Effective Frontline Fundraising Part 18

The fact that a paid canva.s.sing operation often loses money is an unglamorous truth, and it might not please your canva.s.sers to know this. I wouldnat recommend being too public about this, although do of course tell the truth if asked. And if you are asked about it, please take the time to explain the context, the canva.s.sersa role, and their importance.

You really do want to push your canva.s.sers to not just take money, but also get phone, e-mail, and mailing information. Why? Because this information will be needed for the follow-up solicitation, which is much easier to do and will be where you really start making money.

The contribution form should be an entire 8.5 - 11 inch sheet, so that there is room to write large and legibly, and it should include a credit card form if your office has the capacity to process credit cards (it should). As quickly as is humanly possible for your office, you want the contact information entered centrally where itas easily accessible (but secure, to be sure). This is both so that you can thank your donors as quickly as possible, and also so that you can begin implementing stage two of building your movement/following: the follow-up phone and e-mail solicitations.

Before we visit the topics of phone and e-mail solicitations, letas round out this section by asking you to train and empower your canva.s.sers to be compelling spokespeople beyond the act of asking for money. You need them to be able to articulate your stances on certain hot-b.u.t.ton issues and have adequate ammunition to defend those stances. Take time with them; listen to their grievances, and ask them to give you feedback from the road. After all, they are in the trenches every day on your behalf.

Campaign Messaging: Whatas the Same, and a Defense of Simplicity.

Weave covered how to write effective phone scripts and e-mail solicitations in previous chapters, but I want to again stress just how quickly you have to move in a campaign setting. Itas hard to exaggerate just how fast the pace in a campaign office is. The good news is that thereas plenty of young talent out there looking for campaign experience, plenty of folks who have retired and have free time on their hands, and no dearth of good souls who just want to help out.

When crafting your messages for canva.s.sing, e-mail, and phone, you need to find the right balance of communicating your own agenda and juxtaposing it with the inferior agenda of your compet.i.tor. (Remember, campaigns are a zero sum game; if your challenger wins, you lose.) Itas so easy to get too negative, and Iad advise against it. Focus on how youare better instead of how the other candidate is worse. This is a subtle but important distinction. You need to have these scripts and templates written before your campaign starts; youall simply run out of time if youare trying to compose them after youave started fundraising on the streets and in your local neighborhoods. Have them canned in advance so that once you have the data entered from your canva.s.sing operations, you can immediately begin your followup contacts.

Whereas with other types of nonprofit work you want to avoid overcommunication lest you alienate your donor base, with political campaign fundraising, Iad argue that you can get away with a little more frequent contact given the very small window of activity. Whereas calling every day might alienate your base and cost you votes (and money), you will be able to e-mail often. Every e-mail that you send should include a solicitation, but you wonat want every e-mail to be only a solicitation. You should include quick, brief reports on the campaign, where you are relative to your compet.i.tion, public speaking engagements youad like them attend, and so forth.

Political campaigns, because they are deadline driven more than any other nonprofit fundraising work, will see a huge groundswell of activity followed by a very quick dismantling of the shop afterward. This is a continuation on the theme of just how quickly you need to be able to move, how many hours a day you need to be putting in, and how you need to be able to adjust from an office of you and a handful of staffers to an entire cadre of paid or volunteer fundraisers that is bulging at the seams, outgrowing your original office headquarters. This is to say nothing of the rest of your political team, which youall also need of course.

Itas a strange cycle. Because of the increased compet.i.tion for dollars and attention, your const.i.tuency is inundated with messages from both sides. Thus, itas best to keep your campaign messages simple. Again, a look at recent electoral history, particularly with the presidential elections, demonstrates just how overly simplistic those messages become, to the point of becoming little more than plat.i.tudes. In 2004, President Bush won on the theme of aAmerica is safer.a In 2008, President Obama ran on the themes of change and hope. Of course, those are little more than empty words when it comes to the actual political process in Washington, DC, but thatas not the point. The point is that their themes were actually driven into the heads of American voters. In contrast, can you recall John Kerryas message in 2004? Or Hilary Clintonas during the Democratic primaries in 2008?4 Remember in the chapter on crafting your message how I distinguished between times when you have to keep it simple, and times when it makes more sense to expound upon your organizationas mission? The same applies here: your campaign posters and yard signs need to be mind-numbingly consistent and simple. Save the explanation of your platform for debates, speeches, one-on-one meetings, fundraising, and get-out-the-vote phone calls.

