October 31, 2008
Can Charities Learn from Barack Obama's Fund-Raising Success?
Can you duplicate Barack Obama’s fund-raising success?
While there may be tactics that charities can learn from the way the Obama campaign has garnered an unprecedented amount of money, the main reason behind the windfall is the “ultra-compelling ‘offer,’” writes Jeff Brooks, a fund-raising consultant, on his Donor Power blog.
“It’s about an historic candidate who’s running during a time of national crisis, whose message is utterly compelling (to his audience), and who delivers the goods whenever he speaks. Without that, all the cool techniques in the world can only make an incremental impact on revenue,” he writes.
To figure out if your organization has a compelling appeal like the candidate, he asks:
“Are you unlike all the others, or are you one of several similar organizations — distinguishable only by experts and insiders? Is there urgency built in to everything you say? Do you have the ability to reach out, grab people by the heart and actually make them feel differently from how they felt before they encountered you? Are you fighting an enemy? (It needn’t be a person or people.)”
What do you think? Can charities duplicate Mr. Obama’s ability to raise money?
(Read The Chronicle’s article on what charities can learn from the election campaign fund raising.)
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I don’t think the question should be “can we learn from the election campaign fund raising (which I’m sure we can)”. To me, the real question is, “Will the next president use the “volunteer” button on his web site to point to search engines that enable Americans to connect with service opportunities in their community, and will the “donate” button point to the same organizations so that the volunteers will be well-supported in their efforts?.”
If the President and other public and private sector leaders take this action, and use their speaking opportunities to constantly encourage service and philanthropy, pointing to portals that list all non profits, not just the brand name ones, we increase the flow and distribution of resources, and reduce the costs of acquiring these.
That’s the kind of leadership I’d like to vote for.
— Dan Bassill Oct 31, 02:57 PM #
i found that in all the emails/newsletters that i received there was always an ask for $5. just $5 but it was done everytime so that way if you didn’t feel like you had the funds the first couple of times you could always donate with each new email; the donation would be at the back of your mind since you see it everytime.
although i do agree that he has a compelling story, that doesn’t mean i’ll still give if i’m not reminded to.
— erin Oct 31, 03:39 PM #
This is a joke, right? Can charities learn anything from a political campaign that has cavalierly blown off public campaign finance and used untraceable online credit card donations? Maybe it’s an example of what not to do. I hardly think that’s the model of ethical fund raising nonprofits need to imitate.
— Patrick Oct 31, 06:28 PM #
We asked similar questions here:
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-can-philanthropy-learn-from.html
— Lucy Bernholz Oct 31, 06:33 PM #
I agree with Patrick that this monumental campaign fundraising leads back to a broken promise to the voters.
But aside from that, in our local newspaper in the past week have been letters from two supporters of Senator Obama describing how they are making sacrifices with their modest incomes to send regular amounts to the campaign. Now they may not be the donors that the local food bank, animal shelter, or child abuse agency have lost, but I can’t help but wonder how that money might have helped the community in ways other than going into a well-endowed campaign, But I do remind myself, it is their money to spend as they choose.
One mistake that the Obama made, I think, was not personally asking the Hill-raisers from the Clinton campaign (large fundraisers in the primary) for their support and votes. Many did follow Clinton’s urging and made the transition to become Obama supporters, but not all did. Taking care of current donors and identified prospective donors should rank at least as important as bringing in new donors.
— annetta Oct 31, 07:38 PM #