Good News for Conservative Republicans with Primaries
The latest Gallup Poll survey shows that 70 percent of Republicans identify themselves as conservatives while only 23 percent describe themselves as moderates, and 5 percent as liberals. And in GOP primaries, that conservative margin is clearly far greater.
No wonder so many under-funded underdog tea party candidates are knocking off well-funded moderate incumbents. Click here to read the full Gallup results.
2 Big Tips for Dealing with the Media
Ray Hagar is a veteran reporter at the Reno Gazette-Journal in Nevada. In a recent blog post he outlined some suggestions to candidates for how to deal with the media in your campaigns. The following two particularly stood out to me…
1.) “KNOW WHEN ‘off the record’ is really ‘off the record.’ Any time you are speaking to someone who identifies himself as a reporter of a news outlet, it is on the record. To go off the record, both parties must agree to it.”
Re-read that last sentence! Just because you put in your email, “Hey, this is off the record, OK?” doesn’t mean it’s off the record unless the reporter agrees.
2.) “IF A REPORTER asks you, ‘Why are you are running? Don’t reply: ‘Because I want to give something back to my community.’ That is probably the lamest answer you can give. If you want to ‘give something back to your community,’ help at the homeless shelter or donate to charity.”
“Why are you running?” is, indeed, the #1 question you will be asked in your campaign. “To give something back to the community” is, indeed, the #1 crappiest answer you can possibly reply with.
But I Don’t Like Spam!
There are services out there promising candidates that they can match the voter file for your district with the voters’ email addresses for very little money. This sounds GREAT, doesn’t it? Except…
Even though the CAN-SPAM law doesn’t apply to political campaigns, ISPs couldn’t care less. If you mail to a rented or purchased email list, you could very well end up having your campaign blacklisted. And that means your campaign could end up being blocked from sending out ANY emails, even to your closest supporters, donors and volunteers.
Read more here in “Reality Check: Spamming Doesn’t Pay”
15 Quotes to Inspire Better Listening
As the old saying goes, God gave you two ears and one mouth; use them in the same proportion.
But as we know, most candidates spend most of their time talking, not listening. If you fall into this category (and who among us doesn’t, at least from time to time?), Dave Kerpen at Inc.com provides a list of 15 of is “favorite quotes about the all-important skill of listening.” Click here
It’s All about the Stories
Why on earth would a rational person give money to a charity or political campaign? Seth Godin answers…
“A story. In fact, every time someone donates to a good cause, they’re buying a story, a story that’s worth more than the amount they donated. It might be the story of doing the right thing… It might be the story that you, and you alone are able to make this difference… For many, it’s the story of what it means to be part of a community. … If people aren’t donating to your cause, it’s because you’re not telling a story, or telling the wrong story to the wrong people in the wrong way.”
If you’re not using stories about people in your campaign, you’ll not only suffer in the fundraising department, you’ll suffer in the vote-getting department, as well. Reagan was a master storyteller. That was a key to “The Great Communicator’s” success. If you’re not a great storyteller…learn.
4 Tips that can Help Land Corporate Donations
The following hot tips won’t help you if your campaign is prohibited by law from accepting corporate donations, but otherwise – or if you’re running non-profit organization or PAC that can accept corporate donations – check out these suggestions from Software Advice‘s Robert Bellovin for developing long-lasting relationships with corporate donors. Click here
Five Rules for Thanking Donors
- Thank your donors as soon as possible
- A receipt is not a thank you
- One thank you is not enough
- Don’t forget other donation sources
- Make sure your “thank you” is sincere and memorable
Source: Non-Profit Marketing Blog
Raising Money with Donor Newsletters
“There is no action a fundraiser can take that is more essential or profitable than making certain the donor knows how important and wonderful she or he is,” writes Roger Craver in the forward of a new book by Tom Ahern titled, Making Money with Donor Newsletters.
“And there’s no communications vehicle as powerfully suited for this task than the simple, well-written four-page paper newsletter. Not digital. Not slick. Not focused on the ego of the organization. It’s not about you. It’s all about the donor.”
Click here for more information
300 Email Subject Lines
Steve MacLaughlin of Non-Profit Engage takes an in-depth look at emails sent out by scores of organizations asking for end-of-year donations. He reports on which days and at what times, as well as how often emails were sent out last month.
But the best part of the blog post is his list of 300 email subject lines which, even though we’re no longer at the end of the year, will still give you some great ideas for subject lines to use for your campaign…especially when you bump up against critical fundraising reporting deadlines.
Click here
Is Your Campaign Mobile Friendly?
Tom Belford of The Agitator reports that “all the media/digital monitoring services are now reporting that more than half of emails are opened with a mobile device,” so if your campaign is “not optimizing your digital presentations for mobile viewing, you’ll be leaving donations on the screen.”
“If a donor gets an email on their phone asking their support and the font is so small they can’t read it, or the donate button is too small to press, the organization is likely to lose that donor,” warns Amy Fecker of DonorDrive.