Political Fundraising on Easter Sunday? Ugh.

Have you ever found your festive mood dampened by an unexpected email from a political campaign begging for cash? Join us as we unravel the tension between celebration and solicitation, spotlighting the often jarring misstep of political fundraising during holidays like Easter. We're peeling back the layers on why these pleas for donations land with such a thud during moments meant for reflection or joy. With insights from a keen Washington Post analysis, we delve into the wider repercussions of this relentless chase for funds and dissect the unrealistic expectations candidates hold about small-dollar contributions. It's a candid conversation grounded in shared experiences and bolstered by expert commentary that promises to shift your perspective on the electoral money machine.

Prepare for an eye-opening discussion on political fundraising strategies, where the art of the ask ranges from the innovative to the invasive. We recount stories of organizational triumphs through distinct email designs that break through the noise and contrast them with the ineffective desperation that floods so many of our inboxes. Moreover, we explore the strategic pivot from generic money grabs to personal, update-centric emails and the importance of tact and originality, particularly during significant cultural and religious times. Through these tales and tactics, we reveal the secret sauce to resonating with an electorate that's grown tired of being treated as mere ATMs, offering a blueprint for campaign communications that genuinely engage rather than estrange.

Learn more about the Keystone Reckoning Project at www.keystonereckoning.com

Chapters

• 0:30 Political Fundraising Timing and Strategies
• 12:59 Campaign Fundraising Strategy and Tactics

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:31

Just like Jesus made his comeback on the third day, we've got a comeback of our own to make. That's right. We're up against an end-of-quarter fundraising deadline and we desperately need your help. Gross, this is Jesse White. Welcome to the Keystone Reckoning Podcast for April 2nd 2024.

Speaker 1: 0:51

Sorry, we took a couple days off for Easter and apparently we were the only ones that did, because what we're going to talk about today is campaign fundraising by candidates at perhaps inopportune times. In this case, we're going to talk about fundraising by candidates on Easter Sunday. I don't know about anybody else, but I got multiple emails and texts from campaigns that I've never even donated to, by the way, and I think that's an important distinction looking for money, because Sunday at midnight was the end of quarter deadline for fundraising. So let's take a step back and talk about the components of this and talk about the components of this. First of all and I want to make this abundantly clear nobody gives a damn about your end of quarter fundraising deadline. Campaign people and politically astute people know that it's kind of an artificial deadline. Yeah, it's great to be able to show you've raised more money on your campaign finance report, but it's not like something bad is going to happen if you don't meet your deadline. It's not like your campaign's going to fold if you don't get my $4.

Speaker 1: 2:07

It reeks of desperation and insincerity and it's just ridiculous For non-political people that just casually get these messages. They don't understand what that means and they just don't care. And they really don't care when they're getting hit up for money from you on a holiday or for the 17th time in 10 days, because the other thing that's great is these things these emails and texts have such a message of desperation. I don't know to me if I'm talking about a deadline, and I mentioned it seven times over seven weeks. It doesn't feel like that big of a deadline anymore. Right, it's. You know, if there was one deadline and you're like look, this is our deadline, we have to meet it, okay that I get that, but I read these and I know what the deadlines are, so I know that a lot of the campaigns are just kind of making it up. You, you know they can say whatever they want, but it's very disingenuous. So I got emails, I got texts. We were at Easter dinner. My father in law got at least one text asking for money from somebody else and everybody just kind of rolled their eyes and complained. Quite frankly, nobody was impressed and to me it's a good example of campaigns just being totally and completely tone deaf.

Speaker 1: 3:41

And this is something that as a consultant and you know when someone who's run campaigns, it's something you have to really bring candidates to terms with, which is, you know, unless you're running for president, nobody cares about, is thinking about your campaign as much as you, right, you know, we're three weeks out today from the Democratic primary here in Pennsylvania or Republican primary. We're three weeks out from the primary election. So, yeah, if you're a candidate, if you're a staffer, whatever, yes, that is all you were doing right now and all you were thinking about, and it's all you've been thinking about for a while, and that's good. That's the way it's supposed to work. But we tend to get tunnel vision and then we don't realize that most of the people around us, they're just out living their lives on a day-to-day basis and worry about getting the kids to baseball practice and getting to the grocery store and all the things that you do in daily life. They just don't, they're just not thinking about it that much it's. I mean, look at the numbers. It's a miracle we can get them to think and come out and vote, let alone worry about all of the machinery and the maneuvers behind every little campaign on the ballot. It just doesn't work that way and I found that candidates that don't get that are usually very disappointed and often bewildered on election night because they don't get that. They are disproportionately engaged in their campaign and most people aren't. So I think that lends to some of it.

