“Just a few dollars”

As mentioned before, I’ve been receiving a ton of election related fund raising e-mails. I discussed some of the themes recently. But I really never discussed one major theme that is truly frustrating. The theme of “just a few dollars.” This line, in fact, appears on the subject line on a recent e-mail. Indeed, many campaigns have a suggested starting donation of $5 or less.

Just a few dollars makes sense for those raising funds. It doesn’t seem like much to many people. The sort of money many people blow on a trip to Starbucks. Thus, it’s a donation many can and will make without thinking twice. Yet, these small donations will add up for the politician or group collecting the money. If a politician gets enough $5 donations, he or she can buy a TV ad that “sets the record straight!” Or an ad that demolishes the opponent, as the case may be.

These donations also add up mighty fast for the people making them. $5 might not be a big deal for many people. But if one contributes $5 again and again, that can add up to real money. One hundred donations through an election year would end up being $500, which is not an insignificant amount of money for many people. (And, of course, the $5 is a starting point donation—the people sending these fund raising e-mails probably hope people will cough up $20, $50, or even $100 instead. Indeed, I wonder if many people don’t donate more just so they don’t seem cheap about it.) I wonder how many people are donating more than they can really afford.

In my case, I don’t have the budget to support even “just a few dollars” donations. My cash flow is not good, and I have just about zero spare cash at the moment. I know I’m not alone in this—indeed, this election cycle has made me aware of how poorly so many of us are doing in today’s America.

This brings me to my big frustration—the obvious belief these campaigns have that we all have money to burn.

I have been getting a lot of messages that make it clear that these groups are tracking my donations—or, more accurately, my lack of donations. “No donation yet!” flashes on one e-mail. I keep getting messages that say something like “3 missed e-mails.” (Obviously they think I missed these e-mails since I didn’t cough up $5!) I even get e-mails that whine: “Why, why, why?” (The why, of course, is why haven’t I coughed up $5.)

Guess what? I don’t have the resources to donate $5!  If I had a spare $5, I’d have bought the better brand of laundry detergent last time I bought detergent! I certainly don’t have a pile of cash to satisfy every group!

And, of course, the candidates behind these campaigns lead very comfortable lives. One wonders if they even have a clue what it’s like for many Americans. For example, I keep getting requests that are supposedly sent from some candidate’s iPad, and every time I see one of those, I think about how I—and many other people—are making due with less glamorous technology. (In my case, I’m using a desktop computer made before Obama’s first election!)

At one point, I cracked, and hit the respond button. I fired back an e-mail that basically said: I can’t afford to contribute! I got an auto response that strongly suggested the e-mail account was only used to send messages to try and shake money out of us. Not horribly surprising. I got this same sort of response from at least one other time. A couple of times, there was no response, so the message might have gone someplace. Or else the account was only used to send messages, and they hadn’t bothered with auto response. Who knows? In all cases, the flow of messages asking for “just” $5 continued...

Of course, I can unsubscribe. As stated before, I am a bit lazy, and I do find the study of the tactics interesting. Indeed, I have been wondering the last week or so if campaign fund raising e-mails couldn’t be a worthy academic study. Maybe there is even a doctoral thesis there for someone.

At least, the election is almost here, and that will stop the flood of fund raising e-mails. For this year, at least.