Fundamentals of PAC Fundraising

Educate ... Ask ... Recognize! Learn how to effectively use these fundamental aspects in your PAC Fundraising Plan to increase your PAC receipts. Contact GA Strategies to learn how today!

Once More Into the Breech... or Spam

Today George Will has an interesting Editorial in the Washington Post about voters tiring of all different "Apocalypse" scenarios we have run into in the past few years fiscally and legislatively.



Regardless of your opinion of all of these issues, it brings up an interesting scenario.

Many Political Action Committees and Advocacy organizations rely on the "Sky is falling" pitches for support, PAC investments and action.  But are you using them too much?

The lesson to take from the current situation and apply to your organization, is... Mix it up.  Eventually if the sky is always falling, your supporters will eventually get turned off because the sky never fell...

And then your appeals are... Spam...

A Gaffe(?) to Gold

After committing the unspeakable act of drinking water in the rebuttal to the State of the Union, Senator Marco Rubio was taken to task for the seemingly un-presidential act of needing water by several media outlets.

Not to mention Saturday Night Live.

However Sen. Rubio didn't just sit back and take his lumps, he turned it into a positive. Selling water bottles as part of a PAC donation. Reminiscent of Governor Chris Christie's self-depreciating humor about his weight, Sen. Rubio owned the issue, and turned it into a positive.

Quite a positive in fact bringing in over $100,000 in the few weeks since the incident.

Now in today's world of nearly a billion dollar campaigns that might not seem like much. However keep in mind the race isn't for another 3 years, we've got midterm elections between now and then, and we just came off one of those billion dollar cycles. So the number is hugely significant.

The challenge we all face is how do we turn our own negatives into a positive? Follow Senator Rubio's lead... and OWN IT.

A Meme Love Affair: How Quickly Your Popularity Can Sour

The Harlem Shake. You may or may not have heard of it, but it is a lesson for us all

No its not the 90s Dance Craze that adorned more rap videos than Diddy at the time.

The Meme spawned from the Baauer instrumental with deep bass lines.

From Rapper T-Pain's Version -


To a Norweigan Army Squadron -


Tons of these videos were being made and uploaded.  Then this happened -


How quickly did it ascend and die? Here you go -


Out of no where success.  And now dying almost as quickly as it started.

What killed it? Someone else ruining it. 

Keep that in mind when you look at what you are doing. 

Is there somone out there that could kill your issue, message, or fun just by attaching themselves to it?  And what are you doing to prevent that from happening?

Awaiting the State of the Union

As we await the newly re-elected president's address to congress and the nation, we look for some major initiatives to come out.  And what are most people saying they will be?

• Tax / Deficit / Budget reform
• Gun Control
• Health Care strengthening

Everyone wants to know, what will those reforms be?

The Presidential State of the Union in 2012 - AP

The bigger question to ask is, will any of it actually happen?

With a deadlocked congress, an unwilling Senate and an obstinate House... there is only one way to get anything through.

Over reach

Lay out the case for every single possible thing you could ever want.  A political version of an eight year old's Christmas List.

Then negotiate down.

The compromise will be exactly what he wanted in the first place - another raising of the debt ceiling for a period of time, a few reforms to gun licensing (enough to keep the purists at bay and the stalwarts happy), and maybe a budget...

How can this strategy work for your organization?  How can you get what you want by asking for too much?  But even more importantly...

What is your organization asking for in the first place?

How Universal is Your Message?

Superbowl Ad time means taking a look at how those messages resonate. This year there was an interesting one. Dodge put out an ad about farmers. If you haven't seen it, here it is -


And it has spawned praise and attacks from all around. However what struck me the most was a difference in reactions.

As I sat in a suburban home in Southern California, where farms are places we take kids for seasonal photographs with pumpkins and hay rides and not a daily life, the reaction was unanimous.

We hated it.

No sooner did that commentary cross our lips that the texts came in from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, South Carolina and other places that have a very different relationship with farms.

They loved it.

I'll leave it to Madison Avenue to decide how effective it was. But here were the basics of the message to consider -

1. It was 2 minutes long, 
2. It was very positive and family / faith centric 
3. It had a gritty powerful message?

Whether it was timing, tone, or message... it was clearly not universal.

• So what of your messages? 
• Are they universal? 
• Should they be? 
• Can you find ways to add in different messages? 
• What can you do differently to encourage outcomes across the board?

Where will GA Strategies be in February?

Where can you meet with us in February?

1 - Washington D.C. - Chip
6-7 - Phoenix, AZ - Chip
8-10 - Austin, TX - Chip
9-11 - Albany, NY - Meredith
10-13 - Lexington, KY - Bryan
19-21 - Minneapolis, MN - Bryan
26-28 - Little Rock, AR - Chip
28-3/1 - Sante Fe, NM - Chip

Get in Touch, We'd love to meet!