Grassroots fundraising

Peer-to-peer fundraising growth has been promoted by the increased use of affiliations and donor networks. A younger peer group may view age mates as role models who can be trusted for advice. Peer networks have continued to expand in many ways, extending towards the traditional door-to-door or solicitation at places of work. Grassroots in the modern age involves extensive use of e-mail communication, internet websites, and social media for monetary support.[3]

Non-profit donors benefit effectively from a system that contributes monthly. Accepting little amounts can reduce the absolute financial burden and anxiety that a donor experiences, yet amounting to large amounts over time.

Most people prefer to support in different ways hence this strategy provides them with multiple calls-to-action in the campaign communications. For example, a campaign was done from the international Rescue Committee to reach out to its supporters as a response to former president Donald Trump's refugee ban. These supporters might engage in one of the following:

• Advocacy: to tell the president to end the refugee ban.
• Fundraising: Donate to help support the refugee family relocation fees.

These aspects go hand in hand with the present events and the news cycle. Research has shown that content is most viral when the message makes people angry.[4] The call-to-action and campaign should be:

• Specific
• Inspiring
• Timely
• Urgent

Understanding what inspires the supporters is key to engaging effectively with them. Information is targeted to those it might inspire to action through use of communication methods they prefer. These methods might be based on gender or sex. Data is kept to determine the efficiency of these and other, less understood demographics. This strategy allows greater understanding of what supporters want. Not all campaign messages should be sent to every supporter group.The organization's data can be used to segment[5] the supporters into sensible groups.

As there are more than 1.5 million legislative actions each year, there is a need to be selective in approach.

The two questions that must be answered before you start fundraising are "How much money do you need to raise?" and "Who do you plan on raising it from?"[6] Each demographic will most likely donate different amounts, making it important to understand how much money is to be raised. Examples of demographics include; individual donors, small businesses, earned income, and it is critical to have multiple, diverse sources of revenue.[7] Once you have identified the sources, create strategies and tactics for each one. For example, have ready a script when talking to individual donors as to why they should donate to your cause. If you're dealing with small businesses, remember that there are such things as non-monetary donations such as a table, sound system or even catering for events.

Understanding the expenses you will accrue is equally as important than understanding how much money you need to raise. Non-monetary donations can be just as effective as monetary donations, especially for a grassroots fundraising endeavor. You cannot make money without spending money so building a budget is important.[7]

Objectives are useful because they can keep your grassroots fundraising efforts on track. Make deadlines for the objectives to ensure they are completed in a timely manner. For example, objective 1 could be to build a strong team of volunteers. Come up with a tactic to get that done and set a deadline to ensure it gets done. Objective 2 could be to build a strong annual fund program to ensure a steady stream of donations throughout the year. A tactic could be to build a prospect list of 5,000 mailing addresses and 10,000 email addresses.[8]

Once you have come up with a list of objectives, you will want allocate the responsibilities amongst your team. If you are leading the grassroots fundraising effort, do not do it alone, make sure to involve your team. If you are a volunteer or a fundraising team member, speak up and ensure you put your name forward for the roles and tasks that you think best suit your skills. Some common roles for grassroots fundraising teams include; Director of Marketing, Director of Development and Director of Finance. For example, if one of your objectives is to build a prospect list of mailing addresses and email addresses, the leader should allocate this role to the Director of Marketing.[9]

Door to door canvassing is the best way to do this. You do not want to send your team to individual donors' doorsteps if they aren't going to donate. Create a canvassing team to go door to door a month or two before an election to ensure that when the campaign starts, you know who's door to go to. This will ensure you are not wasting time canvassing. Canvassing requires a certain etiquette, especially at the doors. You will want to make sure that the documentation of these individual donors are streamlined and easily editable - donors are known to change their minds.

