Election Year Fundraising

Election year fundraising has apparently has leaders and fundraisers shaking in their boots.  I recently ran a poll on LinkedIn with a simple question.  What has you most concerned about fundraising in 2024.  One topic was of biggest concern.

The election. 

Fundraisers are afraid of how the election will impact their fundraising results. 

This fear is logical right?  The election takes a disproportionate amount of ‘headspace’.  It creates vast amounts of noise.  And the candidates fundraise hard!  Everyone must be giving to them!

“So, am I right to be worried”, you might be asking? 

No—in fact you are not.

Fundraising in an election year DOES NOT cause donors to give less.  In fact, it provides a strategic opportunity to raise more. 

The greatest impediment to fundraising in an election year is…YOU. 

If you want to learn how to crush your goals in an election year, keep reading.  You will see concrete data, read stories and see how you can go from fearful to fearless.

Election Year Fundraising: Real numbers 

First let’s look at the real numbers.  During the 2020 election cycles candidates raised over $4 Billion dollars.  That same year donors gave over $300 Billion to other charitable causes! 

2024 is sure to cost more for the candidates more than 2020.  So lets say they raised between $5-6 Billion dollars.  Still donors will give +/-$500 Billion to charity this year. 

Charitable giving has increased 9 out of 10 of the past election years. This, according to the 2023 Philanthropic Landscape.  The outlier being 2008 during the global financial crisis where all giving was down. 

In 2020 only 1.4% of Americans gave more than $200 to a political candidate. Which was a massive increase from 2016, but still an small percentage. 

In 2016 Blackbaud studied the effects of political giving. They found people who gave to candidates actually INCREASED their giving to charities. By .9% compared to the previous year.

So why are we afraid of election-year fundraising?

1.   Fear

I remember working at a global humanitarian organization in 2016.  The Director of Marketing at the time could not stop talking about the effects of the election on fundraising.  They were petrified our audience would give less.  To the point that they wanted to stop fundraising entirely. 

Do you know what happened?  We raised more!  We raised more before the election.  We raised more after the election!

There was significant fear everywhere in the organization. It turned out to be misplaced.

2.   Distraction

Politics creates noise.  Months of noise.  And many of us in the nonprofit space are in some way connected to the policies of the candidates.  Business may be affected by tax law and other minor regulation.  Nonprofits are affected by much more.  During the 2016 and 2020 presidential election I worked for a global humanitarian organization. We also worked with refugees.  The policies of the candidates affected us greatly. It is true for many nonprofits.

While this is true, it is not an excuse.  Yes, nonprofit leaders do need to be attuned to policy implications of candidates.  But it does not need to cause distraction across the organization.

Clearly, we are all distracted by politics—but givers seems to be able to cut through the noise and still give.  At least based on the data! 

I recently was with a client who said they were not going to bother seeking big gifts in 2024 because their donors would be giving to the candidates.  This is not helpful thinking. And the numbers disprove the notion.

So yes—total fundraised dollars may increase this election cycle.  But that does not mean they will increase evenly across the board.  You have to work for it. 

And this leads us to the big questions we must answer:

What is the greatest impediment to fundraising in an election year?

The short answer is you.  Your organization.  Your biggest threat is the fear and distraction you allow to fester. 

You cannot control the election outcome.  You cannot control the noise.  You cannot control the news cycle. 

Dont spends hundreds of work hours focused on things that you cannot control. 

Yes, some of you need contingency plans based on who wins.  You need a fundraising plan to get through the fall.

These are things that we can control.  And herein is the opportunity. 

If my LinkedIn poll is correct there is a lot of noise in your nonprofit around the election.  As a leader you have the opportunity to quell this noise by sharing REAL DATA with people.  You have the opportunity to rally them to the things they can control—boosting satisfaction at work.  You have the opportunity to give your donors something besides politics to focus on!

Fundraising in an election year: Opportunity

There are many opportunities for nonprofits to take advantage of fundraising in an election year. 

1.   Clarify who you are and why your mission matters. 

In our free guide “Five Ways to Start Raising More Money Today: A guide for the busy nonprofit CEO” we outline the importance of a Case for Support and a Welcome Series.  If you don’t have these two things in place this election year is a great opportunity to build them.  Maybe the intensity you feel will help to sharpen your articulation of why you work is so important!

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2.   Basic Blocking and Tackling. 

Having clear and outlined processes are key for engaging donors well.  Many organizations don’t have codified way to engage their donors.  They don’t have donor development strategies. 

Donor development strategies (also called donors engagement) is the ongoing process of creating meaningful connections with your donors – current, future and lapsed.  You do this so that you are ALWAYS

•       Adding Value
•       Building Trust
•       Connecting them to your mission

These are the ABCs of donor development.  A simple framework and it works! But its not easy to do.  Which is why so few nonprofits succeed.  For this to work you need the right mindset.  Read the full article here. 

3.       Over-communicate.

With so much vying for attention it is important to over communicate your impact. Politicians are emailing, calling, texting, knocking on doors, and showing up in our mailbox. Be the refreshing thing your donor see and connection them to a cause they care about.  Especially when they remind us why we are connected to them in the first place.

In our article on lapsed donors we outline multiple strategies to keep your donors engaged and close.  These will all work well during an election year. Read the full report here.

4.       Community.

Last but certainly not least you need to build a sense of community among your donors.  In a season where politics pulls people apart, help to grow people together.  Give them hope in a shared cause and mission.  Facilitate the formation of community with each other through dinners and small gatherings.  Be careful to keep politics out and focus on something that everyone in the room has in common.

After the election

Over 30% of all charitable giving is given in the month of December.  That is nearly a full month after the November 5th election. 

You cannot wait until the election to plan your year end campaign.  You need to start now.  And your campaign must run from at least October through December. 

Carefully managing your message during this time is of critical importance.  Everyone will tell you all anyone cares about is politics.  But you have to remember the data, and take advantage of the fact that people keep on giving!  [insert link to the year ending giving campaign article) 

Rage giving

There is also a growing phenomenon in the nonprofit space of revenge giving.  We all heard of revenge travel after the pandemic.  Everyone going on trips that they had not been able to go on. 

Over the past 3 election cycles a similar phenomenon developed. An analysis by the Chronicles of Philanthropy suggests that On average, nonprofits associated with the opposite political ideology of the winning presidential candidate saw a 57.55% increase in contributions compared to the previous year. Organizations associated with the same ideology as the new president saw an average 2.9% decrease in contributions. 

Election Year Fundraising: Get to work

Fundraising in an election year will be no easy feat.  But it is doable.  The worst thing that you can do is stick your head in the sand. Letting fear and distraction keep you from inviting people into your story. 

We don’t think that this is a journey that you need to do alone.  If you would like to talk through how you can go from being fearful to fearless set up a call and lets talk.

If you organization is connected to hot button election issues lets talk today.  Having led through 3 election cycles I would love to be able to help.