April 2, 2024 • 22 mins
Have you ever found your festive mood dampened by an unexpected email from a political campaign begging for cash? Join us as we unravel the tension between celebration and solicitation, spotlighting the often jarring misstep of political fundraising during holidays like Easter. We're peeling back the layers on why these pleas for donations land with such a thud during moments meant for reflection or joy. With insights from a keen Washington Post analysis, we delve into the wider repercussions of this relentless chase for funds and dissect the unrealistic expectations candidates hold about small-dollar contributions. It's a candid conversation grounded in shared experiences and bolstered by expert commentary that promises to shift your perspective on the electoral money machine.
Prepare for an eye-opening discussion on political fundraising strategies, where the art of the ask ranges from the innovative to the invasive. We recount stories of organizational triumphs through distinct email designs that break through the noise and contrast them with the ineffective desperation that floods so many of our inboxes. Moreover, we explore the strategic pivot from generic money grabs to personal, update-centric emails and the importance of tact and originality, particularly during significant cultural and religious times. Through these tales and tactics, we reveal the secret sauce to resonating with an electorate that's grown tired of being treated as mere ATMs, offering a blueprint for campaign communications that genuinely engage rather than estrange.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Just like Jesus made his comeback on the third day,
we've got a comeback of our ownto make.
That's right.
We're up against anend-of-quarter fundraising
deadline and we desperately needyour help.
Gross, this is Jesse White.
Welcome to the KeystoneReckoning Podcast for April 2nd
2024.
Sorry, we took a couple days offfor Easter and apparently we
(00:26):
were the only ones that did,because what we're going to talk
about today is campaignfundraising by candidates at
perhaps inopportune times.
In this case, we're going totalk about fundraising by
candidates on Easter Sunday.
I don't know about anybody else, but I got multiple emails and
texts from campaigns that I'venever even donated to, by the
(00:49):
way, and I think that's animportant distinction looking
for money, because Sunday atmidnight was the end of quarter
deadline for fundraising.
So let's take a step back andtalk about the components of
this and talk about thecomponents of this.
First of all and I want to makethis abundantly clear nobody
(01:16):
gives a damn about your end ofquarter fundraising deadline.
Campaign people and politicallyastute people know that it's
kind of an artificial deadline.
Yeah, it's great to be able toshow you've raised more money on
your campaign finance report,but it's not like something bad
is going to happen if you don'tmeet your deadline.
It's not like your campaign'sgoing to fold if you don't get
my $4.
(01:37):
It reeks of desperation andinsincerity and it's just
ridiculous For non-politicalpeople that just casually get
these messages.
They don't understand what thatmeans and they just don't care.
And they really don't care whenthey're getting hit up for
money from you on a holiday orfor the 17th time in 10 days,
(02:08):
because the other thing that'sgreat is these things these
emails and texts have such amessage of desperation.
I don't know to me if I'mtalking about a deadline, and I
mentioned it seven times overseven weeks.
It doesn't feel like that bigof a deadline anymore.
Right, it's.
(02:29):
You know, if there was onedeadline and you're like look,
this is our deadline, we have tomeet it, okay that I get that,
but I read these and I know whatthe deadlines are, so I know
that a lot of the campaigns arejust kind of making it up.
You, you know they can saywhatever they want, but it's
very disingenuous.
So I got emails, I got texts.
(02:49):
We were at Easter dinner.
My father in law got at leastone text asking for money from
somebody else and everybody justkind of rolled their eyes and
complained.
Quite frankly, nobody wasimpressed and to me it's a good
example of campaigns just beingtotally and completely tone deaf
(03:11):
.
And this is something that as aconsultant and you know when
someone who's run campaigns,it's something you have to
really bring candidates to termswith, which is, you know,
unless you're running forpresident, nobody cares about,
is thinking about your campaignas much as you, right, you know,
(03:31):
we're three weeks out todayfrom the Democratic primary here
in Pennsylvania or Republicanprimary.
We're three weeks out from theprimary election.
So, yeah, if you're a candidate, if you're a staffer, whatever,
yes, that is all you were doingright now and all you were
thinking about, and it's allyou've been thinking about for a
while, and that's good.
That's the way it's supposed towork.
But we tend to get tunnelvision and then we don't realize
(03:54):
that most of the people aroundus, they're just out living
their lives on a day-to-daybasis and worry about getting
the kids to baseball practiceand getting to the grocery store
and all the things that you doin daily life.
They just don't, they're justnot thinking about it that much
it's.
I mean, look at the numbers.
