Building Teams of Donors
When a community faces an anti-LGBT ballot measure, raising the large amount of money needed to win is an immediate and daunting challenge. We help campaigns kickstart their fundraising efforts by training community leaders how to raise money.
In 2003, when New Mexico's LGBT community was preparing to face a ballot measure to repeal its anti-discrimination law, we worked side-by-side with community leaders to raise their campaign’s seed money. We brought together 35 leaders from across the state for a three-day intensive campaign training.
- We taught everyone how to ask for money,
- we helped them rehearse calling friends and family they knew to ask for donations;
- and finally, everyone got on the phone and started making real “asks.”
The team began the training deeply skeptical about their ability to fundraise, but in just over an hour of calling, they raised their first $46,000 for the campaign, which overwhelmingly came from New Mexico residents. The Task Force then matched dollar for dollar what the local team raised and doubled their total to $92,000!
This seed money was vital for helping the campaign get started a year and half before their possible ballot measure vote. The funds raised enabled them to hire staff, secure office space and launch voter outreach efforts early.
Seeing that they were out-organized by our side, the opposition abandoned their own campaign.
