It’s another Saturday, so 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. This week, we’re talking about something that is the favorite task of all candidates: call time.
Jessica Jones, our state senate candidate, must complete many tasks in her campaign. We have talked about mail programs, media outreach, appearing in local community events and handling staff. All of these tasks have one thing in common: they require money and resources. That is why there are few tasks campaigns deal with every year that candidates enjoy more than call time.
Call time, or dialing for dollars, is pretty straight forward: pickup the phone, call a stranger, and ask for them to invest in your campaign. And, who does not enjoy doing that?
This week, we are going to talk about building a successful call-time program and sticking with it.
Before we begin, it is very important for you as a candidate to remind yourself of something about why you are asking for money. You are not asking for a personal loan, you are not asking for someone to give you money, personally, and you are not asking them to do an act of charity. When you call someone asking them to invest in your campaign, you are selling them something that they cannot get any other way, and it is not an elected office. You are giving them a shot to have their message heard, and you are offering to do that job for them.
There are a lot of Democrats who would love the idea of speaking their mind about an elected official or talking openly about the policies of a governor or state party member. The idea of going door-to-door with complete strangers? That is not as friendly as talking on Facebook with your close friends.
Still, like everyone else, Democratic Party members know that at some point, someone has to do it; they must talk to those voters and help spread the message. When you pick up the phone and you call people and ask them for money, that is what you are offering them. You are providing them a trade; I will give my time and effort in exchange for your commitment to this campaign.
If you enter your call time thinking about your campaign in this way, it is a lot easier to ask people to invest, as opposed to feeling as though you are begging for resources. Do not beg. You are offering them something special. Treat it that way.
BUILDING YOUR LIST
When you first begin to think about call time, you will be presented with several options, including lists of known donors in your area, which the party may help you with, or… nothing. Almost all candidates await “The Magic List,” a list of phone numbers they can call and receive all high-dollar donations in call after call after call.
The truth is that there is no magic list; donors will always decide on a case-by-case basis who they give money and resources to in a campaign, and how well you handle the phone call, who you are, and the nature of your race will influence that.
Candidates, as a result, should often look at a list-building exercise first. If you have run for office before, your initial donors from a prior campaign are always near the top of the list. But for Jessica Jones, who is running for office the first time, she will sit down with her address book and write down these names: family, close friends, business contacts. And those are the individuals she will contact in her very first round of fundraising.
Now, at this point in Jessica’s campaign, she has already been through most of her direct contacts, but that first list she created when she started mattered because of natural connections. Through her list of natural connections, she found business associates and friends who had different interest levels, and some who knew others who might be willing to help her campaign.
Those natural connections can be significantly valuable. In her first round of fundraising, Jessica is not concerned about just raising some money; she is also trying to establish herself as a campaign that is worthy of having other people invest.
Even if they cannot invest maximum donations all around, many campaigns feel as though the need to have close friends and family invest early. These donations are very important because it signals to the community that your family and close friends are supportive of your campaign, which is an important endorsement. In state level races, knowing that family and friends endorse you is a good way to tell other donors that you are a decent person and the people who know you best think this is a good idea. Campaigns who receive nothing from close friends or family can stand out in small campaigns, as people will wonder: why do the people who know them best not invest anything? What do we not know?
After you have gone through your initial connections, focus your list on those local to you first, regional then state. People are far more likely to give to candidates near them then candidates far away, in races they don’t think impact them.
PICKING UP THE PHONE: PROTECT YOURSELF
My earlier comments about candidates loving call time? Ok, that was an exaggeration. In general, call time is not something candidates really enjoy, but a commitment to do it with frequency makes it easier to do successfully and gives the candidate a more polished way to discuss donations with people on the phone.
Before you pick up the phone, though, there is a technical matter that you should resolve. Outside of close friends and family, you should not call for campaign donations on a personal cell phone. Make sure you have an alternative phone line setup the moment you start calling, to give people the opportunity to invest in your campaign.
You can use Google Voice, Skype, a month-by-month cell phone, or any other secondary line service, but do not use your personal cell phone or home phone. Exposing your personal information in this way to people you are calling is a good way to find your private phones always ringing, and if you are elected, it guarantees you will be changing your own phone number.
The cost of an outside voice service is cheap-to-free, so before you dial, protect yourself a bit.
CALLING NOW. DON’T PLAY LETS MAKE A DEAL
While there are tons of call-time items we could discuss, how you make an offer to a potential donor is very important. Candidates often find the temptation to start running an on-the-phone auction or bargain with potential donors.
Keep reminding yourself that you are offering the potential donor work that they are not doing themselves: the chance to spread the democratic message. When you make the initial ask, silence is your friend.
Let’s cover an exchange:
“Hello, how are you? Good. My name is Jessica Jones, I am running for state senate in your district. As you know, I am running because , and I need individuals like you to help me take the Democratic message to more voters in our district so we can prevail in the fall. Can I count on you for $200?” (or any other amount)
And… silence. Candidates often get concerned about silence. And, when that concern sits in, they haggle
Bad Jessica: “Ok, I can see that’s maybe too much, can you offer $100?” Jessica has now started to play make a deal with a donor, and as a result, the donor will just wait for her to keep negotiating herself down.
Good Jessica: waits with some silence for a while. Let the other person respond FIRST. Repeatedly, we have seen that the donor you are calling will either offer his or her own contribution amount or decide not to invest in the campaign. That is OK, because in the end that silence saves you time, by not staying on the phone with a donor who may not give, and in many cases, lets you know a donor gave the most that they could give to your campaign at that moment. If they do not give, make sure you keep track of your initial ask, and while you thank them for their time, they may still be someone you contact later in the campaign. Do not write off a potential donor, if they continue to give elsewhere.
BE CONSTISTENT
Call programs work when people work at them. Commit yourself to some time, every day, to call for funds to your campaign. There are two tasks every campaign, big and small, is required to complete: knock doors and raise money. If you are not prepared to call for funds from fellow Democrats, you are not running a campaign designed to win.
When voters monetarily invest in your campaign, even a small amount, they feel as though they have a stake in the outcome, and they will be more involved. You need as many donors of all size as you can get to spread that idea within your community organically. The only way to do that? Be consistent in your call time.
Setting up a normal routine regarding call time, an amount of time you expect to spend every day or aggregate over the course of a week is important because it keeps you in a routine that will make you far more polished in your calls.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Call time is one of those functions of a campaign that many candidates dread. The reason why candidates hate it is because asking someone for monetary support is difficult, rejection is real, and people can feel emotionally bothered when it doesn’t go well.
Remember, though, someone choosing not to donate is NOT about you as a person; people have many reasons to say no. The same reason why many people have big reasons to say yes you might not expect. If you are in a good routine, and you remember what you are offering them it is a lot easier to get a yes, and a lot easier to accept a no. If you personalize your call time and you take it as a matter of personal investment into you, call time can be demoralizing and hard to stick with.
Your donors are doing something for themselves when they give – it’s not a favor to you – and if you remind yourself of this frequently, it is much easier to pick up that phone and make the call.
Video Add On: Call Time!
NEXT WEEK: FREEBIES! In Kind Contributions and Ethics
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.