It's a miracle we can get themto think and come out and vote,
let alone worry about all of themachinery and the maneuvers
(04:18):
behind every little campaign onthe ballot.
It just doesn't work that wayand I found that candidates that
don't get that are usually verydisappointed and often
bewildered on election nightbecause they don't get that.
They are disproportionatelyengaged in their campaign and
(04:38):
most people aren't.
So I think that lends to someof it.
I think the other part of it isa lot of fundraising firms and
consultants.
You know they're not innocentin this and for a variety of
reasons, and there's a greatarticle in the Washington Post
yesterday about.
(04:59):
It's called how RepublicansTexted and Emailed their Way
into a Money Problem and ittalks mainly about Trump and the
donations to Trump and the GOPbeing way down like kind of year
after year or year over year,because Trump has just
overexploited and overtapped hisdonors.
And now that Trump has directcontrol of the RNC, you know,
(05:24):
and with the stated goal thatevery single dollar raised is
going to help get Trumpreelected you know they're just
pouring it on, but it shows that.
You know the data shows thatthe money is just way, way down.
Last year Trump raised just $51million from small donors way
(05:50):
down from the $119 million heregistered in 2019.
And the Biden campaign isactually raising more from
small-dollar donors and frombig-dollar donors, so it's
showing.
They talked to a bunch ofdifferent people about how
fundraising firms are tellingparticularly Republican clients
lower expectations, don't expecttoo much to come in.
And what I've also found isdown-ballot candidates at least
(06:14):
on the Democratic side that I'veworked with they, especially
early in a campaign they justfundamentally do not understand
how small-dollar fundraisingworks.
They think that they see thesenumbers that big candidates, the
big time candidates, bring inand they think, well, we could
do that.
We'll put ads on Facebook andthe money will just start
(06:35):
rolling in.
And it doesn't work that way.
It just doesn't, mainly becausefor most of those campaigns you
don't have an email list, youdon't have a fundraising base,
so getting the cost ofacquisition of those small
dollar donors is higher than thedonation.
It's very, very difficult.
(06:59):
What it is, honestly, for a lotof candidates that is the I
don't want to say lazy.
It's the low effort, low energyapproach, because if I could
(07:22):
just get a thousand people togive me $10, that's $10,000.
But it doesn't work that way.
You know, with few exceptions.
You know, in the big, big races, or people that have huge email
lists or huge followings, orpeople that really are doing
something, like you know,members of Congress, for example
, that were involved in theJanuary 6th committee when those
(07:42):
hearings were all on TV, peoplelike Adam Schiff, jamie Raskin,
madeline Dean.
They rose to nationalprominence and they were doing
something very important at thattime.
So people that appreciated thatwould donate to them, and
that's one thing.
But just like the run of themill election, it doesn't work.
And to give you I'm going to goback to the Easter thing for a
(08:04):
minute because I looked onthere's a wonderful website out
there.
It's politicalemailsorg andit's the archive of political
emails and it's updated dailyand it gives for a lot of
campaigns not all and there's alot of like state ones you know,
state level ones that aren't inthere.
So this is just a sampling, butit has lists.
(08:26):
I guess somebody.
They just subscribe to all theemail lists they can get their
hands on and then they get allthe emails and they upload them
and you can see them all.
You can see when they were sent, what time and everything On
Easter Sunday, and this isDemocrat and Republican
candidates and PACs, so it's alllumped together.
But on Easter Sunday there were901 fundraising emails sent.
(08:52):
According to this archive, 901different fundraising emails
went out.
Politically, that's crazy.
That's crazy.
I would love to know what thereturn on those are.
You know, because if you'regoing to do an end of quarter
one, you know, do it on Saturday, do it on Friday and use the
(09:16):
fact.
Be like look, our deadline isSunday, but we would never
bother you on Easter Sunday.
So we're asking for yoursupport today.
That would actually be awinning message, right?
If you're like up against it,you, that would actually be a
winning message, right?
If you're like up against it.
You're like, look, I need toraise money, I want to take
advantage of this deadline.
Okay, I get that.
Do it in a way that shows somebasic consideration for donors
(09:40):
and their families and whatthey're going to be doing that
day.
To me that's just common sense.
But part of the problem isthere are a lot of consulting
firms out there that make moneybased on the volume of emails
and texts that get sent out.
There are firms that make moneybased on a percentage of
(10:01):
dollars raised.
So for them it's a volume playright.
Just the more we can churn out,the more we get back, and they
don't care about the diminishingimpact on the donor base.
There's also a lot of you know.