The most important part of ensuring that your grassroots fundraising efforts remain a success is to review your documented plan and results with your team - at least annually.[10] After your fundraising period, your team will have notes and suggestions to improve the plan. This means that your fundraising plan is a fluid document that is subject to change. Someone might have a note about individual donor patterns, your Director of Marketing might have a suggestion about gathering and communicating with individual donors via email. Without a doubt, you will have to change or adjust some of your tactics to objectives within your plan for the following fundraising period - It's all apart of the process.[11] Having an annual review of your plan with your team is crucial for sustaining success in the future and it also allows you to emphasize the things that made your grassroots fundraising effort a success.

There are many ways to make money at the grassroots level other than individual contributions, including things such as fees for services rendered and the sale of merchandise.[12] This is an area where the leadership and volunteers can get creative and brainstorm. Merchandise can include hats, shirts, mugs, calendars, etc. and putting a logo on it will help market the organization, foundation or even political party. Services that could be provided include; carwashes, bottle drives, bake sales, lawnmowing, driveway shoveling, etc. Fundraising services like these at the same time get the name of the organization, foundation or political party out in the community.

To help form fundraising ideas, it is important to ask why the fundraising entity exists? Fundraising entities can include, non-profit organizations, foundations, political parties, to name a few. If the entity is a non-profit seeking to help the community, the philosophy is community outreach. Therefore, ones optics within the community and getting and remaining involved in the community are important.[13] If the entity is a political party, the philosophy will be mass spread of information. This will involve prioritizing the development of a prospect list, mailing list and email list to ensure fundraising messaging reaches the potential donors. It is best to use the philosophy of the entity to dictate how they go about fundraising.[14]

Little research and literary works have been done on this topic. However, from those limited sources one could breakdown fundraising ethics into three fundamental theories: "1. Protection of public trust: Trustism; 2. Serving the donor's needs, wants and aspirations: Donorcentrism; 3. Service of philanthropy".[15]

The way to ensure public trust is to achieve and maintain high ethical standards and stay consistent with communicating that goal to donors and potential donors.[16]

Donorcentrism ensures that the donor is at the center of the fundraising strategy.[17] This is because some fundraising consultants say one can maintain fundraising ethics by ensuring the donors interests are put first. Prioritizing this messaging is crucial for securing the trust of the donors. Also, putting the donor at the center of the fundraising strategy allows for 'relationship fundraising' to thrive. Relationship fundraising is about nurturing a bond between the donor and the organization's cause and ensuring that the bond doesn't break.[18] In grassroots fundraising, relationship fundraising is important because of how personal the interactions between the organization and the donors can be. When interacting with donors and potential donors, ask; is what I am saying going to reduce or increase donor satisfaction? Is what I am saying going to jeopardize the donors trust and connection to the organization? Is what I am saying going to make this donor want to contribute in the future?[18] Asking these questions will help guide interactions with donors and potential donors in an ethical way.

This theory suggests that an organization should never forget that it is a vehicle in which donors can use for philanthropy.[19] Without the organization, the donor would not be able to donate to the cause. Philanthropy brings justification to fundraising, therefore the organization's top priority is ensuring that the donor's interests and needs are met.

In 2003, Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien introduced Bill C-24, which was An Act to Amend the Canada Elections Act and the Income Tax Act - which referred to political financing.[20] Bill C-24 drastically changed the way in which political parties could collect donations and from whom. Some of what Bill C-24 does is; prevent federal political parties from receiving contributions from corporations and unions, limit contributions made by corporations and unions to Candidates and local Electorate District Associations (EDA) to $1,000/year, and individual donor contributions are limited to $5,000.[21] There can be severe penalties for not following these election laws.

