Home » Politics & Society » Women in Politics » Collect Calling

Collect Calling

© Hunter

As a candidate, you must be resigned to having to make personal telephone calls to raise money, but most don't look forward to the task.

If you go into it in an organized fashion, you may find that you can raise one-third to one-half of the campaign's money this way.

Successful personal fundraising is an art. First you need to find the right lists, followed by follow-up letters and phone calls if necessary.

The candidate must perform in a creative, enthusiastic and disciplined manner in order to convince a person they have never seen or met, to send money to the campaign.

Prior to the candidate starting phone calls, you need to check out the lists to look for former contributors. The responsibility for handling the entire list should go to one person.

A list of 12 to 25 people should be prepared for the candidate to call each day. A block of undisturbed time and a comfortable place to be, with an ingoing and outgoing line is needed. An assistant can also make the calls and get the donors on the line for the candidate, while the candidate finishes other calls.

The art of personal fundraising is different for every candidate. Times of day differ for calling. Some prefer to call in the morning, when energy levels are high, but most important is that you do set aside a couple of hours a day to do this.

The calls should begin with a quick, upbeat greeting, such as Hello, followed by two or three sentences of introduction and then a few sentences about your race. The candidate should have insider information about the state of the race to share with contributors. If the prospective contributor has never given to a campaign, a little chat on issues of shared interest would be in order.

It is a given, that not every day is going to be a terrific day in the campaign, but just one positive telephone call can change all that.

And finally, as the telephone calls are completed, the candidate should mark a phone form, indicating how much a contributor has pledged. The next day, a follow-up letter with a return envelope enclosed should be sent to the contributor, thanking him/her for the specific amount pledged. If the money is not received within 10 days, the assistant should make a followup telephone call. When the money is received, a thank you is in order.

A candidate must take every opportunity to talk to the voting public, so as Martha Stewart would say, "It's a good thing!"

The copyright of the article Collect Calling in Women in Politics is owned by . Permission to republish Collect Calling in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.