I'm sure if you're listening tothis political podcast you're
also on a bunch of emailinglists and there's a lot of list
(10:25):
swapping.
That goes on.
It's interesting and this is afun exercise to do If you sign
up, for it's an easy way to seeif your information is being
sold or traded politically Ifyou sign up for a list.
I did this by accident once Isigned up for a list and I made
a typo when I put my name in.
Instead of J-E-S-S-E I typeJ-E-S-S-D.
(10:48):
So on one list, like five yearsago, I now get to because you
do the personalization toJ-E-S-S-D white, I probably get
campaign emails from oh, I don'tknow 15, 20 different
organizations and candidates.
(11:09):
So I was able to tell it waslike a tracer.
Basically it was an accident,but I was able to learn where
that went because I used avariation of my name.
Try that sometime.
If you're gonna sign up forsomething, if you're gonna make
a donation, use a variation ofyour name and see how it comes
(11:30):
back to you.
It's a really interestinglittle thought experiment.
But anyway, let's get back tothis Easter holiday thing,
because to me I think there's asweet spot for how often to ask
(11:51):
for money, and I don't know what.
To me it's.
You know, if I send out, if I'mdoing campaigns state house or
higher right or countywidewhatever if I do what I would
typically advise clients to do,you would do two emails a week
if you had a decent list.
I did a campaign last year.
Our email list was countywide.
(12:12):
Our email list was like 10,000emails Good list, that's a good
size list and they were local.
They weren't all donors, butthey were local and they were
people that would have beenpaying attention to what was
going on.
They weren't just randoms, theywere voters.
It was a good list.
What I typically would advise isyou would do two emails a week.
(12:33):
You would do one was kind of anupdate.
This is what we've been up to.
This is what's going on thecampaign.
This is where I've been.
You throw some pictures inthere.
You keep it short and sweet.
Endorsements, whatever, you havea hook, and of course you do
your solicitation.
Endorsements, whatever right,you have a hook, and of course
you do your solicitation.
Uh, fundraising solicitation,volunteer solicitation at the
end, you know you don't totallyignore it.
(12:54):
And then you would also.
Then, after that, you know, thelater in the week you would do
your straight up fundraisingemail, the idea being, you know
you've demonstrated your valueand that you're working hard
early, they've got thatregistered and now you like, and
now I'm here to collect on thatbecause I've earned your
donation.
I don't know, to me that feels,and I always look at that from
(13:16):
the.
I always look at things fromthe perception of the end user.
Right, what to me, if I'vereceived it, what would make me
more inclined to want to donate?
And I take that, and you wouldmake me more inclined to want to
donate.
And I take that and kind of dosome informal focus groups and I
do a lot of research on thisand to me that makes the most
(13:37):
sense.
But it's interesting, I workedfor an organization in 2020.
Big national organization andthey have a PAC and I worked for
them and so I signed up fortheir email list, right, I was
like, all right, I'm just goingto sign up for this with my
personal email.
(13:58):
I was obliterated withfundraising emails.
I mean, they overwhelmed me andthe fascinating thing was they
were like real well, ugly wasthe only word I can use to
describe it.
They were like super.
They didn't look anything likethe typical fundraising email.
You see, you know,well-designed a header or this
(14:20):
or that you know like integrate.
You know it was not like thatat all.
It was honestly like a bunch oftext and multicolored, like
like it was like if, if you, ifI don't let my eight year old
design it, it was.
They were that.
They were that bad, objectivelyRight.
I was like these look terrible.
And I was getting.
I was getting two or three aday.
(14:41):
I mean I've never seen anythinglike it.
I had to unsubscribe from thelist of the organization I was
working for because it was toomuch.
Then I found out that that yearthey raised $51 million off of
that list with that strategy andI talked to a couple people
there.
I made it a point to ask.
(15:02):
I was like you know, I'mworking for you right now.
I was doing field andoperations and stuff.
I wasn't on the fundraisingpart of it, I wasn't involved in
any of that, but I was like Igot to know how are you doing
this?
Like, how is that programworking and they said and this
was a very data-drivenorganization, very data-driven,
(15:26):
maybe one of the mostdata-driven I've ever seen, and
that is what they learned fromdoing all this.
That that's what worked.
Maybe it was because it was anoutlier and it was so different
from what everybody else wasdoing.
I don't know, but it was wild.
So I don't know, maybe I don'tknow anything, maybe that is the
(15:47):
approach, but it does feel nowthat everything, and you know,
and it wasn't the volume, maybethat is the approach, but it
does feel now that everythingand it wasn't the volume, I
think that may have beensuccessful for that organization
.
