Crowdfunding has been on the minds of Americans ever since the first GoFundMe campaign launched and littered their Facebook newsfeeds with requests of donating to a specific cause. Some examples include paying their medical bills or raising money for college tuition. Social media allows crowdfunding to exist because every person on Facebook is now a potential donor to the cause of your choice. This platform allows your friends and family to donate, share with their friends and family, etc.
Now, let’s look at how the aspect of crowdfunding can help political candidates. A key aspect of political campaigning, whether you are running for County Sherriff or President of the United States, needs to be garnering monetary funds. In ord
er to reach your constituents correctly, your campaign must be promoting the platform of your campaign and ensure that you will deliver. How do you do this? If you are a smaller campaign, Facebook ads are a great way to start. You are given the ability to micro target your audience so you can specifically target a region or your state. If you are a larger campaign, you will probably hire an advertising agency to manage your TV, radio, and online advertisement. But, what if you are looking for a way to raise money for your campaign through your friends, family and social media audience? Sure, they can share a link that you post, but they are not given the ability to push that link to every social media platform. Until now.
If you are looking for a way to promote your message without spending tons of money, consider using our new 
crowdfunding feature! At no additional charge, you can access this feature once you create your account with Raise the Money. The campaign is given the ability to invite and assign digital bundlers to fundraise for their campaign and ultimately crowdfund for the campaign. The people invited could be family, friends, the campaign treasurer, etc. Each person who is invited is given a specific link that they can promote on their Facebook page, Twitter page, LinkedIn page, email, etc. The campaign is also given the ability to create Bundler Groups for specific issues your campaign is trying to promote, like immigration or gun control to give an example. You can assign bundlers to these specific bundler groups and can track how successful each bundler is for your campaign.
From the way things are progressing, crowdfunding isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And political crowdfunding has arrived just in time for the 2016 Election. According to Forbes: although “the Internet has long been able to turn local controversies into national outrage in mere hours,” crowdfunding has presented a very accessible medium for communities to raise money for the causes that matter to them. Now, candidates will be given the ability to further narrow down their approach and assign bundlers for different causes important to the campaign. Raise the Money is the first online payment processor that allows candidates to assign digital bundlers on behalf of their campaign. Be prepared for political crowdfunding in the next election cycle and make sure you take advantage of this feature and sign up with Raise the Money!
For more information about Crowdfunding, be sure to check out the links below:
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2015/04/07/the-politics-of-crowdfunding-how-gofundme-profits-off-of-controversy/
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2015/02/20/the-future-of-crowdfunding-what-the-next-5-years-will-bring/
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-drake/crowdfunding-grows-up-4-t_b_6398444.html