Oh yeah, remember that other thing I said even earlier in the book about hanging up your guilt and shame? That effective fundraising isnat about being cool, and in fact engenders a certain level of discomfort? No better place does that apply than in the context of politics. Youare more likely in this type of fundraising work to feel like youare being too pushy, like youare being a little too over-the-top in your frequency and enthusiasm, and that your staff is, too. Iad say thatas normala"you are, after all, soliciting with a far greater frequency, directness, and urgency than a normal nonprofit (the exception being when legislation or a certain watershed event is presenting a very clear and urgent threat to the work of a specific nonprofit).

The overarching point is that you need to be aggressive and ethicala"a very fine, nearly impossible balance. The good news is that in our current political system, your audience is preconditioned to a.s.sume that youare going to ask them for money, which makes it that much easier to put out your hand and ask for help.

An interesting thing to note here is the paradoxical nature of building up a huge war chest. Your ability to fundraise is an indication of your success at running a good campaign and therefore of your viability as a candidate (I dislike the term aelectabilityaa"there is very little reliable data that can reveal any identifiable notion of electability). The irony is that spending that money can be seen as a sign of weakness, of an implicit admittance that your campaign isnat going too well, and you need to do a media blitz to boost the numbers again. The research on the subject is imperfect, but there is the suggestion that if itas clear that youare spending down the reserves, your const.i.tuencyas confidence in your ability to win diminishes. The bad news is that Iam not qualified to tell you how to spend your money strategically. I can only tell you how to raise it.

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4Once, when on business in San Francisco, I observed a candidate trying to gather signatures to get himself on the ballot. He was standing outside a BART station, canva.s.sing for himself. He said three things: 1) his name, 2) that he was trying to get on the ballot, and 3) that he was against the death penalty. Oversimplistic? Maybe, but how else are you going to stop rush hour pedestrian traffic other than with simple sound bites?

The takeaway message from this section should be that the fundamentals of political campaign fundraising donat differ all that much from other nonprofit fundraising in the strategy, the messaging, and the need. What do differ are the intensity, the pace, the volume, and the aggressiveness with which it is carried out.

Parties, PACs, and Candidates: How the Strategies Vary.

The basics of how to solicit for a party, PAC, or candidate, in terms of how to craft your message and build your base, are similar to those of the strategies laid forth for other nonprofits. And the differences between fundraising for parties, PACs, and candidates arenat huge, but there are a few things Iad like to highlight nonetheless.

If anything, PACs and single-issue political groups probably overlap the most with other nonprofits in that they are often focused more narrowly than political parties or candidates. Even if a candidate is making a name for himself or herself on a single issue, he or she canat escape the fact that governance is about more than just any one thing. You can treat fundraising almost like that of any other nonprofit, with the preceding caveats on pace.

The candidate and party face messaging challenges that single-issue political groups and PACs do not face. The tension is in how to cover all of your bases without diluting yourself completely. On the one hand, you need to have a stance on all the issues so that you can appeal to as many people as possible. On the other hand, you want your image and message to be simple, clear, and digestible. Again, this is part of why the two-party system, for all of its problems, does actually serve a very good purpose. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party both have official stances on most issues. Unless you, as a candidate, are extremely vocal about bucking the trend on a given issue, itas likely that voters and donors are going to conflate the partyas stance with your own views.

However, youall need to do some research to figure out the issues on peopleas minds and really amplify your stance on these issues vocally. As Iave said, the compet.i.tion for peopleas attention spans, particularly surrounding politics, is very steep. You canat waste your time talking about where you stand on everything. You need to concentrate what limited resources you have for hammering through a message to an audience with very limited time to listen to politics. This data can be gathered by your own staff, or by listening to the news. Be careful, thougha"every survey has its own imperfections and biases. You can rely on data to help you steer your messaging and winnow down the myriad of issues or themes out there to a select few upon which you should concentrate. (Clinton era: economy. G. W. Bush era: security. Obama 2008 election: change.) When it comes to your general messaging, again, err on the side of oversimplification. There is such temptation to address everything, to say it all, to let people know that you have clearly thought out justifiable stances on everything. There is a time for that, at public-speaking events, large gatherings, and one-on-one meetings held either by you directly or your staff. But when youare crafting appeals, you want simplicity and consistency. You want the scripts of your canva.s.sers, your telephone fundraisers, and your e-mails to overlap significantly. It will seem very repet.i.tive to you, but believe me, the public spends such little time thinking about it that they will hardly notice. With so much going on in peopleas lives, and so little time to devote to thinking systematically about politics, when it comes to political fundraising and message, they want the bottom line.

