The problem with traditional fund-raising? It relies more on who the fund-raiser knows than the candidate and his or her relationships, issue stances, beliefs, and experience.

It is further limited by an outdated and potentially narrow tool set as well as data that could be limited, underutilized, or a combination of both.

You Need a Bottom-Up Approach.
Building a targeted list of donor prospects from the ground up is key to success. Wasting your time trying to get someone else’s list to work for you instead of focusing on how you can grow your own is a critical mistake. There is no guarantee that just because they have given to someone else, they are going to give to you.

Focus on finding donors who have a natural connection to you, your campaign, or your set of issues.

You Need Good Data.
Knowing that someone has given to a candidate, committee, or cause in the past is one thing. Knowing why allows you to target them with a message you know will resonate.

What issues do they care about? Where do they stand on the ideological spectrum? What medium do they usually give by – mail? E-mail? Phones? Do you have all of their contact information, including e-mail, phone number, address, and social media?

Knowing what to say and where to say it will save you serious money in the long run.

You Need to Have an Omni-channel Approach.
The more a donor hears and sees your message, the more likely they are to give. Targeting them across a variety of mediums is important. Between direct mail, phone calls, digital advertising, e-mail, and texting, they are sure to hear what you are saying.

You Need to be Able to Optimize.
Going back to data – you need to know if your fund-raising tactics are working. Traditional fund-raising doesn’t give you detailed feedback. Digital fund-raising allows you to track results, optimize your performance, and improve the overall success of the program over time. You can take those results and apply them to other mediums, too.

Here is the Bottom Line.
A comprehensive, coordinated approach to fund-raising that combines the full-circle power of superior data will allow you to solicit donations from every angle and build a profitable coalition of donors.

Check out some of our other blog posts to learn more tips and strategies from our team of fund-raising experts here!