Four Reasons Why You Should Hire a Fundraiser for Your Political Campaign:
1. You won't achieve success without a great team to support you.
Political Campaigns are by nature complex, time consuming, and challenging. You cannot do it all on your own, and that's why you need an experienced team to support you. You need a Fundraiser, like Razor Solutions Group, a Campaign Manager, Volunteer Coordinator, a website, Communications director, a New Media consultant, Field Director, a Campaign Photographer/ Videographer and so many other pieces that are important to your success. If you want all of these people to be a valuable and reliable part of your campaign, you will need to pay most of them as staff and you can't pay them without fundraising the money in the first place.
It's important to note the difference between staff and volunteers. You need dedicated and passionate volunteers who believe in what you believe, but it's important to understand that volunteers are more reliable when they are paid.
2. You've got more important things to do. Seriously.
Most candidates don't have the time, energy, or the know-how to sit down and call contributors themselves from home, organize their donor bases, follow-up on pledges, and submit all the relevant ethics documents. One day you might be in the living room, next day at the dining room, next day in the car, and your notes and your donor information will be scattered, difficult to retrieve, and pledges will fall through the cracks because you don't have the time to organize it all on top of your already full schedule.
Not only will you benefit from the consistent environment, we provide, we will be with you while you call and help keep you on track towards your goals, we will follow up on pledges received, we will organize your donor base for you, coordinate all of your fundraising activities and submit all legal documents for you to help you get your campaign moving quickly.
Also note that most Razor Solutions Group clients get a majority of our pledges converted to donations and out-raise their opponents.
3. General Campaign Consultants are not fundraisers
Because fundraising is most of what we do, we are up to the minute on the rules and ethics of running your campaign. We also specialize in providing the latest in fundraising technology and techniques to make sure that you maximize all of your fundraising potential. General consultants are great for the overall strategy and budget of the campaign, while your fundraiser concentrates on raising the money for the budget they set.
While General Campaign Consultants may help you craft your overall vision, what you need is real time fundraising support. That's where Razor Solutions Group steps in because we provide space for call time, someone to sit in the room with you to help keep you focused and on task, and we keep track of all your contacts, pledges, fundraisers and donations.
4. You gotta' pay the bills.
Here's a short list of all the things you need to pay for from your campaign. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it is a good place to start when you are planning and budgeting your campaign.
Costs:
Overhead:
- Campaign Office Rent
- Electricity
- Water
- Phones
- Database
- Yard Signs
- Paper
- Rack Cards/Palm Cards
- Computers
- Internet
- Furniture
- Food for volunteers
- Campaign Manager
- New Media Strategist & Management
- Communications (Ads, Robocalls, Getting Out to Vote)
- Volunteer Coordinator
- Campaign Photographer/ Videographer
- Gas Money for Canvassers
- Mailings and Design
Conclusion:
Your campaign is unique, and the building blocks of Fundraising are a fundamental part of your campaign. We hope you find this blog beneficial for your strategic campaign vision. Building a good team is the essential first step, getting solid advice and direction is the next. We'd love to set up a consultation with you.
Keisha is a campaign finance expert with over 15 years of experience and has worked for over 60 political campaigns and 20 non-profit organizations across the country.
Follow Keisha on Twitter @thekeishacarter or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/keishacarterbrown.