In 2006, when I was fundraising on behalf of the DNC (Democratic National Committee), every canva.s.ser was given a script, or a rap as we called it. While each canva.s.ser had their own style and delivery, we did ask them to stick to the rap as much as possible.

The telephone scripts, in turn, repeated and complemented the content of the canva.s.sing rap. In fact, since all of the gifts are coded so that you can track the sources from which they came, there was a specific part in the telephone script for donors who had given to canva.s.sers. The e-mail appeals also displayed a very clear continuity. The donor can be thanked for giving to a canva.s.ser, to a telephone fundraiser, or for giving online, before delivering the message.

Controlling the message is extremely important, particularly in political campaign fundraising. It can also be an impossible task once you have delegated your fundraising operations to paid canva.s.sers or telephone fundraisers, or to volunteers. At some point, you relinquish having 100 percent control, but you can take steps to a.s.sure that your fundraisers donat turn into loose cannons.

Take the time to train them up, provide them with the script, and explain the importance of staying on-point and on-message. Explain that you want consistency, for the preceding reasons laid out for you.

Spend time with your fundraisers. Thank them often. And be sure to answer their questions on matters outside the script, so that they can feel like confident spokespeople when questions do arise beyond the scope of the script.

A reminder: Take your fundraisersa feedback seriously. They are the ones getting in peopleas faces every day, hearing whatas going on, and getting the opinions of your voter base. Nothing will get a person to speak their mind on political matters like asking them for money. Many of us can be reticent to share our political opinions, but when asked to support a campaign, a party, or a candidate, we take it as an opportunity to vent about everything thatas wrong with the system, the candidate, the opposition, and so on. So empower your fundraisers to listen carefully to what the donors are saying, and take it into account. Donat be dismissive. Theyare doing the hard work for you.

Of course, you as a candidate will have to do a good deal of fundraising on your own, especially for the larger gifts. This can be accomplished both by individual calls or visits and in group settings (dinners, etc.) where there is a very clear indication that the group will be solicited (or charged ahead of time). You can refer back to the chapter on major gifts for tips on how to approach these higher-level conversations.

Given this allusion to major gifts, I want to end this section with a reminder about the legal issue of quid pro quo. Remember, this is a book about philanthropy. You want donors that are giving to you out of goodness and out of a desire to help your cause, your party, or your campaign. You do not want donors that are giving with the expectation of getting anything in return (except, of course, a nice thank you note).

Political campaign fundraising can be harder than any other type of fundraising to keep clean. Donors donat even enjoy a tax break, so thereas even less of a tangible benefit for their giving. You will get people who offer you varying sums of money to change your stance on this or that.

You will need to remind these people that your office is not for sale, nor are your policies. And yes, from an ethical standpoint, you need to turn that money down.

Other times, it wonat be as explicit as a demand like that, but if it even begins to feel questionable, err on the side of caution. Take the high road.

After the Election a.

Once the election is over and your shop closes up, you either jump for joy at being elected, or get to reflect the morning after on what you could have done differently. You dust off, carry on, and forget about fundraising, right?

Incorrect. I was fundraising in Boston for the 2006 midterm elections, on the streets during the summer and door-to-door in the late fall. After the Democrats won both houses of Congress, my colleagues were understandably ecstatica"but we also knew that there was little time to rest. The day after the elections, the Republican National Committee was aggressively fundraising, building toward 2008. Foe though they might have been, it was exemplary, inspirational even. They had just lost, and they were out there within less than 24 hours with the clear message that they were not giving up on their long-term hopes.

The week after the elections, the organization I worked for had a retreat in Washington, DC. While we were all happy and the retreat was one of general pride in the work we had done, it was without question a working retreat, in which we spent many an hour in groups working out how to craft the next message, which was very different now that the left held the majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. We had to rewrite our scripts, and had to acknowledge that in a way, fundraising for the DNC would actually be a little more difficult than it was in 2006, especially before the 2008 primaries determined who the Democratic presidential candidate would be. All of a sudden, the message was a little more abstract, a little more intellectual than the basic gist of our midterm message, which had been aWe need to control the House and Senate.a If you win the election, as we did in 2006, after thanking your donor base for making the victory possible, you do need to restart. This means thinking critically about your new message, which will be different and difficult now that you hold office, and cautiously but not timidly beginning to resolicit for the next election cycle. With only two years between certain types of elections, there really isnat all that much down time.