Speaker 1: 5:12

I think the other part of it is a lot of fundraising firms and consultants. You know they're not innocent in this and for a variety of reasons, and there's a great article in the Washington Post yesterday about. It's called how Republicans Texted and Emailed their Way into a Money Problem and it talks mainly about Trump and the donations to Trump and the GOP being way down like kind of year after year or year over year, because Trump has just overexploited and overtapped his donors. And now that Trump has direct control of the RNC, you know, and with the stated goal that every single dollar raised is going to help get Trump reelected you know they're just pouring it on, but it shows that. You know the data shows that the money is just way, way down. Last year Trump raised just $51 million from small donors way down from the $119 million he registered in 2019. And the Biden campaign is actually raising more from small-dollar donors and from big-dollar donors, so it's showing. They talked to a bunch of different people about how fundraising firms are telling particularly Republican clients lower expectations, don't expect too much to come in.

Speaker 1: 6:39

And what I've also found is down-ballot candidates at least on the Democratic side that I've worked with they, especially early in a campaign they just fundamentally do not understand how small-dollar fundraising works. They think that they see these numbers that big candidates, the big time candidates, bring in and they think, well, we could do that. We'll put ads on Facebook and the money will just start rolling in. And it doesn't work that way. It just doesn't, mainly because for most of those campaigns you don't have an email list, you don't have a fundraising base, so getting the cost of acquisition of those small dollar donors is higher than the donation. It's very, very difficult. What it is, honestly, for a lot of candidates that is the I don't want to say lazy. It's the low effort, low energy approach, because if I could just get a thousand people to give me $10, that's $10,000.

Speaker 1: 8:00

But it doesn't work that way. You know, with few exceptions. You know, in the big, big races, or people that have huge email lists or huge followings, or people that really are doing something, like you know, members of Congress, for example, that were involved in the January 6th committee when those hearings were all on TV, people like Adam Schiff, jamie Raskin, madeline Dean. They rose to national prominence and they were doing something very important at that time. So people that appreciated that would donate to them, and that's one thing. But just like the run of the mill election, it doesn't work.

Speaker 1: 8:31

And to give you I'm going to go back to the Easter thing for a minute because I looked on there's a wonderful website out there. It's politicalemailsorg and it's the archive of political emails and it's updated daily and it gives for a lot of campaigns not all and there's a lot of like state ones you know, state level ones that aren't in there. So this is just a sampling, but it has lists. I guess somebody. They just subscribe to all the email lists they can get their hands on and then they get all the emails and they upload them and you can see them all. You can see when they were sent, what time and everything On Easter Sunday, and this is Democrat and Republican candidates and PACs, so it's all lumped together. But on Easter Sunday there were 901 fundraising emails sent. According to this archive, 901 different fundraising emails went out. Politically, that's crazy. That's crazy.

Speaker 1: 9:34

I would love to know what the return on those are. You know, because if you're going to do an end of quarter one, you know, do it on Saturday, do it on Friday and use the fact. Be like look, our deadline is Sunday, but we would never bother you on Easter Sunday. So we're asking for your support today. That would actually be a winning message, right? If you're like up against it, you, that would actually be a winning message, right? If you're like up against it. You're like, look, I need to raise money, I want to take advantage of this deadline. Okay, I get that.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Do it in a way that shows some basic consideration for donors and their families and what they're going to be doing that day. To me that's just common sense. But part of the problem is there are a lot of consulting firms out there that make money based on the volume of emails and texts that get sent out. There are firms that make money based on a percentage of dollars raised. So for them it's a volume play right. Just the more we can churn out, the more we get back, and they don't care about the diminishing impact on the donor base. There's also a lot of you know. I'm sure if you're listening to this political podcast you're also on a bunch of emailing lists and there's a lot of list swapping. That goes on. It's interesting and this is a fun exercise to do If you sign up, for it's an easy way to see if your information is being sold or traded politically If you sign up for a list.

