Welcome back to the weekly Nuts & Bolts Guide to small campaigns. Today I want to talk about something that happens to me every election cycle. In fact, I can guarantee you that at least one candidate is going to read this diary, hang their head, and think: “Is that me?!?” For 99.99% of you, it is not. However, in this week’s Nuts & Bolts I want to talk about how your campaign needs to give your own donors a break and not harass them over the holiday season. People want to support your campaign but at a certain point, just leave them alone. Give them a break so that they are excited to support you rather than dreading your name popping up on their caller ID.
The holiday seasons are generally reserved for friends and family, close contacts, and kind words. Should you be asking for donations on Christmas Eve or New Years Eve and Day? Let’s talk about it.
If someone wants to give, they can do that.
I want to make one thing clear: You never know when someone will want to give to your campaign. They might not celebrate any December holiday. They might fall into extra year-end money and be ready to give to your campaign. Donors like this are already on your mailing lists, and they already know how to contact and donate to your campaign if they desire to do so.
If someone has the desire to donate to your campaign on any given day, absolutely nothing is stopping them. When you contact donors you have to realize that there is a quick path from someone they want to support to the candidate they lose interest in and want to avoid.
A tale of 2016
In 2016, a candidate who will go unnamed took time to talk fundraising with me at a Democratic event. Nearly every day for the next seven months I found myself ducking phone calls from this same candidate asking me for money. I repeated multiple times that I had to put my efforts into more local races, and so I wished them luck and offered to help them find others, but their time might be better spent taking a break. I asked them if they used this same practice on other potential donors, and suggested that they avoid it as it will annoy potential voters. At one point I said: Look, if I was in your district and you did this to me while raising money, I would struggle to vote for you. I would do it, but not gleefully. They were offended.
But after weeks of nearly twice-a-day phone calls that were being shunted to voice mail, I didn’t know what else to say to this candidate. A year before the 2018 election, a candidate called me twice in the same day—the day after Thanksgiving—with an ask. In the second phone call it was basically: “I know this morning you had family around, but we have more time to talk right now about ...” and my immediate reaction was: Are you absolutely kidding me? The election is a year away, I’m sitting down playing video games with kids on a day off, and you want a second phone call about my family helping to raise or donate money to you? I hung up the phone and basically refused to take any call from that campaign at any point after that.
Your campaign can become a nuisance. Don’t do it. If you get a no from a donor, move on. Don’t spend all your time going back to a donor who gives you a no. Definitely do not go back to them during the holidays. If you have a donor you feel could give more, the easiest way to make sure they will not give your campaign any more funding is to destroy their time with friends and family by making their phones ring a year ahead of your election. They don’t want to hear it. Yes, you want a great quarterly report. It matters to you. What matters to the person you are calling is that they enjoy the holidays.
Donors, it is okay to say no.
While this series is mostly about the campaign side, I want to say something to the donors reading this diary. If a campaign repeatedly calls you during the holiday season or around important family events, it is absolutely okay to say: “Please do not call me right now. I’m okay talking about this, but not for a few weeks,” or “I think you should stop calling me. When I change my mind I will let you know.” If a candidate doesn’t listen, they are a bad candidate. Good candidates move on to raise actual funds rather than continually go back to the well of individuals who are not going to donate.
Final thought
Feel free to share on social media or through your online accounts that your campaign wishes people good will and a happy new year. If they decide to donate, great. That’s a pleasant reminder without a lot of force or push in it. That is enough for this season, and it will not offend many people. Don’t waste a lot of your campaign staff time, your candidate’s time, and your donors’ time. Everyone will feel better about it!
The holiday seasons are generally reserved for friends and family, close contacts, and kind words. Should you be asking for donations on Christmas Eve or New Years Eve and Day? Let’s talk about it.
If someone wants to give, they can do that.
I want to make one thing clear: You never know when someone will want to give to your campaign. They might not celebrate any December holiday. They might fall into extra year-end money and be ready to give to your campaign. Donors like this are already on your mailing lists, and they already know how to contact and donate to your campaign if they desire to do so.
If someone has the desire to donate to your campaign on any given day, absolutely nothing is stopping them. When you contact donors you have to realize that there is a quick path from someone they want to support to the candidate they lose interest in and want to avoid.
A tale of 2016
In 2016, a candidate who will go unnamed took time to talk fundraising with me at a Democratic event. Nearly every day for the next seven months I found myself ducking phone calls from this same candidate asking me for money. I repeated multiple times that I had to put my efforts into more local races, and so I wished them luck and offered to help them find others, but their time might be better spent taking a break. I asked them if they used this same practice on other potential donors, and suggested that they avoid it as it will annoy potential voters. At one point I said: Look, if I was in your district and you did this to me while raising money, I would struggle to vote for you. I would do it, but not gleefully. They were offended.
But after weeks of nearly twice-a-day phone calls that were being shunted to voice mail, I didn’t know what else to say to this candidate. A year before the 2018 election, a candidate called me twice in the same day—the day after Thanksgiving—with an ask. In the second phone call it was basically: “I know this morning you had family around, but we have more time to talk right now about ...” and my immediate reaction was: Are you absolutely kidding me? The election is a year away, I’m sitting down playing video games with kids on a day off, and you want a second phone call about my family helping to raise or donate money to you? I hung up the phone and basically refused to take any call from that campaign at any point after that.
Your campaign can become a nuisance. Don’t do it. If you get a no from a donor, move on. Don’t spend all your time going back to a donor who gives you a no. Definitely do not go back to them during the holidays. If you have a donor you feel could give more, the easiest way to make sure they will not give your campaign any more funding is to destroy their time with friends and family by making their phones ring a year ahead of your election. They don’t want to hear it. Yes, you want a great quarterly report. It matters to you. What matters to the person you are calling is that they enjoy the holidays.
Donors, it is okay to say no.
While this series is mostly about the campaign side, I want to say something to the donors reading this diary. If a campaign repeatedly calls you during the holiday season or around important family events, it is absolutely okay to say: “Please do not call me right now. I’m okay talking about this, but not for a few weeks,” or “I think you should stop calling me. When I change my mind I will let you know.” If a candidate doesn’t listen, they are a bad candidate. Good candidates move on to raise actual funds rather than continually go back to the well of individuals who are not going to donate.
Final thought
Feel free to share on social media or through your online accounts that your campaign wishes people good will and a happy new year. If they decide to donate, great. That’s a pleasant reminder without a lot of force or push in it. That is enough for this season, and it will not offend many people. Don’t waste a lot of your campaign staff time, your candidate’s time, and your donors’ time. Everyone will feel better about it!