Tonight in class we talked about the reluctance of some candidates to put their website on their various campaign media - TV, Radio, direct mail ads, etc… Emi commented on how ridiculous this is because online fundraising goes through the roof the more candidates mention their site - especially on their media.

I couldn’t agree more. I was once the Contributions Manager for a PAC so I have firsthand experience with this. My PAC bundled money for candidates. This means that we would support and raise funds in the name of numerous candidates through various measures like events, direct mail pieces, internet, and email pushes. We would bundle the money as it comes in and send it out (or deposit directly) in the candidate’s account.

We handled federal but also many non-federal candidates. So in many cases we were the only web presence these lower level candidates (city council, school board, sheriff, etc) had. It was amazing for me because I could see how much money a slew of different tier candidates were bringing in through the web. Whenever we would send out a direct mail piece or do an internet/email push with our website on it I could watch the traffic (and donations) go through the roof!

Many of the candidates soon saw the benefit of having that web presence and started pushing people at their events to use our website to read information on the candidate and submit a donation. Of course this was also good for us because people also donated to our PAC and other candidates on their way to donate for their local candidate. It ended up being a good deal for both parties.

Anyways, the more the candidates hyped up the site to donate, the more money they would bring in. So if you are running for office - listen to your tech advisors and PUT YOUR WEBSITE ON ALL YOUR MEDIA!

And remember, the money you bring in from the internet (which generally has a high ROI) can pay for more media!!