Dear Senator Kerry: Stop begging me for money!

I know others have mentioned this in the past, but I was reminded of the unbelievable annoyingness of the Kerry campaign's fundrasing appeals last fall while reading Jacob Neilsen's review of the Bush and Kerry newsletters. He mentioned that both campaigns spent most of their content on asking for volunteers and money, which is fine, but my memory of the Kerry emails is that about 80% were focused on asking for money. They might mention a speech Kerry made before, but they got down to the business of begging for bucks within a few sentences. I remember many people mentioning that they felt like human ATM machines.

The Kerry campaign's biggest mistake, I think, was in failing to connect donations to any particular goal. The DNC recently held a fundraiser to send professional staff to the state parties of four particular states won by Bush in 2004. Supporters were told that if they raised $250,000, they would send a certain number of staff to help build state parties in these states, a big priority for many Democrats. They blew through the goal, doubled it, and blew through it again. Democrats support building state parties, so they were willing to give money to that particular need.

Kerry's appeals tended to be of the "Did you see what outragous thing Bush said yesterday? We need your money to beat him!" without telling supporters exactly how they were going to reach that goal. Donors, especially small donors, are much more willing to donate when they feel like their money is being used wisely. The best way to assure them of this is by telling them how it's being used.

(Assuming, of course, that you're spending your campaign budget wisely. If you're not, probably best not to mention it...)