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Democratic Municipal Officials Digest
Week of 4/13/2020

 

DMO Update

  • What do you need? Let DMO know how we can continue providing you the information and resources you need to get your city through the coronavirus outbreak.
  • Are the other Democrats on your council members of DMO? Make sure your peers sign up at NationalDMO.org/join to get connected to Democratic Party resources before the Convention.

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Political Council Advice

Stephanie Mellinger from Mellinger Group on Fundraising

We’ve gotten a lot of questions recently around maintaining the right balance between focusing on upcoming elections, which includes fundraising, and helping our fellow Americans through the pandemic.  To fundraise or not to fundraise right now isn’t an easy decision and while every situation is slightly different, below are some general rules we recommend.

If…

Your election isn’t this year. Now isn’t the time to ask for money. Instead, this is an opportunity to connect or re-connect on a personal level with your contributors, constituents, neighbors, friends, etc. and provide the support and resources people need to survive the upcoming weeks and months. We can’t think of a better way to showcase your leadership abilities, either as an elected official or as a candidate.

You’re an elected official running this year:

If you’re an executive, your focus should be on running your jurisdiction well, while connecting constituents to the resources they need, keeping people informed, and mitigating the spread of the virus. We recommend contacting some of your staunchest supporters and fundraisers and asking them to serve as your fundraising surrogates. Your attention should be on helping people; your supporters can call and email their networks and your past supporters to ask for money on your behalf (tips for doing so are in our recent blog post)

If you’re a legislator, you can, and should, call and email your personal networks, previous supporters, and most PACs and lobbyists. (Use your judgement here. I wouldn’t, for example, ask the Restaurant Association for funds right now.) Asking people you haven’t met or don’t know is not a good direction right now either, unless a supporter has set up a solicitation call on your behalf. You can use this time to build new connections and get to know prospects, but in most circumstances, we wouldn’t recommend soliciting those individuals until a later date.

We’ve written a blog post with more details on the best methods to use for fundraising during these times.  If you’d like to have a personal consultation with us or are interested in a personalized Zoom training for yourself or your campaign team, please reach out to us at 410-727-0501 or stephanie@mellingergroup.com.