They just ask.

The secret to raising political money is simple.

1) Ask everyone you know.

2) Ask confidently.

The Libertarian cause is important enough to ask your family and friends to donate generously.

1) Get out your “Christmas card list” and personal phone book.

Simply put, you’re going to get your easiest and probably biggest checks from your family and friends.  It doesn’t matter if you haven’t spoken to them in years.  These people believe in you more than anyone else.  You owe to to liberty to call them first and ask them to make the biggest contribution possible.

2) Set a target.

Here’s a tip.  People aren’t offended if you ask them for a very large contribution.  In fact, many people are flattered you think they’re worth that much.  As a general rule I ask for the maximum legal limit all the time, or if there is no limit I ask  for three times what I think is the most I can get from them.

There’s a reason for that.  It’s easier for them to negotiate the number down than it is for you to negotiate the number up.

You’d rather ask for $1000 when you think you can get $250 than think you might get $250, ask for $100 and they quickly agree.  You avoided a longer phone call, but you left hundreds of dollars out of your campaign.

3) Practice your call.

It’s easy.  Trust me.  Most fundraising phone calls are five to ten minutes.  Here’s a sample of what it might sounds like, from LocalVictory.com:

“Hi, this is Quinn.  Yea, it’s been awhile.  How are you and Nikki doing?  Great, us too.  Listen, I’ve got the craziest news.  I’m running for Congress.  Yep, how about that?  I’m getting involved because I am so frustrated with the economic mess we’re in.  It seems like no one is focused on the economy.  You know me, I’m laser-focused.  That’s how I’ll be in Congress.  Laser-focused on the economy.It’s going to take $2 million to win this thing, crazy, I know, but true.  I need your help.  Would you be willing to support me, and donate $1,000 to help me win?  You would?  Amazing.  Thank you so much.  I’ll send over a brochure and an envelope.  Listen, I have to make more calls, let’s catch up next month.  See you soon….”

Practice in front of a mirror.  Record it, play it back and see how it sounds.  Pretty soon you’ll sound like a pro.

4) CALL!

Just do it.

Your first few calls may not go as smoothly as you like.  But be confident, ask shamelessly and pretty soon you’ll be filling your campaign account.

Political fundraising is surprisingly simple.  There are few “secrets” and little training involved.  The best political fundraisers become the best by following two rules:

1) Ask everyone you see.

2) Ask for as much as you can possibly get.

As long as you are spending your campaign dollars wisely and ethically, there is no shame whatsoever in making fundraising phone calls.

In fact, be proud when you call Aunt Suzy to ask for $2,500.00!  You’re going to spend that money to spread the message of liberty and fight to win!

And you owe it to liberty to win.  Your family and friends already like you, and support you.  Call them first and call them confidently.

While text-message contributions open up a new way for campaigns to reach out to voters and accept funds, there are hurdles.

“Maryland and California have allowed text-message contributions for state-level candidates. Maryland hasn’t held a statewide race since it changed its rules and in California, party officials have complained that cell providers haven’t offered the service.

“Other problems around collecting political donation via a text message include:

• The donations are not forwarded to the campaign until well after the billing cycle. This is no good if a campaign needs their funds right away to buy ads or support GOTV efforts.
• The donations are only tagged with the donor’s cell number. Not their name, address, occupation and employer as required by the FEC. Telecommunications companies are going to have to change their policy and provide far more information about donors to make the FEC happy.

“Political fundraisers have ways to get around these problems such having donors send a text and then having a phone bank call the prospect back for her donor and credit card info,” writes Nilsson.

“Will the FEC let campaigns process donations via text? I believe the FEC would like to provide this option. Their current stance is to embrace technology so more people can be involved in politics. The problem is that they need the mobile carriers to play along and provide information on the donors so you don’t have donors going over their limits.

“Campaigns also have to be comfortable with waiting 35-plus days for their donations. This means text donations will not be attractive to campaigns come October or even September. The mobile carriers have to be concerned about chargebacks, too. What if they pass a donation on to a candidate and the donor changes her mind or didn’t understand that her text was incurring a donation on their mobile phone bill? Moreover, the carriers will have a difficult time getting their money back from a campaign that has lost and closed its doors.”

There are also services allowing you to send text messages and emails to voters on their cell phones, offering Libertarians a low-cost way to reach voters.

Look in to them.

Go here to read the full article.