Maybe it was just that theircontent just looked and felt so
different.
You know, they were thetie-dyed shirt in a world of you
know, blue blazers and khakis.
(16:08):
I don't know.
But what it does drive me crazyis that so many of these
fundraising emails and texts areso cookie cutter.
I mean they are so cookiecutter.
It is insert candidate's namehere, right here.
This is the text I got onEaster and, by the way, so it
(16:29):
has a.
It's an MMS, so it's a messagetext.
You know a multimedia text, soit has a photo and then it has,
like the text underneath it.
And another thing that drivesme crazy is like these things
are just way too damn long.
I mean, this is athree-paragraph text and that's
(16:51):
one of the shorter ones and itjust like there's just too much
there.
I don't read.
You're like I'm not readingthis, but anyhow, the other
thing about it I'm not going tosay who it is right now, but
it's a congressional candidatewho has bombarded me with
outreach to the point where it'sjust really annoying me.
But they make it a point to use.
(17:14):
There's some stuff out therethat is some racially
insensitive comments that weremade and I don't know how
widespread they were, but it waslike a public.
And I don't know how widespreadthey were, but it was like a
public, it's real.
I mean, it's real.
I've heard it myself, so I knowit's real.
And I don't know if it's outthere in the general world or
(17:36):
not, but it's funny because it'sso obvious.
Everything they do emails,texts, whatever it's like.
Oh, let's put a picture of ourwhite candidate with people of
color.
It's the version of I haveblack friends.
It's so offensive to me.
It's so because I know whatthey're trying to do and it's
(17:56):
insulting that that's whatthey're trying to do, but anyway
.
So there's a photo of thecandidate holding up one of
their signs.
They're taking a like, they'retaking a selfie, and there are.
They're in what it's a church,I can tell that, which at least
they.
I guess they got some religious, uh, imagery for Easter Sunday.
I I don't know if that was achoice or not.
(18:17):
Interesting choice if it was,and there were, I can count of
the people in the background.
There's like six people I couldsee.
At least three of them arepeople of color.
I would note also that none ofthem are expressly posing for
the photo.
So the candidate just kind oflike photo bombed all these
people while they were doingsomething else, which I think is
(18:38):
also super offensive.
I mean, that is like thedefinition of using someone as a
prop and they didn't even knowit.
Anyway, that's just me, but itsays hi blank candidate.
Here I'm running to unseat,so-and-so.
We deserve better than a leader.
I'm running for Congress tosupport working families,
(19:02):
communities of color and thefuture of democracy in
Pennsylvania and beyond.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
We are officially less thanfour weeks out from the primary
and less than 12 hours away frommy first end-of-quarter
fundraising deadline of theelection year, so there's a
little word jujitsu there.
But they have made many claimsto me that they are up against
fundraising deadlines.
Made many claims to me thatthey're up against fundraising
(19:23):
deadlines.
I set out to raise $25,000 bytonight and we can't afford to
have our fundraising numberslook vulnerable to Republican
mega donors and dark moneygroups for even one second.
Will you donate any all capsamount possible to help me reach
my goal by midnight?
And then the best part is itsays this is really candidate's
(19:44):
first name, but you can textstop to opt out of text for me.
So I texted back.
I normally never do this, but Itexted back begging for money
on Easter Yikes, just to see ifsomeone would respond.
I would have given them creditfor that and, of course, no
response.
Now you and I both know that isnot actually the candidate.
That's a candidate's campaign,right, and it goes to a texting
(20:04):
platform.
The implication is that thatcandidate sat there from their
phone and typed that out to meand was like here, look at this
picture.
And we all know that's not trueor at least I do, you do.
And then, on top of all that, Igo on Twitter, which I'm I got
to quit Twitter.
(20:24):
It's become such a cesspool.
I mean, even which I'm I got toquit Twitter.
It's become such a cesspool.
I mean, even when it was goodquote, good it was a cesspool.
Now it's just, it's like acesspool within a cesspool.
But someone was talking on oneof the accounts I follow.
Someone was talking about someof these fundraising things and
you know I heard, I saw someone,you know it was like I respect
the hustle and it's like no, no,that's the kind of mentality
(20:47):
that makes people hate politicaloperatives and political
campaigns.
Read the room, folks, read theroom.
Nobody is sitting down toEaster dinner or, in this case,
we were doing the Easter egghunt with our kids when I got
this text and and it's like, ohmy god, they have a fundraising
(21:09):
deadline tonight.
