Crimson Feature of the Month: Caging
Maximize the Velocity of Your Fundraising
Caging is one of the most important, yet least discussed steps in the political fundraising process.
What is caging?
Caging is the process of receiving, verifying, recording, depositing, and archiving donations in a FEC compliant manner. The term caging is a derivative of the casino teller or financial teller cage and is related to services involving the control and protection of funds.
What's the big deal?
A highly efficient inbound caging processing system means that your team will have access to your funds faster which maximizes your strategic options.
Processing contributions by mail internally isn’t as easy as it looks. Your finance team has to be prepared for:
- unpredictable mail volume spikes,
- managing exception or non-compliant contributions,
- manually processing credit card donations securely,
- donation returns,
- identifying and managing duplicate donor records,
- and any number of other unanticipated situations.
On top of all that, the process has to be bullet-proof. You can't afford, nor will the FEC accept:
- lost checks,
- data entry typos,
- security breaches, or
- duplicate donor records.
In terms of national campaigns, a big fundraising day might generate 80,000 pieces of mail. How are you going to get all those checks deposited without making a FEC misstep? This is where we can help.
CMDI's compliance caging process
Let CMDI manage your compliance caging. We have a unique, purpose-built caging facility and staff specifically assembled to serve Republican committees who need that competitive operational edge.Our caging staff has extensive knowledge of FEC rules and regulations that can not be found anywhere else. The benefits of outsourcing your caging to CMDI include:
- SPEED – During the height of the political season, our cage is processing almost one hundred thousand pieces of mail every 24 hours. That means that your donations are hitting your bank account within hours of their receipt.
- ASSURED COMPLIANCE – Our caging staff has extensive knowledge of the FEC rules that regulate campaign contributions and all donations are screened for FEC exceptions such as over-limit contributions.
- SECURITY – CMDI provides total chain-of-custody tracking and archival of every contribution received. Learn more about our data and facility security.
Learn more about CMDI can help your senatorial or national committee maximize the velocity of your fundraising.