The 2024 presidential election has dominated the news cycle for nearly a year. As fundraisers, it’s easy to let the election dominate your fundraising efforts — often negatively.
Miss your goal this quarter? Seeing a dip in donors? Blame election giving.
The truth is this is just another year. While you don’t want to hyper-focus on the election, you shouldn’t ignore it either. As you plan out fundraising campaigns for the weeks and months ahead — including Giving Tuesday and year-end appeals — you need to be aware of some effects of the election. Most notably, the cost of advertising and the timing of your outreach.
How Elections Impact Fundraising
It’s a common misconception that elections take fundraising dollars away from nonprofits. In reality, political fundraising is like disaster relief. Donors will add a political donation to their overall philanthropic giving; they won’t replace a gift to your organization.
Political campaigns typically raise about $20 billion, while nonprofits raise more than $500 billion. What’s more, data shared during The Fund Raising School’s First Day Podcast indicates that for every dollar a donor gives to Presidential candidates, they give $100 to charity.
Bottom line: You don’t have to worry about political causes overshadowing your requests for giving. Instead, evaluate your content and cadence to ensure your messaging isn’t lost in the election noise.
Strategic Shifts to Navigate Election Fundraising
Most organizations rely on a strong end to the year, so they can’t afford to have end-of-year appeals and Giving Tuesday promotions overshadowed by election fundraising requests. Slight changes to your outreach, analytics, and messaging will help your nonprofit navigate the 2024 Presidential election with ease.
While we’ve broken strategies down by channel, it’s important to remember that you can use many of these tactics across channels. Doing so will allow for a more holistic approach to your election-year fundraising efforts.
Advertising
Advertisers should plan ahead and adjust their timelines to adapt to tighter restrictions around ad copy and imagery. Your ads will be scrutinized much more heavily than in a non-election year. Read up on policy changes and build in extra time for your ads to be reviewed and approved.
Also, be prepared to pay more for those ads. Political fundraisers and advertisers entering the market will boost competition for views and engagement.
Nonprofits should note special ad categories on platforms like Meta, especially “social issues, elections, or politics.” Ads deemed to advocate for or against topics like health, civil, and social rights may trigger restrictions and be rejected. Meta will also have time periods in which no new ads can be loaded or launched. This affects all advertisers.
Keep evergreen ads live on social media and paid search platforms, but you may want to cancel or pause more extensive tentpole campaigns in the days and weeks closest to the election. There’s simply too much noise and competition.
Finally, if you have a strong presence on broadcast platforms through paid buys or public service announcements, expect most or all of your inventory to be bumped as the election approaches. Broadcast stations are legally required to give preferred rates and space to political causes during election windows.
Email & Digital
It’s essential to be thoughtful about how you present your work. Think about how your messaging will resonate with both potential and existing supporters. Avoid creative tie-ins with trending political topics unless they’re a fundamental part of your organization’s mission. Otherwise, you risk alienating some donors and appearing inauthentic.
Use creative copy to ensure your appeals stand out. For instance, political emails often keep subject lines short to create intrigue. While this is a best practice in general, now is an ideal time for nonprofits to play around with their subject line length and connection to the preview text. Use emojis, personalization, and deadlines to catch a reader’s eye.
Also, adjust your outreach schedules to avoid campaign fatigue. Political messaging will peak in early November, so nonprofits should shift their efforts to land in September and early October, break, and resume after the election. This may require creative adjustments to your campaigns.
Again, only leverage an election-related theme if appropriate for your organization.
Direct Mail
As with other channels, it’s important to be mindful of in-home mail dates. Many nonprofits send appeals out in time to be delivered to homes around the first of the month. But during the election, consider moving this forward to mid-to-late October. Then, send the next mailing in mid-November.
The only exception is if the election’s outcome directly impacts your organization’s mission. This is considered capturing “rage” donors. You might want a mailing in homes just before or after the election if you need urgent funding should your program be in jeopardy.
If your organization has never waded into political discourse, don’t feel pressured to do so now. Instead, lean into people’s feelings during an election and explain how your mission supports them. For instance, a mental health organization might ramp up messaging about dealing with conflict or unplugging from the news cycle.
Analytics
An election can disrupt more than your messaging — it can also disrupt your reporting. Election years tend to create a different environment for fundraising, so organizations should document what they did and how it changed from “standard years.”
Note your adjustments to your schedules, segmentation, and messaging during the election. This can help you realistically analyze and use the results from 2024 for future year projections. The goal is to add context to the work that took place so you can set expectations with leadership about current and future performance.
Rely on the Fundraising Fundamentals
As the election nears, watch what topics make the news. But in general, stick to the fundamentals. Lean on your mission, stay relevant, and send timely and personalized outreach to your constituents.
If your mission doesn’t directly align with trending topics during the election, pause your work in November. Don’t blast overwhelmed audiences; take a break and be ready to return strong after the election.
More than anything, fundraising in an election year is about being prepared. With simple shifts in your timelines, budget, and copy, your messaging will emerge as a welcome breath of fresh air amid the political discourse.