Speaker 1: 11:09

I did this by accident once I signed up for a list and I made a typo when I put my name in. Instead of J-E-S-S-E I type J-E-S-S-D. So on one list, like five years ago, I now get to because you do the personalization to J-E-S-S-D white, I probably get campaign emails from oh, I don't know 15, 20 different organizations and candidates. So I was able to tell it was like a tracer. Basically it was an accident, but I was able to learn where that went because I used a variation of my name. Try that sometime. If you're gonna sign up for something, if you're gonna make a donation, use a variation of your name and see how it comes back to you. It's a really interesting little thought experiment.

Speaker 1: 12:04

But anyway, let's get back to this Easter holiday thing, because to me I think there's a sweet spot for how often to ask for money, and I don't know what. To me it's. You know, if I send out, if I'm doing campaigns state house or higher right or countywide whatever if I do what I would typically advise clients to do, you would do two emails a week if you had a decent list. I did a campaign last year. Our email list was countywide. Our email list was like 10,000 emails Good list, that's a good size list and they were local. They weren't all donors, but they were local and they were people that would have been paying attention to what was going on. They weren't just randoms, they were voters. It was a good list.

Speaker 1: 12:59

What I typically would advise is you would do two emails a week. You would do one was kind of an update. This is what we've been up to. This is what's going on the campaign. This is where I've been. You throw some pictures in there. You keep it short and sweet.

Speaker 1: 13:13

Endorsements, whatever, you have a hook, and of course you do your solicitation. Endorsements, whatever right, you have a hook, and of course you do your solicitation. Uh, fundraising solicitation, volunteer solicitation at the end, you know you don't totally ignore it. And then you would also. Then, after that, you know, the later in the week you would do your straight up fundraising email, the idea being, you know you've demonstrated your value and that you're working hard early, they've got that registered and now you like, and now I'm here to collect on that because I've earned your donation.

Speaker 1: 13:43

I don't know, to me that feels, and I always look at that from the. I always look at things from the perception of the end user. Right, what to me, if I've received it, what would make me more inclined to want to donate? And I take that, and you would make me more inclined to want to donate. And I take that and kind of do some informal focus groups and I do a lot of research on this and to me that makes the most sense. But it's interesting, I worked for an organization in 2020. Big national organization and they have a PAC and I worked for them and so I signed up for their email list, right, I was like, all right, I'm just going to sign up for this with my personal email.

Speaker 1: 14:27

I was obliterated with fundraising emails. I mean, they overwhelmed me and the fascinating thing was they were like real well, ugly was the only word I can use to describe it. They were like super. They didn't look anything like the typical fundraising email. You see, you know, well-designed a header or this or that you know like integrate. You know it was not like that at all. It was honestly like a bunch of text and multicolored, like like it was like if, if you, if I don't let my eight year old design it, it was. They were that. They were that bad, objectively Right. I was like these look terrible. And I was getting. I was getting two or three a day. I mean I've never seen anything like it.

Speaker 1: 15:13

I had to unsubscribe from the list of the organization I was working for because it was too much. Then I found out that that year they raised $51 million off of that list with that strategy and I talked to a couple people there. I made it a point to ask. I was like you know, I'm working for you right now. I was doing field and operations and stuff. I wasn't on the fundraising part of it, I wasn't involved in any of that, but I was like I got to know how are you doing this? Like, how is that program working and they said and this was a very data-driven organization, very data-driven, maybe one of the most data-driven I've ever seen, and that is what they learned from doing all this. That that's what worked.

Speaker 1: 16:04

Maybe it was because it was an outlier and it was so different from what everybody else was doing. I don't know, but it was wild. So I don't know, maybe I don't know anything, maybe that is the approach, but it does feel now that everything, and you know, and it wasn't the volume, maybe that is the approach, but it does feel now that everything and it wasn't the volume, I think that may have been successful for that organization. Maybe it was just that their content just looked and felt so different. You know, they were the tie-dyed shirt in a world of you know, blue blazers and khakis. I don't know.

