Cover Story: Know Your Mission, 
Grow Your Mission

Social networking and other online strategies are crucial in creating and capitalizing on 
the urgency that must be communicated to spur giving in the political arena.

"Since so much of political fundraising relies on messaging, [social media and other online engagement] can be really effective," our expert says. "Something as simple as posting your e-mail solicitation on your Twitter or Facebook page has the potential to broaden your outreach exponentially. Indirectly, by keeping your supporters — old and new — informed and connected via social media, you can constantly be educating and communicating with existing donors and cultivating new relationships.

"Online fundraising allows us another (and more cost-effective) way of reaching our supporters, offers another (usually more convenient) way to give and allows us to connect to new supporters more effectively," he adds. "It's easy to forward an e-mail or retweet a post, much harder to make 10 phone calls."

To underscore his point, he talks about candidates effectively harnessing the power of the Internet by using "money bombs," where a candidate "takes a divisive political issue or statement and reaches out to a base of supporters, 
energizing them in a really effective way."

"A select few campaigns have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in mere hours using this strategy," he says.

Finding new and more effective ways to engage political donors will be essential in the near future, since thanks to a recent Supreme Court action, corporations are poised to open a floodgate of political giving that could result in a bombardment of television advertising in support of certain candidates at the federal level.

"At a time when a competitive congressional race can cost upwards of $6 million or $7 million, a Senate race $20 million or more, this could really increase the importance of individual political fundraising going forward," he says. "Unfortunately, we won't know the result of this [Supreme Court] decision until the end of this election cycle in November."