From the Reform Party of the United States website:
The Reform Party of the United States is building its fundraising network, and focusing on raising money. As the party grows, it will need more capital to fund outreach, candidates and ballot access. To help build this network, the Reform Party is doing research on professional fundraisers.
“We are looking to work with a reputable operation,” said Reform Party Secretary Nicholas Hensley.
The Reform Party is looking for commissioned based, nonexclusive fundraisers, and hopes to broaden its net by working with multiple fundraisers. The Reform Party has also made calls for small donations to fund its new website, and other pieces of infrastructure.
“Successful political parties have a fundraising network,” said Reform Party Chair David Collison “and that’s what the Reform Party needs to build in order to succeed”.
Several state parties may also be looking for professional fundraisers. The Reform Party of Florida made a fundraising call earlier this year, and the Reform Party of North Carolina is looking to raise money for ballot access petitioners.
Any interested parties can send an email to [email protected] for more information.
Doesn’t jibe with my own experiences with similar lists, but hopefully you’re right. Good luck!
The New York Affiliate (The real affiliate) was able to successfully fund raise with the New York section of the lists. They even got offers from professional fundraisers, which spurred our decision to research all of our options before we signed any contracts.
One of the email lists, which I used in January, netted the full fundraising goal and raised more then we were looking for in about a span of four hours.
So yes, we have tested it.
OK then, as a marketing and PR professional, have you tested the lists and made some calls yourself to see how much you can generate in, say, a 3 or 4 hour time frame making calls, and what a reasonable commission would be for someone to make say $100-200 as their commission within that kind of time frame using your available lists?
I’m the sitting Secretary of the National Reform Party Matt. I’m also a marketing and public relations professional. I know what I’m getting into. I’ve personally done this type of work before.
The lists are pretty clean. We compiled the names, email addresses, phone numbers and other contact information of everyone that has contacted us in the last four years. We have voters lists of everyone that is currently registered as a Reform Party member. That as well as internal records of people that are organizers for the states, and people who have registered with state level entities (if they couldn’t with their state board).
We do have a few messy lists we are going to use, but those are email only lists – and emails, with the right service, are cheap to send out, so I’m not worried about those bouncing.
We do however have messy lists, and anyone that wants to take a crack at those are more then welcome too. Some of those lists go back to the United We Stand organization and the first Perot campaign – but those would be an adventure.
Matt is correct, on both counts. Nevertheless, Nicholas, good luck. I wish you well, although what I am telling you is based on a lot of prior experience dealing with similar situations.
Also, considering what (admittedly, very little) I know about the Reform Party over the last decade, I’d bet that the lists are going to be pretty messy. Lots of bad addresses and phone numbers. Those eat up a ton of time and resources.
If I’m correct, maybe they should consider spending some money to clean up the lists before trying to connect with good fundraisers. Or, just offer a huge commission.
Registered voters would be a pretty low-yield list. Previous donors and current party members (if there is such a thing) MAY be worth a pro’s time.
We have lists of names Paulie. Including tens of thousands of registered voters.
Commission fundraisers will want to be given a list of party supporters to call.
“Here, let me cold call random people on behalf of a non-established party for a commission” is not a very attractive proposition for a commission salesperson.
Mr. Collison is correct that successful political parties have a fundraising network. He may have drawn an incorrect conclusion about the cause and effect in that statement.