Honey, did you know it was theend of the quarter?
Quick, grab the credit card,drop what we're doing.
Sorry kids, no eggs for you.
We've got to use all that moneyto help support the end of the
quarter deadline.
Read the room, respect yourdonors or, in this case, your
(21:32):
prospective donors.
I never given this candidate apenny.
Show some respect, show someself-awareness.
You will get more money, youwill get more respect and you
will ultimately get more votes.
(21:53):
Thank you for letting me rant.
We'll do it again tomorrow.
This has been the KeystoneReckoning Podcast.
Have a great day.
Just like Jesus made his comeback on the third day,
we've got a comeback of our ownto make.
That's right.
We're up against anend-of-quarter fundraising
deadline and we desperately needyour help.
Gross, this is Jesse White.
Welcome to the KeystoneReckoning Podcast for April 2nd
2024.
Sorry, we took a couple days offfor Easter and apparently we
(00:26):
were the only ones that did,because what we're going to talk
about today is campaignfundraising by candidates at
perhaps inopportune times.
In this case, we're going totalk about fundraising by
candidates on Easter Sunday.
I don't know about anybody else, but I got multiple emails and
texts from campaigns that I'venever even donated to, by the
(00:49):
way, and I think that's animportant distinction looking
for money, because Sunday atmidnight was the end of quarter
deadline for fundraising.
So let's take a step back andtalk about the components of
this and talk about thecomponents of this.
First of all and I want to makethis abundantly clear nobody
(01:16):
gives a damn about your end ofquarter fundraising deadline.
Campaign people and politicallyastute people know that it's
kind of an artificial deadline.
Yeah, it's great to be able toshow you've raised more money on
your campaign finance report,but it's not like something bad
is going to happen if you don'tmeet your deadline.
It's not like your campaign'sgoing to fold if you don't get
my $4.
(01:37):
It reeks of desperation andinsincerity and it's just
ridiculous For non-politicalpeople that just casually get
these messages.
They don't understand what thatmeans and they just don't care.
And they really don't care whenthey're getting hit up for
money from you on a holiday orfor the 17th time in 10 days,
(02:08):
because the other thing that'sgreat is these things these
emails and texts have such amessage of desperation.
I don't know to me if I'mtalking about a deadline, and I
mentioned it seven times overseven weeks.
It doesn't feel like that bigof a deadline anymore.
Right, it's.
(02:29):
You know, if there was onedeadline and you're like look,
this is our deadline, we have tomeet it, okay that I get that,
but I read these and I know whatthe deadlines are, so I know
that a lot of the campaigns arejust kind of making it up.
You, you know they can saywhatever they want, but it's
very disingenuous.
So I got emails, I got texts.
(02:49):
We were at Easter dinner.
My father in law got at leastone text asking for money from
somebody else and everybody justkind of rolled their eyes and
complained.
Quite frankly, nobody wasimpressed and to me it's a good
example of campaigns just beingtotally and completely tone deaf
(03:11):
.
And this is something that as aconsultant and you know when
someone who's run campaigns,it's something you have to
really bring candidates to termswith, which is, you know,
unless you're running forpresident, nobody cares about,
is thinking about your campaignas much as you, right, you know,
(03:31):
we're three weeks out todayfrom the Democratic primary here
in Pennsylvania or Republicanprimary.
We're three weeks out from theprimary election.
So, yeah, if you're a candidate, if you're a staffer, whatever,
yes, that is all you were doingright now and all you were
thinking about, and it's allyou've been thinking about for a
while, and that's good.
That's the way it's supposed towork.
But we tend to get tunnelvision and then we don't realize
(03:54):
that most of the people aroundus, they're just out living
their lives on a day-to-daybasis and worry about getting
the kids to baseball practiceand getting to the grocery store
and all the things that you doin daily life.
They just don't, they're justnot thinking about it that much
it's.
I mean, look at the numbers.
It's a miracle we can get themto think and come out and vote,
let alone worry about all of themachinery and the maneuvers
(04:18):
behind every little campaign onthe ballot.
It just doesn't work that wayand I found that candidates that
don't get that are usually verydisappointed and often
bewildered on election nightbecause they don't get that.
They are disproportionatelyengaged in their campaign and
(04:38):
most people aren't.
So I think that lends to someof it.
I think the other part of it isa lot of fundraising firms and
consultants.
You know they're not innocentin this and for a variety of
reasons, and there's a greatarticle in the Washington Post
yesterday about.
