Tell Me a Story
When speaking or writing about your campaign, people really don’t want to hear a bunch of facts and figures or esoteric debating points of philosophical principle. They want to hear stories. Real-life, genuine stories about how you’re going to help them.
But in case you’re not a master story teller, here’s a quick tip to help you develop them: Start with the moral of the story…and then work back.
For example: You’re a conservative who is running on a limited government platform. Start with the Reaganesque, “And the moral of the story is, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.”
Now go find a story that fits that moral of the story and you’re on your way to a MUCH better speech, column, blog post or fundraising letter.
52 Ways to Fundraise
Mazarine Treyz of WildWomanFundraising.com lists 52 different ways to raise money. Some are specifically for non-profit/charitable organizations, but there are a boatload of fundraising opportunities on this list that any political campaign could use.
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10 Ways to Succeed with Small Gift Fundraising
“You should not eschew small-gift fundraising,” writes Claire Axelrad, “even if the lion’s share of your funding comes from major donors. So let’s take a mini-break from thinking about major-gift fundraising (of which I’m a huge proponent). Whenever you can get a donor in the door, one with affinity for your cause, you should.”
Here are Claire’s 10 ways to succeed with small gift fundraising…
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The 4 Key Qualities of Amazing Thank You Letters
“We all know thanking donors is important, but sometimes it’s easily brushed aside as one more item on our to-do lists,” writes Caryn Stein at Network for Good. Instead, she advises, “Put your donors – and your thank you process – first this year. Include these four key components for effective and memorable donor thank you letters.”
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15 Ways to Improve Your Home Page
Clare Dodd of BadLanguage.net outlines 15 solid ways to improve the home pages of non-profit websites, but all of the tips apply equally to political campaigns.
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10 Insanely Useful Free Twitter Tools for [Campaigns]
“The beauty of Twitter is that it is simple, short and fast,” writes Kerri Karvetski. “But Twitter is also a firehose, a never-ending, unfiltered stream of characters. Not all of it is helpful, wanted or useful. You need to tame it, bend it to your will, filter it. Or it will run you over. Here are 10 bits of free technology that nonprofits [campaigns] actually use to make Twitter better and more useful.”
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9 Reasons Your Campaign Should Use Online Petitions
“To effectively raise money and build an engaged group of supporters, your organization needs more than just a donate page on its website,” advises Tim Forbes at PICnet.net. “You need strategies and tools that move people from casual visitors to recurring donors and dedicated supporters – all while minimizing overhead. Online petitions are an effective tool to capture the casual visitor and active donor alike, and move them both down the engagement path.”
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6 Big Mistakes to Avoid on Instagram
“Instagram gives nonprofit organizations a great way to connect with the communities they serve as well as to gain new supporters,” writes Chris Barnes, a PR expert for non-profit organizations, which certainly include political campaigns. “However, you want to avoid these six mistakes when utilizing the photo social-networking service: 1. sharing bad photos, 2. not tagging anything, 3. having an inactive account, 4. never liking photos, 5. not following people in the community and 6. not realizing the big picture.”
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How to Pick “Viral” Content that Visitors will Read & Share
If you’re running a 100% political and philosophical campaign that ignores popular culture and human nature, don’t expect a ton of folks to visit your website, “like” your Facebook page and “follow” you on Twitter.
Like newspapers, you should be “bundling the cheap, revenue-generating content with expensive, high-minded content.” And here’s a great feature story about a guy who has cracked this code online, including some terrific tips for generating online buzz for your campaign.
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Free Oatmeal Fonts!
Looking to spice up you publications and website a bit? Download 10 free fonts used by The Oatmeal primarily for speech bubbles and headlines.
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