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You are probably asking yourself, why are we spending so much time on drawing a generous crowd?
Last week we talked about setting up the event, recruiting an event chairperson and host committee, setting a fundraising goal and setting ticket prices. We also discussed selecting speakers and/or entertainment, deciding on a place and time, and getting people to come to your fundraising event. And last but not least, we talked about designing the invitation as your sales pitch. Now if you have done all that, you are well on your way to having a successful fundraiser. However, there are still a few more items to address. One is choosing your list of people to send your invitations to. You don't have the time or money to be inviting people that will not attend and/or not contribute. Your mailing should be going to those people with a history of giving in your type of race. Your local party headquarters may be able to help you with that, because donation lists are important to retain. Be sure your mailing list has been recently cleaned up, so that you are not mailing to a lot of addresses that are undeliverable by the post office. The next point to discuss is the distribution of the invitations and the follow-up. Your invitations should be mailed anywhere from three to five weeks before your event and you should always use your real stamps from the post office — never use bulk mail or labels. You want these invitations to look as personal as possible. A week or 10 days after the mailing, your committee should begin to make follow-up phone calls. The candidate should keep track of who is being called and who the candidate needs to personally try to persuade to attend or contribute. If you are on a very tight budget, you can give the invitations to your committee and ask them to hand deliver them. During the event, the candidate must circulate and work the crowd. Depending on the size of your event, you may want to set up a table by the front door with a guest book and a basket for the contributions. Never let the first guest in the door be the first to put a check in the basket. If you have to, as the host of the party, put in a few dollars and a couple of checks . . . you can always take yours back after. People like to think that others are contributing too. Also, it may be a good idea to label the basket so everyone knows exactly what it is there for. Again, make sure you have everyone's name, address, telephone number and occupation for your own list retention and also for any legal records you are required to keep. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article How to Draw a Generous Crowd! - (continued) in Women in Politics is owned by Hunter. Permission to republish How to Draw a Generous Crowd! - (continued) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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