Persistence Pays

We all have our political leanings. Some of us take that to the point of contributing to political candidates whom we support. However, before you pull the trigger on that donation, be prepared. Donating to a political candidate will almost certainly result in an ever-increasing number of requests for additional donations. There will be emails… and text messages… many, many, many of them.

Political fundraising is a highly-consolidated field these days. Each political party has their fundraising “partner” who, generally, coordinates fund-raising for many of the party’s candidates in federal elections (i.e., President, Vice-President, Senate, and House of Representatives).

Once you contribute to a candidate’s campaign, you will begin to receive requests for additional donations. However, not all these requests are what you might think. You MUST read the fine print. However, the fine print is not in the request you receive. no, it is in the web-page that opens when you follow the link in the request.

Back to the fine print. This where you find out where your donation will goThe recipient might be:

1. The campaign of your candidate. This is the most direct way to get a contribution to a candidate you support.

2. A political action committed (aka, “PAC”) that supports your candidate and possibly other candidates as well. This may end up in your candidates coffers… and it may not. PACs are a whole separate topic.

3. Another candidate whose name you’ve never heard and who is running for office in another state far away! I really despise these requests. If elected, this candidate won’t represent me. Why don’t they limit their fundraising to the district(s) they will represent.

4. The political party itself. For example, the Democratic National Committee or the Republican National Committee. Donations may be used to pay their expenses… or maybe they are used to pay expenses of the committee… or they might got o candidates. The question is which candidate(s)? My candidate? Who can know?

5. The organization (business) that sends these donation requests on behalf of candidates. These guys have a bunch of sources of income. For sure, they are charging the candidates for their services or taking a “piece” of each donation. Maybe they get some of the card fees, too. I can’t say for sure. I can say that this is the least likely way to get your donation to your candidate.

6. Some other beneficiary? I dunno. Maybe. Maybe not.

Oh. I forgot to mention this. As soon as you click on the link in the request to read the fine print, they’ve got you. They now know that YOU are likely to click on the link in a future request. Clickers are MUCH more likely to make a donation. So, once you click, expect the number of requests to increase.

How do you stop the onslaught of requests?

1. For text messages, I block the number on my phone, reply “STOP” to the message, and then delete the message. This has to be done for every phone number that sends you one of these messages. Trust me, they have a bunch of them. Keep doing this religiously and the volume will taper off.

2. For email messages, unsubscribe. Some email servers (e.g., Proton Mail) will provide an Unsubscribe button for any email they can identify as “automated”. Use it. It’s much faster than doing it manually. Otherwise, scan the email for the link to “Unsubscribe” or “Manage You Accounts/Subscriptions”, clink on the link and unsubscribe. READ THE WE PAGE CAREFULLY. Some of them have tricky wording and you might be confirming your subscription and email address rather than unsubscribing. You will have to do this many times, but be persistent and it will slow down the incoming mails.

These solicitors for political donations remind me of the widow described in a story that Jesus told in Luke 18. This widow kept pestering the judge to give her a judgement against her adversary. Finally, the judge gave her what she wanted — not because he thought she was justified in her request, but because he was tired of hearing her request over and over and over again.

These days, I think politicians just keep asking and asking and asking thinking that sooner or later, you’ll give something.

Personally, I’d prefer that they respect that fact that someone has donated and not ask again for a good long while.

But that’s just me… and I’ve never been a candidate, much less raised enough money to get elected.