Political Fundraising 101

Political fundraising is the foundation on which a candidate builds his electoral aspirations upon. If it’s weak and shows cracks in the system, you might as well wave the white flag in surrender. However, if it is structurally sound, the potential for attracting donors and supporters is restricted only by the effort put into it. So how do campaigns build a strong foundation that will make their political fundraising efforts exceed their wildest dreams?1. Define Your Image – Image is everything and as a candidate, you are the product that your supporters are investing in. Just as Hollywood is a machine of image makers, candidates also have to portray a character imbued with educated opinions on a plethora of topics and promises of a better future that motivates the public to buy in to your campaign. Not only does your political persona have to be flawless, but also your appearance, speech, personal and professional lives, and reputation. Once your image is firmly established, then you can work on recruiting supporters.2. It’s All About Connecting – Political fundraising is the creation of a connection, relationship or virtual bridge between a candidate and his supporters. You can almost think of it as flirting with voters to build their interest. As recently as 25 years ago this involved shaking hands, kissing babies, attending fundraising events, and holding your own in town hall debates. Now with the avalanche of technology available, you can reach and flirt with thousands more voters via e-mails, mobile giving, and social networking sites.The current Facebook user has 130 “Friends.” 69% of Facebook users “Like” a brand just because a friend does. Just as important, over 250 million Facebook users log on EVERYDAY! How many voters could you be missing by neglecting social media sites? Knowing what resources are out there and using them to your full advantage is necessary in this newer era of online fundraising. When you reach more potential donors, you obviously are expanding your chances of getting more gifts and votes.Note that the data coming out of the 2012 presidential cycle will tell us a lot about social networks ability to drive voters to the polls. Will Obama's 27 million likes turn into more votes then Romney's 3 million? Time will tell.3. Work Smarter, Not Harder – The last thing you should be worrying about is cobbling together custom databases, websites or technology solutions. By utilizing the leading Republican platforms, such as Crimson, you can focus on what you are best at: politics and building your brand.Crimson eliminates the common worries of getting your team all on the same page, providing accurate numbers, and getting up-to-date stats on your campaign. Crimson is designed to manage prospects, donors, meeting notes, and fundraising information. Easily create reports and data lists that are accurate and automatically reduce the chances duplicate entries being created. Have peace of mind concerning FEC regulations and use our dashboards for monitory every aspect of your campaign's fundraising and compliance performance.When you have all of your information in one secure place, you have a strong lifeline to efficiently sustain your campaign. The most important part of running any campaign is building your relationship with voters; when technology successfully works for you, you can focus on building the strongest platform for your political future.