(04:59):
It's called how RepublicansTexted and Emailed their Way
into a Money Problem and ittalks mainly about Trump and the
donations to Trump and the GOPbeing way down like kind of year
after year or year over year,because Trump has just
overexploited and overtapped hisdonors.
And now that Trump has directcontrol of the RNC, you know,
(05:24):
and with the stated goal thatevery single dollar raised is
going to help get Trumpreelected you know they're just
pouring it on, but it shows that.
You know the data shows thatthe money is just way, way down.
Last year Trump raised just $51million from small donors way
(05:50):
down from the $119 million heregistered in 2019.
And the Biden campaign isactually raising more from
small-dollar donors and frombig-dollar donors, so it's
showing.
They talked to a bunch ofdifferent people about how
fundraising firms are tellingparticularly Republican clients
lower expectations, don't expecttoo much to come in.
And what I've also found isdown-ballot candidates at least
(06:14):
on the Democratic side that I'veworked with they, especially
early in a campaign they justfundamentally do not understand
how small-dollar fundraisingworks.
They think that they see thesenumbers that big candidates, the
big time candidates, bring inand they think, well, we could
do that.
We'll put ads on Facebook andthe money will just start
(06:35):
rolling in.
And it doesn't work that way.
It just doesn't, mainly becausefor most of those campaigns you
don't have an email list, youdon't have a fundraising base,
so getting the cost ofacquisition of those small
dollar donors is higher than thedonation.
It's very, very difficult.
(06:59):
What it is, honestly, for a lotof candidates that is the I
don't want to say lazy.
It's the low effort, low energyapproach, because if I could
(07:22):
just get a thousand people togive me $10, that's $10,000.
But it doesn't work that way.
You know, with few exceptions.
You know, in the big, big races, or people that have huge email
lists or huge followings, orpeople that really are doing
something, like you know,members of Congress, for example
, that were involved in theJanuary 6th committee when those
(07:42):
hearings were all on TV, peoplelike Adam Schiff, jamie Raskin,
madeline Dean.
They rose to nationalprominence and they were doing
something very important at thattime.
So people that appreciated thatwould donate to them, and
that's one thing.
But just like the run of themill election, it doesn't work.
And to give you I'm going to goback to the Easter thing for a
(08:04):
minute because I looked onthere's a wonderful website out
there.
It's politicalemailsorg andit's the archive of political
emails and it's updated dailyand it gives for a lot of
campaigns not all and there's alot of like state ones you know,
state level ones that aren't inthere.
So this is just a sampling, butit has lists.
(08:26):
I guess somebody.
They just subscribe to all theemail lists they can get their
hands on and then they get allthe emails and they upload them
and you can see them all.
You can see when they were sent, what time and everything On
Easter Sunday, and this isDemocrat and Republican
candidates and PACs, so it's alllumped together.
But on Easter Sunday there were901 fundraising emails sent.
(08:52):
According to this archive, 901different fundraising emails
went out.
Politically, that's crazy.
That's crazy.
I would love to know what thereturn on those are.
You know, because if you'regoing to do an end of quarter
one, you know, do it on Saturday, do it on Friday and use the
(09:16):
fact.
Be like look, our deadline isSunday, but we would never
bother you on Easter Sunday.
So we're asking for yoursupport today.
That would actually be awinning message, right?
If you're like up against it,you, that would actually be a
winning message, right?
If you're like up against it.
You're like, look, I need toraise money, I want to take
advantage of this deadline.
Okay, I get that.
Do it in a way that shows somebasic consideration for donors
(09:40):
and their families and whatthey're going to be doing that
day.
To me that's just common sense.
But part of the problem isthere are a lot of consulting
firms out there that make moneybased on the volume of emails
and texts that get sent out.
There are firms that make moneybased on a percentage of
(10:01):
dollars raised.
So for them it's a volume playright.
Just the more we can churn out,the more we get back, and they
don't care about the diminishingimpact on the donor base.
There's also a lot of you know.
I'm sure if you're listening tothis political podcast you're
also on a bunch of emailinglists and there's a lot of list
(10:25):
swapping.
That goes on.
It's interesting and this is afun exercise to do If you sign
up, for it's an easy way to seeif your information is being
sold or traded politically Ifyou sign up for a list.
I did this by accident once Isigned up for a list and I made
a typo when I put my name in.
Instead of J-E-S-S-E I typeJ-E-S-S-D.
(10:48):
So on one list, like five yearsago, I now get to because you
do the personalization toJ-E-S-S-D white, I probably get
campaign emails from oh, I don'tknow 15, 20 different
organizations and candidates.
