Thinking about skipping call time? Don’t. Here’s why.

Simply put: without fundraising, your campaign won’t function. You won’t be able to reach voters, print your materials, retain good staff, or even have an office.

Full disclosure, I was a Finance Director and served in a fundraising role for a majority of my political career, so I might be a bit biased. But I’ve also managed campaigns. And I’ve seen it time and time again–when you’re neck deep in competing priorities, it’s very tempting to push fundraising to the bottom of the list. But I’m here to tell you: Don’t.

Frankly, it’s all important. Knocking on doors, making calls, creating materials, being at meet and greets, getting endorsements, managing the team, prepping and admin, working your day job, sleeping, eating, family time–it all matters.

But the hard truth is that candidates who don’t prioritize fundraising typically lose.

So what can you do? Here are a few tips to get yourself organized and get started:

Excel at time management — It may seem obvious, but having good time management skills is a must. A common tactic is using Google calendar to time block the day. Start by blocking daily work hours, family/home time, recurring meetings, and noting important personal dates and holidays. Then, add call time. There’s no one “right time” to do call time — the best time to make calls is when it works for your schedule (but also, don’t call before 9am or after 8pm). And yes, weekends are fine. Aim for 2 hours per day or a minimum of 10 hours per week of call time in the beginning of your campaign.

Set up your infrastructure — There are two crucial components in fundraising infrastructure: where are you tracking your calls and how are you processing contributions. Whether you’re using Google sheets or a calltime vendor like Calltime.ai or Numero, you need to have a place to put your list of people to call and what happened when you called them. It sounds simple, but if this is not well organized, your call logs are going to get messy and confusing, fast. And worse, people will fall through the cracks. There’s nothing worse than realizing you lost money because of a simple mistake in tracking. The second element — having a payment processor for contributions — is pretty straightforward. We typically recommend Actblue, but some popular options include efundraising, Anedot, and others. Pro tip: always triple-check your disclaimer once the account is set up. Don’t risk getting fined over something that takes 5 minutes to review.

Set manageable goals — Start with your overall raise goal and set weekly and monthly raise goals that line up with your time blocked schedule. Know you’re going to be on vacation for a week? The raise goal should be low/zero that week, plus you’ll need to increase other weekly goals to make up for the difference. Setting manageable goals has additional factors — such as peak fundraising months that line up with reporting deadlines and endorsements — but the most important part is to set the goals and get started. (If you need help setting goals and creating a finance plan, Evinco can help — set up a free consultation now.)

Call your people first — reach out to family, friends, acquaintances, mentors, past and present co-workers, book club/PTA/etc members — all of them. Personal relationships are low-hanging fruit. These people know you, like you, and are motivated to support you. A lot of candidates skip this part because it’s hard asking people we know for money. But, it’s hard asking anyone for money. Might as well build those money-asking muscles early and on people who are the most likely to say yes.

Don’t get discouraged — Be prepared to not meet your goals for the first several weeks, or even the first couple of months, it’s ok. You may need to leave multiple messages before ever connecting with a prospective donor, and you might not get a contribution after just one conversation. Just keep at it — consistency is key. On average, 60–70% of a campaign’s overall contributions comes in from call time. Bottom line: it works. The money will come in.

Incorporate fundraising events — In addition to traditional call time, fundraising events are a great way to raise money into your campaign. But successful events require call time too–host asks, invites, special guests. So events should be treated as an extension of call time, not a replacement.

Lean on your team — Your campaign manager, top volunteer, and/or finance staffer should be able to help with prep and follow up for call time and tracking the ever-important thank you notes. If they don’t know how, we can help: apply for Academy today.

Fundraising is crucial because it provides the necessary resources to run your campaign, effectively communicate your message, engage with voters, and build the infrastructure required for a successful campaign. It’s an ongoing process and can be challenging to make it work with all of the competing priorities on the campaign trail. It’s important to dedicate consistent time, set manageable goals, stay focused, leverage events, call your people first, and lean on your team.

Still need help? Set up a free consultation with us today. We provide full fundraising services and we’ll train your team to provide the on-the-ground support you need.

Written by Lindsay Riedel Reuther, Partnerships & Marketing Director at Evinco Strategies.