Political Fundraising and Reopening

Strategies for handling a challenging time for campaign fundraising

The pandemic is clearly not done with us, and there are places around the country that are dealing with very bad waves of new infections. But even in the face of all that, most places are experiencing summers that are more like 2019 than like 2020, and that seems to be having an impact this summer on political fundraising.

Veteran political fundraisers know that the summer can be a difficult time for political fundraising, and August particularly so. The difficulties tend to be even more acute in the “off-years” (i.e., odd-numbered years). But this year it is reasonable to expect that things might be especially tough for political fundraising.

That’s because the country is largely enjoying the mass “reopening” phase of this pandemic, and we are already hearing reports from campaigns about how this is impacting their fundraising. Indeed, as people finally take long-awaited vacations and other areas of their lives start to pick back up again, it makes sense that being in touch with political campaigns and making political contributions would not be a top priority. We also know that many people’s financial picture was significantly disrupted during the pandemic, and for those whose was not, there is much evidence that their spending has increased dramatically in recent months, which may further depress their interest in spending on political philanthropy.

The anecdotal reports align with what we see in the data, too: campaign “connect rates” (the frequency with which they reached the prospective donor) Q2 in 2021 dropped by about three percentage points compared with the prior quarter, and is almost half what it was this same quarter in the last off-year (2019)!

But there’s no need to panic. While the pace of fundraising may feel frustratingly slow right now, there are plenty of indicators that things will pick up in the Fall, just as they always have in the past.

Here are some strategies to help you make the most of this summer:

Shift your call schedule

We’ve started to notice a lot of unevenness and volatility in the data around the day of the week and the time of day that campaigns are having success reaching prospects and successfully securing donations. In some cases, it appears as if campaigns are having more luck by reaching out to people earlier in the week and earlier in the day, and this likely reflects the fact that many people are finally able to take up social activities on nights and weekends, and so may be more difficult to reach at those times. In other cases, the opposite is true: success has improved on the weekends and in the evenings. One hypothesis is that this reflects another segment of society that is now fully back in the office, giving them a bit more flexibility to engage with campaigns on those nights and weekends.

Despite the singular answer about when you should schedule call time, the takeaway is actually clear: campaigns should be paying special attention to their own data and adapting their outreach schedules accordingly. Hopefully you have already built your current call time plan around when you were having the most success with outreach previously, but the aggregate data suggests now would be a good time to revisit that data, and make the necessary adjustments. It probably is also a good idea to re-evaluate this data with greater regularity in the Fall, as so many kids are back in school and offices reopen, which will shift many schedules again.

Plant the seeds for September

As we’ve discussed, September is often a big improvement over August in political fundraising, as donors return from vacations and start to re-engage with campaigns more readily. Campaigns should be prepared for an even sharper jump in activity this year. We expect widespread reopening of offices that are still completely or partially remote, as well as nearly all kids back to in-person classrooms. There are at least two things campaigns can be doing now to help prepare for that significant shift back to normalcy:

(1) Prepare for in-person fundraising events:

If you’ve read our previous guide to running amazing political fundraising events, you know that there is a lot of good work that can be done ahead of an event to ensure its success. While you may have difficulty tracking down every potential donor this summer, hopefully you can at least get a hold of some of your top supporters and enlist them to host an in-person event for you this Fall . If so, now is a great time to nail down the event date, figure out all the logistics, and pull together all the necessary materials. Then, as soon as Labor Day arrives, you can get to work on driving attendance to those events — if you wait until then to get started on event planning, it will likely be too late to bring much in before the September 30th fundraising deadline that faces so many campaigns.

Something to keep in mind is that- despite the difficulty of getting in touch with potential hosts right now- it is possible that campaigns will see a heightened level of interest to attend events on the calendar this Fall. After so much time away, being able to mingle with some friends, meet new people, have some food and drink, etc., may all have renewed appeal for a time.

(2) Find work numbers now

During the pandemic, campaigns predictably found it difficult to reach prospects on their work phone numbers. But now would be a good time to start culling your list and hunting down work phone numbers for good prospects, if you don’t already have them. Most schools are planning to fully reopen for in-person learning this upcoming school year, and many offices have set Labor Day as the transition from remote work back to fully reopened offices. With so many more people back at their office desks, work numbers will likely once again play a role in a strong fundraising program. Using any lull experienced this summer to make sure work numbers are available and up-to-date would be a wise use of time.

Acknowledge this moment

The final piece of advice here is similar to advice we’ve given many times before: be honest and transparent. Donors (like most people) appreciate being leveled with, and campaigns can win the respect and support of donors by simply acknowledging that this is a big moment of transition for many people who may have lots of pent-up to-dos and priorities well before they can focus on your campaign.

So rather than try and combat or ignore that reality, note it and embrace it. When you can’t reach someone, leave a voicemail (an automated one can save lots of time!) and/or send a follow up text or email letting them know that you hope they’re out enjoying friends and family, that there’s no need to rush to get back in touch with you… and that you’ll definitely plan on getting back in touch with them this September to chat with them about your very important campaign.

Such an approach will give you an opportunity to establish a touch point with your prospect that isn’t a solicitation, and set their expectations that you’ll be getting back in touch when they may be more available. They will appreciate how thoughtful you are being about their time, and it will set them up to have an even more favorable impression when you do check back in and make a more direct appeal after Labor Day.

Finally, something to keep in mind whenever you encounter a challenge in your fundraising: be data-driven, and be flexible. If you’re email program isn’t doing as well as you’d planned, for example, make sure you can spot that trend quickly so you can test out alternative approaches to your emails, and/or beef up other areas of your fundraising program- such as events or calls- to make up the difference. Keeping track of your performance data will also help you put particularly slow and particularly successful months into greater perspective, hopefully allowing you to stay calm no matter what fundraising challenges come your way!