Raising money for any campaign can be a daunting task. As a candidate running for school board, you may need rely on donors to provide the funds needed to get your out message during the race.
School board races have been becoming more expensive in recent years. Depending on your district and the competitiveness of the race, campaigns may cost anywhere from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars.
Political campaigns raise funds in a variety of ways. One of the easiest is through contributions from close family and friends early on in the campaign.
Here are a few fundraising techniques to consider:
Accepting online donations
The hub of any candidate’s online presence is through a campaign website. In addition to featuring your campaign platform, you can set up fundraising pages through donation services. These services allow you to add donation forms to your site and allow donors to contribute through social media and email.
Holding fundraising events
Fundraising events may include wine tasting events, cocktail parties, raffles and auctions. Fundraising events are often held in restaurants, parks or other venues. To organize a successful fundraiser, use an appropriate event theme and venue.
Social media outreach
If you are allowed to use social media, create a campaign Facebook page. Reach out to your friends and family to have them follow you. If you can, advertise to help get the word out. For Facebook, you will need to be authorized to display ads. This something you will want to start as soon as you can.
Email lists
Email is still a powerful medium to connect with voters. It’s a good idea to start collecting emails from friends and family and add them to your email list. Use an email marketing service to collect emails from your website and other sources. Writing compelling fundraising emails can be difficult, but they can be very effective. Use email to inform, organize and fund raise.
Peer-to-peer texting
Peer to peer texting is away for volunteers to send texts to supporters. P2P can help with creating stronger relationships with donors. However, in order for this to work it requires engagement throughout the campaign.
IP Targeting for GOTV
IP targeting has become very popular in recent election cycles. With the help of IP targeting, you can target voters by sending them highly relevant messages. Digital ads are shown directly to target households. This strategy works well with mailers and get out the vote efforts. It allows you to save time and money by only reaching the people that you know will be interested in your message.
Need help finding donors?
There may be others you know who have won their election or are currently serving on a local board. They might be able to provide you with potential leads. Outside organizations and PACs have started to fund local elections. This tends to happen when there is a local issue that mirrors national trends, like the case of critical race theory in the 2020s.
It’s always good for fundraisers to take time to understand what motivates potential donors and to plan how they will approach them. When you know their demographics and what issues in the school district motivates them, it’s easier to craft material that will catch their attention
Create a strong relationship with your supporters. Today, many nonprofits have to manage a number of different donor databases while also keeping track of their donors’ contact information. This can be an overwhelming task for organizations with limited resources—particularly when it comes to data entry. A customer relationship management system can help alleviate this problem by storing all of the donors’ information, which are then searchable by anyone in the organization.
Start preparing for your campaign well in advance. There are no short-cuts in elections. One must put in the time and effort to organize a successful campaign, and be a consistent voice in the community if they want to clinch a victory.