FUNDRAISING WARNING

Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of fundraising!

Running a campaign will cost money. Most candidates start out their campaigns with money from their bank accounts, money from their 401Ks, loans from family, or credit cards. You will need to check with your election authority (FEC, if running for federal office) to find out the rules. Most often, you are legally allowed to “pay yourself back” from future campaign funds.

We run lean and mean campaigns, that means you don’t need millions of dollars to compete. It is important to prioritize your spending. No, you don’t need to buy a thousand t-shirts to give away, or 500 signs when you don’t have anywhere to put them.

There is no magical or easy solution to raising money. No one else is going to do it for you, nor should they. Donors want to hear from the candidate themselves. You will need to work VERY hard at it!

For us, we believe it is a conflict of interest and highly unethical for us to raise the money to pay for our client’s campaign bills (including our payment!). Conservative Campaign Management is not a fundraising company. We do not provide fundraising lists or fundraising services. We do not make fundraising calls. However, we do work hard at promoting your fundraisers and social media fundraising!

There will be many opportunities for you to find donors, such as going to events, meeting with big money donors, having friends host Meet and Greets, etc. Your personal network is the first place to start.

We strongly urge you to be very cautious when considering fundraising companies. Many will not work with “no-name” candidates who have no fundraising track record and most others will put you on contract and charge you thousands of dollars a month for a stale fundraising list and ineffective scripts. They will also use YOUR donor’s data for their other clients (that is how they build their lists). You will need to be very careful to avoid being taken advantage of by “consultants” who make it sound easy.