There's an old saying that politics is a team sport. While that may be an oversimplification, it’s certainly true that candidates often pool resources to help each other fill victory offices with volunteers and put up yard signs together.
One area where teamwork is still emerging, though, is in the area of fundraising. Joint fundraising committees (JFC’s) have been used for a while to solicit large donations, but what about small-dollar donations? Can partnership fundraising help them too? The answer we've found is a resounding yes.
Over the past year at my company, we’ve found that our customers raise 30 percent more on our tandem pages than they raised on standard donation pages. Tandem pages, which we and other fundraising platforms use, allow two or more accounts to raise money on the same donation page.
Moreover, these tandem pages also convert donors at a 15 percent rate, according to our data. For candidates considering a fundraising partnership, here are some tag teams that are often successful:
State parties teaming with college or young Republican federations:
State parties often struggle to fundraise since many people see them as a faceless organization and aren’t fully aware where their donations are going. Many of these older donors get excited when they hear about younger Americans who have similar political views and as a result, are more likely to give. We’ve found these pages to be among the most successful with a 50 percent lift in total donations.
County parties teaming with county and local candidates:
County parties struggle to raise money even more than state parties but often have decent email lists. Working with candidates after a primary election exposes candidates to a larger group of people, and it also helps the county party build its brand as those candidates are knocking on doors and working events. A mutual benefit is gained where both the county party and the local candidate can build the local organization while both organizations raise more money.
Member of Congress teaming with state legislative candidates:
Many members are in safe seats and are unlikely to be challenged in a primary election. For these members, it can be challenging for them to raise small-dollar donations if they aren't raising money for another candidate in a more competitive race. We’ve seen these members have success raising money for their colleagues, but seen even more success utilizing their email lists to conduct tandem fundraising with a state Senate or House Caucus and caucus leader. If the caucus or leader have competitive races, this novel ask has proven to motivate the donor base of the member of Congress to also help out the state legislative committee and/or leader.
Legislative Caucus/Caucus Leader teaming with targeted state Senate or House candidates:
Caucus leaders can have the same struggle as members of Congress if they don’t have a competitive race coming up. Some have found that, instead of writing checks directly from their account to their colleagues, they can raise money alongside them more effectively. They can also use a tactic like highlighting a "race of the week" where one candidate receives all the attention, which helps build goodwill with the caucus. This goodwill ensures a more effective caucus operation if that targeted candidate is later elected.
Patrick O’Keefe is the Director of Customer Success for Anedot, one of the leading online fundraising platforms for political campaigns, churches, schools, and non-profit organizations. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer, teaching the Digital Political Organizing and Capstone courses for the Political Communications Master’s program at the University of Florida. Patrick previously served as the Executive Director for the Maryland Republican Party, head of growth for an ed-tech start-up, and has served as a digital marketing consultant for more than three dozen companies.