Democratic fundraiser emails

[Geoff R. Casavant]

It seems like I get a couple dozen of these emails each day. Others have already written far more excellent rants than I about these emails in general, but I have two specific questions.

1. Just about all of these emails say they are trying to raise X dollars or get X number of donors by midnight, and each time they say it's the "last big deadline for fundraising." The deadline comes and goes, and still the requests continue. Is there actually a specific deadline or series of deadlines for fundraising, or are they just pulling the word "deadline" out of their collective ass to get me to ACT NOW!? And are there any actual consequences to missing a deadline (other than not having enough money)?

2. I am also constantly reminded in each email that my donation will be TRIPLE-MATCHED!, but only if I make my donation by MIDNIGHT! Midnight comes and goes, and I get another email that the TRIPLE MATCHING DEADLINE has been extended, but ONLY FOR TODAY! Tell me, who is doing this triple matching, and if they have so much money sitting around, why are they waiting for me to chip in first?

Yes, this is part rant against the ham-handed fundraisers that be, but I am also genuinely curious, so any enlightenment is appreciated.

[bigwillq]

1. Way too many e-mails, calls, mailings

I unsubscribe from all the e-mails, but I am still getting quite a few each day. It's just annoying.

Sorry, just having my own little rant. I don't really know the answers to your questions.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. There is a psychology of soliciting donations

which I recently learned when researching how to do fundraising for nonprofits using email or things like Kickstarter: You have to state a deadline (after which something unfavorable will happen), and it has to be a short deadline. This method is said to greatly increase donations because people feel they have to give right away if they are going to do it at all. If there is enough time to procrastinate they are more likely to forget about it and will end up not donating at all.

But another thing I learned is that you can't keep going back to the same donors over and over because they get donation fatigue and will tune you out.

I was already pretty much tuned out to the Dem fundraiser emails because there are so many of them and they are all promising certain doom if I don't send in $5 right now. But now I know why they are setting these bogus deadlines.

[NV Whino]

3. Seems like they set monthly goals

Or maybe they are arbitrary goals, who knows. This keeps money flowing in on a regular basis rather than one big chunk just before elections.

Unsubscribe works wonders.

[DFW]

4. Donor fatigue is indeed setting in

I have donated something like 15% of my after tax take-home pay this year to Democratic candidates and causes (e.g. DFA), and still I get bombarded with emails, often from candidates I have already donated to, sometimes more than twice.

I realize that some of our candidates are just going to get drowned by Koch money coming in from the Kochs to make up for the fact that the Republicans' message makes no sense to anyone but the top one tenth of the 1%. But still, I can't prop up our people singlehandedly. Our candidates' message itself will have to carry some of the weight. Go ask a billionaire, if we have any left that are willing to part with big money. I'm out of time, patience and money. If I lived in the States, I probably would have done with my US cell phone (only works in North America) what Ann Hathaway's character did at the end of "The Devil Wears Prada." Luckily, it doesn't work here in Europe, and I never give my EU cell phone out to campaigns (only Howard and Jim Dean have it).

[brooklynite]

5. You realize that you went through this two years ago?

And two years before that?

It would be great if we had publicly funded campaigns. We don't. So the choices are:

1) run an under-funded campaign and lose.

2) get all your money from the deep-pockets "1%-ers"

3) get small donations from people like you, which requires a lot more nagging.

[Grammy23]

6. What is driving me over the edge about the many emails I am getting hourly.....

is that most of them start out telling me (or the subject line says): We have lost. And then they try to shame or coerce me into donating by telling me that my paltry donation (for that is about all I could bring myself to give...if I were inclined to give) is going to be triple matched by some unnamed benefactor. Is it John Baresfoot Tipton???? Anyone here remember him?? LOL

I am sick to death of the emails and have now started deleting them wholesale without reading a word except for their RAW DRAMA subject lines just to make sure I'm not deleting something I want to read. Enough already!!

[Arthur_Frain]

7. Keep unsubscribing.

It does work eventually, but they are tricky about it. The first option they give you is to "reduce" emails on this specific campaign, or some such. Keep scrolling down, and you will eventually find the link you are looking for, to unsubscribe from ALL emails. It actually does work too, I hit the limit when they auto emailed me every two hours over the labor day weekend. You'd think they would figure out that overkill on the average donor eventually has the undesirable effect of just pissing us off.

[pstokely]

8. too many cash begging emails, not enough GOTV emails

not

[davidpdx]

9. Geoff, I agree and ended up unsubscribing from many email lists

People on DU will tell you to quit bitching and that it's your fault the DNC can't fund all the races. What they don't understand is some of us can't afford to donate constantly for various reasons.

I have to choose who I donate to carefully because of the limited amount of money I keep in the US (I live overseas). Honestly my first choice will be individual candidates and Democrats Abroad before any one else.

[zipplewrath]

10. It's over

Look any candidate worth their salt has already made plans and "buys" for the rest of the campaign (basically 2 weeks at this point). They're either spending money they don't have, or they are trying to cover debts already incurred. The individuals controlling those emails are people who are compensated by the amount of money they raise. And that goes all the way until Nov. 4th. So they are all trying to pad their wallets. Money given now isn't going to influence the campaigns one way or another. There may be exceptions, but they are very few and one should probably determine that before contributing.

GOTV efforts may still react to extra cash at this late date, although that is dubious. More likely they'll react to last minute volunteers.