If you lose the election and are even half-serious about running again, youad best follow the example of the Republican National Committee in 2006 and get right back on your feet to start asking for money for the next challenge. A certain amount of rebranding might be necessary, given that your current image/message/platform wasnat as effective as it could have been (after all, you lost), but what wonat change is your need for funding. As I said above, the victor in this case will have an edge over you when it comes to receiving money from sources such as PACs and lobbies, so youall have some catching up to do and will have to get creative to compensate for that gap.

For all I talk about aggressive approaches to political fundraising, I want to remind you to think about stewardship during the postelection hangover. It is a little easier to forget about this important piece of the pie when youare running a round-the-clock fundraising shop on a shoestring budget.

Whereas really stellar fundraising establishes a relationship between the donor and the organization that is founded upon, but not exclusive to, the monetary realm, Iad argue that in political fundraising, itas really hard to build upon those relationships at the gra.s.sroots level. Be extremely careful not to have the only contact with your donors be a thinly veiled resolicitation. I know thatas somewhat contradictory to what I said earlier, but once the tunnel-visioned, adrenaline-filled rush to election day is overa"in addition to taking some time to strategize, reconstruct, and eventually get back out therea"you need to build in some time for some substantive stewardship.

The reason is the same as for any other nonprofit. You are in a much better position to resolicit come the next election cycle if you do a good, thoughtful job of thanking the folks that either helped you win, or helped you put up a good strong fight to the finish. And youall need to resolicit them sooner rather than later, so you need to thank them sooner rather than later, too!

Charity, Advocacy Group, or Both?

Some Technical and Legal Considerations.

Letas close by focusing on more technical and legal elements that youall need to consider, for example where your organization fits into the greater world of the nonprofit kingdom, doing your homework with the IRS, and what to do when the tax code is not on your side.

I am somewhat loath to create an entire taxonomy of strategies depending on what niche in the nonprofit universe you inhabit, as I run the risk of creating unnecessary confusion, not to mention the risk of becoming quite redundant.

The truth of the matter is that a majority of the principles that I laid forth in previous chapters regarding strategies on crafting messages, travel, etc., will apply no matter what type of organization that you happen to represent. This will therefore be a somewhat shorter chapter than the previous few.

This chapter will begin by taking a look at how the pie of philanthropic dollars is divided up. Iall then spend some time exploring the jungle of the IRSas definitions of various 501(c) organizations. I will then discuss what happens when contributions to your nonprofit are not tax deductible (hint: not too much will change). Iall round out the chapter by revisiting some basic principles that will apply to all types of nonprofits, regardless of mission.

Who Gets What.

Letas begin by taking a look at where philanthropic dollars went in 2010 in the US, to give you an idea of where your nonprofit stacks up in terms of the compet.i.tion for charitable gifts. Table 13-1 gives you an idea of the distribution of philanthropic dollars in 2010.

In short, itas great to be a church, a mosque, a synagogue, or a school. Almost half of all philanthropic dollars went to these types of organizations. Granted, within those groups, you have plenty of subcategories, but if your organization falls within one of the other categories mentioned, well, you lack the comparative advantage of religion and education. The good news is that even if youare working for an arts nonprofit, thereas still, in absolute terms, a ton of money to go around. You just have to get out there and get it. However, you might have to work a little harder than a college, a foundation, or a church.

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1 Source: Giving USA Foundation 2011 Executive Summary (www.givingusareports.org/) I included this section not to discourage you. Itas educational and sobering to know where you stack up and to realize that regardless of where your organization stands in this arrangement, that there is still plenty of private funding for your nonprofit, allowing you to secure gifts of all sizes regardless of your stated mission.

The Wonderful World of IRS Definitions.

It makes sense to spend a little bit of time talking about whether or not you should be filed with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) or a 501(c)(4). It is not necessarily the easiest thing to understand. It is possible that your organization has already done its homework and done the appropriate research and filing, but in the event that it hasnat, this section will provide you with the information youall need to keep the IRS happy.

501(c)(3)s are defined by the IRS as ent.i.ties that are organized exclusively for one or more of the following purposes: Religious Charitable Scientific Testing for public safety Literary Educational Fostering national or international sports compet.i.tion (as long as the activities do not include providing facilities or equipment) Preventing cruelty to children or animals 501(c)(3) organizations qualify to have their charitable gifts deducted from their donorsa federal income tax.

