if you want to look at groups who have done so successfully, look at creative efforts put forward on KickStarter. I often pop in my copy of certain Kickstarter films just so I can catch my name or my wife’s name in the credits scroll by in a giant, long block. It isn’t much, but it makes me feel pretty proud to be part of the effort. Political parties can take a page from that same book.
Whether it is a long scroll at your yearly banquet, a small lapel pin so they can be identified at party functions or any other token that makes them feel as though they are recognized for their effort, make people feel as though they are recognized for their monetary sacrifice.
Next week on Nuts & Bolts: Press Relationships
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Nuts & Bolts: Building Democratic Campaigns
Contact the Daily Kos group Nuts and Bolts by kosmail (members of Daily Kos only).
Every Saturday this group will chronicle the ins and outs of campaigns, small and large. Issues to be covered: Campaign Staffing, Fundraising, Canvass, Field Work, Data Services, Earned Media, Spending and Budget Practices, How to Keep Your Mental Health, and on the last Saturday of the month: “Don’t Do This!” a diary on how you can learn from the mistakes of campaigns in the past.
You can follow prior installments in this series HERE.