Because of the Chrétien reforms in 2003, the ways one could fundraise and the sources of funds for political parties became more limited. Therefore, political fundraising shifted to grassroots fundraising.[22] In the subsequent years after 2003, The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) raised more money in individual donations, on average, than any other federal political party combined.[23] A big reason for this is because the CPC in the early 2000's had just combined the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. These two parties favored Populism and populistic theories, these deterred corporate donors but attracted individual donors. Also, before the two conservative parties merged, they both relied on grassroots fundraising and therefore, had more experience in it compared to the other federal parties.[23]

A permanent campaign is when a political party keeps advertising and fundraising outside of an election period. The permanent campaign has its roots in the commonality of minority governments from 2004 and onward.[24] The reason is that minority governments were at risk of being defeated in the house more regularly than in a majority government. Therefore, they always had to be ready for an election, hence the permanent campaign. The permanent campaign includes consistent advertising and outreach to donors.[25] It also involves having a permanent campaign manager, rather than hiring one a year before an election. the permanent campaign mixed with the 2003 Chrétien reforms created an environment in which grassroots fundraising could take over and thrive.

Because grassroots fundraising has become a prevalent theme for non-profit organizations and political parties, - to name but two - social media has taken a big role in the marketing outreach and communications tactics of fundraising entities. Grassroots fundraising is personal, many times one on one interactions are what is needed to gather donations. Since a vast majority of the population has a Smartphone and social media, grassroots fundraising entities need to utilize that technology space.[26] An interface like social media allows for the streamlining of personal interactions with donors. Instead of going door to door talking about the fundraising entities mission and vision statement, a video that can be posted for thousands to see can be a more efficient replacement. YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are the main social media platforms that can be utilized to help fundraising entities reach their fundraising objectives.[26]

Social media can also be a great way to advertise for volunteer positions. With a well produced video and a link in the description that takes the viewer to the fundraising entities website, social media can be a way to actively recruit for volunteers in a large-scale way.[26] Posting on social media also allows the person who posted the content to view the analytics of the post: How many people viewed the post, shared the post, commented on the post, etc. it can be a useful tool for reviewing and correcting marketing strategies. Posting videos can allow the individuals who have already donated access into how the fundraising entities progress is going. Posting a quick video updating donors on how their fundraising objectives are going can make the donor feel like they are appreciated and it might incentivize them to donate again. This goes back to the notion that the donor should be at the center of the fundraising strategy.

In 2004, presidential candidate Howard Dean built up his campaign around grassroots fundraising.[28] In an interview with Jeff Howe, Dean described a $2,000-per-plate fundraising lunch organized by Vice President Dick Cheney for George W. Bush's re-election. In response, Dean challenged his supporters to come to their computers with him "for lunch". Dean was able to match the amount raised by Cheney's fundraiser. He remarked, on his use of the Internet to raise funds for his campaign, "The Internet isn't magic, it's just a tool that can be used to do things differently."[29]

According to Spencer A. Overton, a professor at George Washington University, Obama's presidential campaign received the most grassroots fundraising of presidential candidates in the first Quarter 2007 based on contributions under $200 with $5.77 million, more than double the nearest candidate, John McCain, who got $2.54 million. Out of Obama's quarter fundraising total, 22% came from contributions under $200 with McCain again second at 19%. However, candidates outside the top tier received larger portions of their funds in contributions under $200 with Tancredo at 78%, Brownback 61%, Paul 39% and Kucinich at 68%.[27]

In the 2008 Republican primaries, presidential candidate Ron Paul has made significant use of the Internet to organize grassroots fundraising efforts. His campaign is unique in seeing many grassroots fundraising events begin completely independent of the campaign.[30] The most notable of these was the November 5, 2007 "moneybomb", spread virally through forums like YouTube and Myspace. It managed to earn Paul $4.2 million in one day, breaking the online fundraising record as well as raising more than any other Republican candidate in the election. Ed Rollins, the manager of Ross Perot's 1992 presidential campaign, said of Paul's grassroots support, "What he's done – what his supporters have done – is astonishing. You can't dismiss his anti-war vote. You can't dismiss the power of one man standing up with a powerful message. I'll tell you, I've been in politics for 40 years, and these days everything I've learned about politics is totally irrelevant because there's this uncontrollable thing like the Internet. Washington insiders don't know what to make of it."[31]