Speaker 1: 16:39

But what it does drive me crazy is that so many of these fundraising emails and texts are so cookie cutter. I mean they are so cookie cutter. It is insert candidate's name here, right here. This is the text I got on Easter and, by the way, so it has a. It's an MMS, so it's a message text. You know a multimedia text, so it has a photo and then it has, like the text underneath it. And another thing that drives me crazy is like these things are just way too damn long. I mean, this is a three-paragraph text and that's one of the shorter ones and it just like there's just too much there. I don't read. You're like I'm not reading this, but anyhow, the other thing about it I'm not going to say who it is right now, but it's a congressional candidate who has bombarded me with outreach to the point where it's just really annoying me. But they make it a point to use.

Speaker 1: 17:43

There's some stuff out there that is some racially insensitive comments that were made and I don't know how widespread they were, but it was like a public. And I don't know how widespread they were, but it was like a public, it's real. I mean, it's real. I've heard it myself, so I know it's real. And I don't know if it's out there in the general world or not, but it's funny because it's so obvious. Everything they do emails, texts, whatever it's like.

Speaker 1: 18:12

Oh, let's put a picture of our white candidate with people of color. It's the version of I have black friends. It's so offensive to me. It's so because I know what they're trying to do and it's insulting that that's what they're trying to do, but anyway. So there's a photo of the candidate holding up one of their signs. They're taking a like, they're taking a selfie, and there are. They're in what it's a church, I can tell that, which at least they. I guess they got some religious, uh, imagery for Easter Sunday.

Speaker 1: 18:45

I I don't know if that was a choice or not. Interesting choice if it was, and there were, I can count of the people in the background. There's like six people I could see. At least three of them are people of color. I would note also that none of them are expressly posing for the photo. So the candidate just kind of like photo bombed all these people while they were doing something else, which I think is also super offensive. I mean, that is like the definition of using someone as a prop and they didn't even know it. Anyway, that's just me, but it says hi blank candidate.

Speaker 1: 19:22

Here I'm running to unseat, so-and-so. We deserve better than a leader. I'm running for Congress to support working families, communities of color and the future of democracy in Pennsylvania and beyond. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. We are officially less than four weeks out from the primary and less than 12 hours away from my first end-of-quarter fundraising deadline of the election year, so there's a little word jujitsu there. But they have made many claims to me that they are up against fundraising deadlines. Made many claims to me that they're up against fundraising deadlines. I set out to raise $25,000 by tonight and we can't afford to have our fundraising numbers look vulnerable to Republican mega donors and dark money groups for even one second. Will you donate any all caps amount possible to help me reach my goal by midnight?

Speaker 1: 20:10

And then the best part is it says this is really candidate's first name, but you can text stop to opt out of text for me. So I texted back. I normally never do this, but I texted back begging for money on Easter Yikes, just to see if someone would respond. I would have given them credit for that and, of course, no response. Now you and I both know that is not actually the candidate. That's a candidate's campaign, right, and it goes to a texting platform.

Speaker 1: 20:39

The implication is that that candidate sat there from their phone and typed that out to me and was like here, look at this picture. And we all know that's not true or at least I do, you do. And then, on top of all that, I go on Twitter, which I'm I got to quit Twitter. It's become such a cesspool. I mean, even which I'm I got to quit Twitter. It's become such a cesspool. I mean, even when it was good quote, good it was a cesspool. Now it's just, it's like a cesspool within a cesspool. But someone was talking on one of the accounts I follow. Someone was talking about some of these fundraising things and you know I heard, I saw someone, you know it was like I respect the hustle and it's like no, no, that's the kind of mentality that makes people hate political operatives and political campaigns.

Speaker 1: 21:23

Read the room, folks, read the room. Nobody is sitting down to Easter dinner or, in this case, we were doing the Easter egg hunt with our kids when I got this text and and it's like, oh my god, they have a fundraising deadline tonight. Honey, did you know it was the end of the quarter? Quick, grab the credit card, drop what we're doing. Sorry kids, no eggs for you. We've got to use all that money to help support the end of the quarter deadline. Read the room, respect your donors or, in this case, your prospective donors. I never given this candidate a penny. Show some respect, show some self-awareness. You will get more money, you will get more respect and you will ultimately get more votes. Thank you for letting me rant. We'll do it again tomorrow. This has been the Keystone Reckoning Podcast. Have a great day.