Republican Fundraiser Direct Response Group Buys Part of CampaignHQ

CampaignHQ has sold its telephone fundraising division to Arizona-based Direct Response Group in a deal unveiled last week.

“I love fundraising, but I’m excited about the way this turned out,” said Nicole Schlinger, president of Iowa-based CampaignHQ.

Starting around 2008, Schlinger grew that side of her business from a major donor fundraising and events offering into the telephone-based operation that was acquired by DRG.

“As an entrepreneur, to sell part of your business is the dream, so I’m immensely proud that we build something of so much value that someone else was eager to acquire and take it and build it and grow it even more,” she said. 

Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Schlinger said it was structured as an asset purchase agreement. She plans to channel the proceeds into growing the voter contact line of her business. 

“With the growth that we saw last year with voter engagement [and] this year with issue advocacy, we wanted to direct all of our resources into the area where we could have the most impact for our clients and the conservative movement as a whole,” she said. 

The deal also saw Kenneth Tracy, who had been serving as senior campaign director, fundraising, at CampaignHQ, move over to become a VP of client services at Direct Response Group.

“The clients that we were raising money for via telephone fundraising, they are maintaining a lot of continuity,” said Schlinger.