You can find out if your organization is listed as exempt under 501(c)(3) by visiting the IRSas web site. If you are not, youall need to file IRS form 1023, along with the appropriate filing fee.2 501(c)(4) organizations have a much narrower definition: this designation is generally reserved solely for organizations that promote social welfare to benefit the community. The organizationas earnings must be devoted aonly to charitable, educational or recreational purposes.a3 Examples include civic a.s.sociations and volunteer fire companies.

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2 Fees are $850 if your organization expects to average yearly gross receipts of more than $10,000 and $400 if you expect it to average less than that (www.irs.gov).

For these types of organizations, with the exception of volunteer fire companies, charitable donations are not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes.

There are actually a whole host of other 501(c) sub-categories out there. For example, your organization might be a 501(c)(19) Veteransa Organization, in which case contributions to your organization are tax deductible. However, I am guessing that if you are reading this book, your organization will likely be designated as either a 501(c)(3) or a 501(c)(4).

If you are interested, the IRSas web site is actually quite user-friendly. If youare unsure of how to define the work that you do within the strict (and pretty well defined) parameters of the IRS, it makes sense to jump online and take a look.

Verboten! What Activities Are Off Limits.

501(c)(3)s are not allowed to partic.i.p.ate in elections or political activities. The IRS web site dictates that If any of the activities (whether or not substantial) of your organization consist of partic.i.p.ating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office, your organization will not qualify for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). Such partic.i.p.ation or intervention includes the publishing or distributing of statements.

Whether your organization is partic.i.p.ating or intervening, directly or indirectly, in any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office depends upon all of the facts and circ.u.mstances of each case. Certain voter education activities or public forums conducted in a nonpartisan manner may not be prohibited political activity under section 501(c)(3), while other so-called voter education activities may be prohibited.4 __________.

3 IRS, aOther Section 501 (c) Organizations,a www.irs.gov/publications/ p557/ch04.html#en_US_2010_publink1000200291, 2010.

4 IRS, aSection 501(c)(3) Organizations,a www.irs.gov/publications/p557/ch03.html#en_US_2010_publink1000200036, 2010.

It gets trickier, of course, when we get into lobbying, because 501(c)(3)s are allowed to lobby (unless youare a churcha"then no lobbying for you). It gets somewhat technical, so if your organization does plan to partic.i.p.ate directly (or really, even indirectly) in the business of influencing the political process, youad be wise to check out the IRSas rules and regulations on permitted lobbying activities and expenditures for 501(c)(3) organizations. The rules can be found by visiting this link on the IRS web site: www.irs.gov/publications/p557/ch03.html#en_US_2010_publink1000200036.

With 501(c)(4) organizations, the law is similar, but if you can submit proof that your organization is organized exclusively to promote social welfare, you acan obtain exemption even if it partic.i.p.ates legally in some political activity on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office.a5 Of course, the contributions to the organization still arenat tax deductible.

When the Tax Incentive Disappears.

When contributions are not tax deductible, another hurdle for donors is raised. Certain nonprofits do not qualifya"which isnat to say that theyare not allowed to fundraise. Their donors just canat deduct the contributions from their taxes. Again, for a very thorough run-down of what types of organizations qualify to have their charitable contributions count as tax deductible, visit the IRSas web site: www.irs.gov.

So what happens when that tax deduction disappears? Do donors run and hide?

One thing you will likely lose if your organization is not tax exempt is the benefit of contributions from foundations and matching gift programs from most corporations that have such a program set up.

With respect to individual contributions, though (which, again, make up the vast majority of charitable gifts every year anyway), Iall concede that itas a hurdle, but Iad argue that itas a somewhat low-lying hurdle. To give you an idea of how much people can give to political parties, PACs (political action committees), and candidates, consider this information taken from the web site of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). An individual may give a maximum of $2,500 per election to a Federal candidate or the candidateas campaign committee. Notice that the limit applies separately to each election. Primaries, runoffs, and general elections are considered separate elections.

$5,000 per calendar year to a PAC. This limit applies to a PAC that supports Federal candidates. (PACs are neither party committees nor candidate committees. Some PACs are sponsored by corporations and unionsa"trade, industry, and labor PACs. Other PACs, often ideological, do not have a corporate or labor sponsor and are therefore called nonconnected PACs.) PACs use donor contributions to make their own contributions to Federal candidates and to fund other election-related activities.

$10,000 per calendar year to a State or local party committee. A State party committee shares its limits with local party committees in that state, unless a local committeeas independence can be demonstrated.

$30,800 per calendar year to a national party committee. This limit applies separately to a partyas national committee, House campaign committee, and Senate campaign committee.