This is an exact quote from an email I recently received from an incumbent Democratic senator running in what is considered a vulnerable seat: “I'm running a true grassroots campaign fully powered by $250 and $500 donations from folks like you.”
WTF? How can anyone write that with a straight face? Whose idea of a “true grassroots campaign” involves donations of $250 at a minimum and maybe even more?*
An earlier email from the same campaign stated: “He's counting on grassroots supporters like you, friend, chipping in just $250 and $500 to power us to victory.” (One of today’s emails continued the same theme, stating that: “I’m counting on folks like you to chip in $250 or $500 at a time. . . .”)
Again, WTF? Do all of his “grassroots supporters” feel that a donation of several hundred dollars is a mere “chip,” an insignificant amount akin to pocket change, because, after all, it’s “just” what a minimum-wage worker would only have to take over four days of labor to earn?
Emails like these are not at all consistent with a true grassroots campaign, and I do not believe that they are sent to most previous and potential donors. I do, however, think I know why they keep coming to me.
Last quarter, I made a donation of $400 to this campaign. I think this resulted in me being placed on a special “cash cow” list. Some highly-paid consultant (for whom $250 might really be just a chip) said people on this list should be treated differently. “Ask big. Forget your pretensions of running a grassroots campaign. Go after the money with all you’ve got. Ask big.”
Well, it doesn’t work. I do not like being treated like a cash cow and thus I find solicitations like this incredibly insulting. They do motivate me — to redirect my donations to other worthy candidates who do not use the same approach. This candidate is not the only vulnerable Democratic incumbent, and he certainly isn’t the only Democratic candidate who needs money. The others may view me as a cash cow too, but at least they aren’t so blatant about it.
Please spare me the lectures about how “Dems need to raise a lot of money in order to compete with donations from GOP billionaires.” I am fully aware of that and I do what I can (see reference to previous $400 donation above). The issue isn’t whether a Dem candidate should try to raise money but rather how they should go about it.
I believe all donors should be treated as valued partners, not merely as money pots to be emptied as quicky and as thoroughly as possible. We are more than credit card accounts; we are real people with real budgets and real expenses, and campaigns should acknowledge that. The ones that do will be the ones that get my money going forward.
So how about you? Have you ever found yourself on a “cash cow” list? And just as important (asking for a friend) have you found a way to get off of it?
* The postal mail solicitations from this same campaign start by asking for $500 and have boxes that go up from there; $250 isn’t even mentioned though they do (probably grudgingly) include a box for “other amount.”