Welcome back, Saturday Campaign D-I-Yers! 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.
We’re going back to a topic that has come up several times on Nuts & Bolts, because it is one of the questions that comes up most frequently from readers: How do you handle donors? This is a tough issue for many because there are a lot of misunderstandings about how to handle and treat donors to campaigns and political organizations, and several of those misunderstandings can harm your candidate or organization.
We covered a large amount of this topic previously, in Nuts & Bolts: Care and feeding of donors. Now, though, I want to talk about relationship-building.
Individual donors, big and small, who invest in your campaign do so for a lot of different reasons. But always among the reasons is that they believe in the kind of things you will do in your elected position. Some of your first donors to any campaign are friends and family. Why? Because they have a relationship with you, and not all of it is political.
If you are an elected official running for re-election, or if you are an official who has run for office in many different races over the years, you also build up these relationships of individuals you can call or solicit for donations. And despite the common perception, a large number of these donations aren’t based on the feeling they can “get” something from you, but based far more on the friendship and relationship you build with them.
Individual donors live real lives. In the real world.
Three weeks ago, a reader of Nuts & Bolts sent me a short email regarding a candidate who had received donations for years from a local resident in her early runs for office. She ran for several races, and always, her friends would support her. The common thread in the email was that no matter the race, she spoke to them regularly, not just to solicit money. While I get a lot of emails about candidates and elected officials, some emails about positive relationships with candidates stand out as great examples of donor relations.
These relationships with your donors establish a reason why they WANT to give to you, beyond stopping a Republican in the race. Just like with voting, people who donate to your campaign want a positive reason to get involved, and a purely negative “stop the Republican” message is often half or less of the reason for a donor to invest in your race.
Individual donors give to your campaign in part based on the relationships they have built over the years with candidates.
If you’ve read the prior diary on this topic, you’ve read this section verbatim. Why re-run it again? Because it is one of the most important elements of fundraising.
Donors deserve respect. Things you should avoid:
While most campaigns make an effort to treat donors quite well, it seems as though every cycle I hear at least one story of campaigns that make little effort to acknowledge, reward, or show support for their donors. In some cases, that goes one step further, with campaigns that seemingly go out of their way to alienate mid-size and large donors.
This doesn’t mean agreeing with them on every issue. However, treating donors poorly is a strategy for long-term failure. Donors aren’t entitled to over-the-top benefits, but they should feel as though they are part of an organization that welcomes them.
Donors who give significantly aren’t always wealthy; they may just be Democratic party members who are very concerned and want to see something change. These donors like to feel as though their involvement is worth it.
If you check through most campaign finance reports, you’ll see a few people who may ask for their donations, big and small, back. This can be due to a lot of factors, but often it is that a donor feels personally disrespected or that the candidate wasn’t where the donor thought they were on the issues. While candidates aren’t going to change who they are on the issues, they can make sure donors know they are appreciated.
With these things in mind, avoid these moves:
- Do not ever dismiss, attack, or defame a major donor in public. Unless you are prepared to hand them back a check, attacking a donor in public is something you should definitely avoid.
- Avoid inequitable treatment. Imagine if a campaign said: “all max donors get a personal letter and a lapel pin,” but then some donors who met that receive neither. Inequitable recognition will cause that donor to not give to you again. They will be left with two thoughts: either the campaign doesn’t like them or their money, or the campaign can’t competently handle donor maintenance. Neither of these are good for the campaign.
- Keep private conversations private. Donors who give more often get a chance to speak to a candidate more often—because they attend more fundraisers or know each other. They also like to know what is going on with the campaign, and appreciate a follow up on their donation from their side of the table. Even if a donor asks about items that you aren’t prepared to give them, don’t use your private conversations against a donor. They will remember, and it will not help you later.
Be kind.
Donors live their own lives and have a lot of things they could put their money toward. They could pay bills, spend it on a gadget for their house, save for a vacation, or give to a charity or their church. They have chosen to give some of their money to you for your use in a campaign.
Whether it is $10 or $500, never forget that donors made a choice to put money into your campaign, and they sacrificed something else they could do with their money. It doesn’t matter the amount someone gives to your campaign: respect them with kindness. They chose to put their faith in your campaign.
I’m always baffled this needs to be said, but every year donors let me know they ran into a campaign that dismissed them, didn’t thank them, or became huffy that a donor “didn’t give more”. Treat people, and donors, the way you would want to be treated.
Next week on Nuts & Bolts: The failure of keyboard campaigns.