(11:09):
So I was able to tell it waslike a tracer.
Basically it was an accident,but I was able to learn where
that went because I used avariation of my name.
Try that sometime.
If you're gonna sign up forsomething, if you're gonna make
a donation, use a variation ofyour name and see how it comes
(11:30):
back to you.
It's a really interestinglittle thought experiment.
But anyway, let's get back tothis Easter holiday thing,
because to me I think there's asweet spot for how often to ask
(11:51):
for money, and I don't know what.
To me it's.
You know, if I send out, if I'mdoing campaigns state house or
higher right or countywidewhatever if I do what I would
typically advise clients to do,you would do two emails a week
if you had a decent list.
I did a campaign last year.
Our email list was countywide.
(12:12):
Our email list was like 10,000emails Good list, that's a good
size list and they were local.
They weren't all donors, butthey were local and they were
people that would have beenpaying attention to what was
going on.
They weren't just randoms, theywere voters.
It was a good list.
What I typically would advise isyou would do two emails a week.
(12:33):
You would do one was kind of anupdate.
This is what we've been up to.
This is what's going on thecampaign.
This is where I've been.
You throw some pictures inthere.
You keep it short and sweet.
Endorsements, whatever, you havea hook, and of course you do
your solicitation.
Endorsements, whatever right,you have a hook, and of course
you do your solicitation.
Uh, fundraising solicitation,volunteer solicitation at the
end, you know you don't totallyignore it.
(12:54):
And then you would also.
Then, after that, you know, thelater in the week you would do
your straight up fundraisingemail, the idea being, you know
you've demonstrated your valueand that you're working hard
early, they've got thatregistered and now you like, and
now I'm here to collect on thatbecause I've earned your
donation.
I don't know, to me that feels,and I always look at that from
(13:16):
the.
I always look at things fromthe perception of the end user.
Right, what to me, if I'vereceived it, what would make me
more inclined to want to donate?
And I take that, and you wouldmake me more inclined to want to
donate.
And I take that and kind of dosome informal focus groups and I
do a lot of research on thisand to me that makes the most
(13:37):
sense.
But it's interesting, I workedfor an organization in 2020.
Big national organization andthey have a PAC and I worked for
them and so I signed up fortheir email list, right, I was
like, all right, I'm just goingto sign up for this with my
personal email.
(13:58):
I was obliterated withfundraising emails.
I mean, they overwhelmed me andthe fascinating thing was they
were like real well, ugly wasthe only word I can use to
describe it.
They were like super.
They didn't look anything likethe typical fundraising email.
You see, you know,well-designed a header or this
(14:20):
or that you know like integrate.
You know it was not like thatat all.
It was honestly like a bunch oftext and multicolored, like
like it was like if, if you, ifI don't let my eight year old
design it, it was.
They were that.
They were that bad, objectivelyRight.
I was like these look terrible.
And I was getting.
I was getting two or three aday.
(14:41):
I mean I've never seen anythinglike it.
I had to unsubscribe from thelist of the organization I was
working for because it was toomuch.
Then I found out that that yearthey raised $51 million off of
that list with that strategy andI talked to a couple people
there.
I made it a point to ask.
(15:02):
I was like you know, I'mworking for you right now.
I was doing field andoperations and stuff.
I wasn't on the fundraisingpart of it, I wasn't involved in
any of that, but I was like Igot to know how are you doing
this?
Like, how is that programworking and they said and this
was a very data-drivenorganization, very data-driven,
(15:26):
maybe one of the mostdata-driven I've ever seen, and
that is what they learned fromdoing all this.
That that's what worked.
Maybe it was because it was anoutlier and it was so different
from what everybody else wasdoing.
I don't know, but it was wild.
So I don't know, maybe I don'tknow anything, maybe that is the
(15:47):
approach, but it does feel nowthat everything, and you know,
and it wasn't the volume, maybethat is the approach, but it
does feel now that everythingand it wasn't the volume, I
think that may have beensuccessful for that organization
.
Maybe it was just that theircontent just looked and felt so
different.
You know, they were thetie-dyed shirt in a world of you
know, blue blazers and khakis.
(16:08):
I don't know.
But what it does drive me crazyis that so many of these
fundraising emails and texts areso cookie cutter.
I mean they are so cookiecutter.
It is insert candidate's namehere, right here.
This is the text I got onEaster and, by the way, so it
(16:29):
has a.
It's an MMS, so it's a messagetext.
You know a multimedia text, soit has a photo and then it has,
like the text underneath it.
