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Consultant's Corner
PAC Fundraising
By Stacy D. Cole
July 07, 2004
There are numerous articles and newsletters on the Web that deal with political fundraising, but few actually mention the particulars of PAC fundraising. In this column, we shall discuss this subject.
The initials "PAC" stand for Political Action Committee. Political action committees are setup to represent certain companies or segments of industry, political belief, etc. A few examples are the AFL-CIO, Club for Growth, Emily's List, etc. They donate money to specific campaigns and/or causes that they feel will somehow help them in the future.
PAC fundraising has some similarities other political fundraising, but is also different in some ways. It is similar in that you are asking for contributions, but, instead of asking an individual, you are asking from an interest group.
Let's say that one of the legislative items you would like to tackle is tort reform. When looking for PAC money, you would likely look for PAC's that are interested in tort reform, like insurance industry PAC's. You would probably not go to an organization that represents trial lawyers to fundraise when you stand for tort reform.
How to determine what PAC's you will solicit from (if you do decide to solicit those organizations) is to first decide what your core issues will be while you are campaigning. By deciding what those issues are will guide you in which PAC's you will fundraise.
When contacting the PAC's, you will want to make sure that you explain who you are, what office you are running for, and why they might have an interest in your race. If you can develop a "core" pitch, that you make to the PAC's, all the better. But, it should be effective, easy to memorize, and did I say effective? Continue to tweak your "sales pitch" until you can say it in your sleep.
Prior to calling, make sure that the PAC donates to your particular race. They may only donate to federal races, but not state races, and vice versa. You can find this out by looking at their FEC reports for this information.
There is usually a qualification process, if you will, before you will get money from a PAC. It may involve questionnaires, interviews, or a combination of those. Don't ask for the money on the first call. You will want to try to establish some kind of relationship prior to asking for the money.
When calling the PAC, verify that the person you are speaking to is someone who can make a decision to donate money to your campaign. Also, depending on their name, find out if this person is male or female. Speaking from experience, it is not fun to be referred to as "Ms." when you are a "Mr.", or vice versa.
This is just an overview of PAC fundraising. There are idiosyncrasies to this function, but this will get you started in the right direction.
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