The title of the article, “Political Campaign Crowdfunding: Essential Channels to Use”

Political Campaign Crowdfunding: 4 Essential Channels to Use

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Large donors and PACs are undeniably influential in elections, but so are small donors. OpenSecrets reports that several 2024 Congress members have raised between 50-73% of their total campaign funding from donors who gave less than $200. In 2020, 70-79% of the funding for major campaigns, like those for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, came from small donors.

Clearly, crowdfunding many small-dollar donations can work wonders for today’s political campaigns — but your success depends on the power of your message and the channels you use to spread it. In this article, we’ll explore a few communication channels that are essential to political crowdfunding success.

1. Your website

Your campaign website is the home base for all your political fundraising strategies. Whether you ask for donations via email, social media, or anywhere else, these channels will lead donors back to your campaign website to give. That’s why it’s crucial to build a strong foundation for crowdfunding with your website before you explore other channels.

To achieve crowdfunding success, your campaign website needs a few core elements:

  • Donation page: Your campaign’s online donation page must be secure, accessible, and easy to complete. Limit the number of fields in your giving form, and offer several digital payment methods such as Venmo and Apple Pay along with credit cards. Your donation page should also include brief information about your candidate and any contribution rules.
  • About page: To harness the power of everyday voters, you need to tell your candidate’s story convincingly and highlight what they will do for the community if elected. Create an About page that explains who your candidate is, what they stand for, and why donors of all sizes should contribute to their campaign.
  • Small suggested donation amounts: Emphasize the importance of small donations and encourage people to donate anything they can with small suggested gift amounts. In the example below, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s website suggests donating $5, $14, $29, or $49 as a testament to the grassroots supporters who power her campaign.

Screenshot of suggested donation amounts on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign website

Another way to emphasize your campaign’s reliance on small donors and further your crowdfunding goals is to add a live, running list of donations to your website. If a voter arrives on your donation page and sees that “John M just donated $10” and “Isa L just donated $27,” they’ll be inspired to give a similar-sized donation.

2. Social media

Just like peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, crowdfunding relies on social proof to convince large numbers of everyday people to give. This means you need to prove to your audience that other trusted community members believe in your campaign, making social media the perfect channel to leverage.

Seeing that their friends, family members, and trusted public figures follow your accounts and like your posts may be enough to interest potential supporters in your campaign. However, you can tap into social proof further by using the following social media marketing strategies:

  • Create shareable, interactive content. Use Instagram stickers to add polls, quizzes, and Q&As to your stories to inspire engagement, and create posts or infographics designed to be shared on your followers’ pages.
  • Add social sharing buttons to your donation confirmation page. These buttons will encourage small donors to share their donations on social media and simplify the process of doing so with the click of a button.
  • Share compelling user-generated content. Ask donors and other supporters to tag your candidate’s account when they post about them on their stories, then share that content on your own page to engage with followers.
  • Post regular fundraising progress updates. Prove to your followers that your campaign is making progress toward its goals through small donations. Share updates and visualizations like fundraising thermometers to maintain excitement.

Don’t be afraid to get creative on social media, either. Experiment with different kinds of posts or activities that highlight small donors and see which ones inspire the most giving. For instance, you might create a $15 monthly donor club and share a digital donor wall with these supporters’ names.

3. Text messages

Everyone is on their phone these days, and with 70% of people saying that texting is the fastest way to reach them, it’s an essential channel for political campaigns.

To tap into the power of SMS, schedule text banking events where volunteers use scripts to message hundreds of potential donors in one day. Send text fundraising appeals that focus on small donations, using these example messages as inspiration:

  • Damien, the fight for democracy isn’t over. Will you donate just $5, $10, or $20 to help Rep. Smith win her campaign for reelection?
  • Alexa, the Smith campaign’s most popular gift size is just $27.80. Can you match this donation to help us keep our district blue?
  • There are only two months until the election, and we need your help now more than ever. You donated $40 in July — can you give another $40 to push us across the finish line?

Personalize your text messages to make them as compelling as possible, and answer all responses and questions with your volunteers’ help. This way, you’ll strengthen relationships with donors and prime them to receive other kinds of texts from your campaign. After all, texts aren’t just helpful for crowdfunding — you can also leverage them to engage donors, share voting information, gather voter and donor feedback, and much more.

4. Online advertisements

Finally, you’ll want to make use of online campaign ads to widen your reach as much as possible. The more people you can get your campaign in front of, the more likely you are to win substantial crowdfunding support.

Consider creating social media advertisements, search ads, campaign videos, and more. In each of these advertisements, highlight your candidate’s commitment to everyday voters and emphasize how much you’ve already raised from small grassroots donors. Embed social proof into your ads by including data like “60% of our campaign contributions are between $10 and $100.”

You can also extend the reach of your campaign ads by using ad targeting. Also known as audience targeting, this strategy involves using tools like Facebook Ads Manager to identify and target online audiences that are similar to your existing donors. By getting your ads in front of like-minded people, you can inspire brand-new audiences to donate.

As always, be sure to comply with all relevant campaign fundraising and finance laws as you crowdfund for your political campaign. If you aren’t sure which rules apply to your race, reach out to your relevant election authority and ask. When you use the right channels, maintain compliance, and create messaging that inspires voters, your campaign can earn impactful fundraising revenue through crowdfunding.