And another thing that drivesme crazy is like these things
are just way too damn long.
I mean, this is athree-paragraph text and that's
(16:51):
one of the shorter ones and itjust like there's just too much
there.
I don't read.
You're like I'm not readingthis, but anyhow, the other
thing about it I'm not going tosay who it is right now, but
it's a congressional candidatewho has bombarded me with
outreach to the point where it'sjust really annoying me.
But they make it a point to use.
(17:14):
There's some stuff out therethat is some racially
insensitive comments that weremade and I don't know how
widespread they were, but it waslike a public.
And I don't know how widespreadthey were, but it was like a
public, it's real.
I mean, it's real.
I've heard it myself, so I knowit's real.
And I don't know if it's outthere in the general world or
(17:36):
not, but it's funny because it'sso obvious.
Everything they do emails,texts, whatever it's like.
Oh, let's put a picture of ourwhite candidate with people of
color.
It's the version of I haveblack friends.
It's so offensive to me.
It's so because I know whatthey're trying to do and it's
(17:56):
insulting that that's whatthey're trying to do, but anyway
.
So there's a photo of thecandidate holding up one of
their signs.
They're taking a like, they'retaking a selfie, and there are.
They're in what it's a church,I can tell that, which at least
they.
I guess they got some religious, uh, imagery for Easter Sunday.
I I don't know if that was achoice or not.
(18:17):
Interesting choice if it was,and there were, I can count of
the people in the background.
There's like six people I couldsee.
At least three of them arepeople of color.
I would note also that none ofthem are expressly posing for
the photo.
So the candidate just kind oflike photo bombed all these
people while they were doingsomething else, which I think is
(18:38):
also super offensive.
I mean, that is like thedefinition of using someone as a
prop and they didn't even knowit.
Anyway, that's just me, but itsays hi blank candidate.
Here I'm running to unseat,so-and-so.
We deserve better than a leader.
I'm running for Congress tosupport working families,
(19:02):
communities of color and thefuture of democracy in
Pennsylvania and beyond.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
We are officially less thanfour weeks out from the primary
and less than 12 hours away frommy first end-of-quarter
fundraising deadline of theelection year, so there's a
little word jujitsu there.
But they have made many claimsto me that they are up against
fundraising deadlines.
Made many claims to me thatthey're up against fundraising
(19:23):
deadlines.
I set out to raise $25,000 bytonight and we can't afford to
have our fundraising numberslook vulnerable to Republican
mega donors and dark moneygroups for even one second.
Will you donate any all capsamount possible to help me reach
my goal by midnight?
And then the best part is itsays this is really candidate's
(19:44):
first name, but you can textstop to opt out of text for me.
So I texted back.
I normally never do this, but Itexted back begging for money
on Easter Yikes, just to see ifsomeone would respond.
I would have given them creditfor that and, of course, no
response.
Now you and I both know that isnot actually the candidate.
That's a candidate's campaign,right, and it goes to a texting
(20:04):
platform.
The implication is that thatcandidate sat there from their
phone and typed that out to meand was like here, look at this
picture.
And we all know that's not trueor at least I do, you do.
And then, on top of all that, Igo on Twitter, which I'm I got
to quit Twitter.
(20:24):
It's become such a cesspool.
I mean, even which I'm I got toquit Twitter.
It's become such a cesspool.
I mean, even when it was goodquote, good it was a cesspool.
Now it's just, it's like acesspool within a cesspool.
But someone was talking on oneof the accounts I follow.
Someone was talking about someof these fundraising things and
you know I heard, I saw someone,you know it was like I respect
the hustle and it's like no, no,that's the kind of mentality
(20:47):
that makes people hate politicaloperatives and political
campaigns.
Read the room, folks, read theroom.
Nobody is sitting down toEaster dinner or, in this case,
we were doing the Easter egghunt with our kids when I got
this text and and it's like, ohmy god, they have a fundraising
(21:09):
deadline tonight.
Honey, did you know it was theend of the quarter?
Quick, grab the credit card,drop what we're doing.
Sorry kids, no eggs for you.
We've got to use all that moneyto help support the end of the
quarter deadline.
Read the room, respect yourdonors or, in this case, your
(21:32):
prospective donors.
I never given this candidate apenny.
Show some respect, show someself-awareness.
You will get more money, youwill get more respect and you
will ultimately get more votes.
(21:53):
Thank you for letting me rant.
We'll do it again tomorrow.
This has been the KeystoneReckoning Podcast.
Have a great day.
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