Political Campaigns

Fundraising Software for Political Campaigns

Quarter closes on the 30th. Pull every gift since the last report, filter for donors still missing employer or occupation, call them during tonight's call time, and hand the treasurer an Excel export with batches intact.

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FundraiserMax Calls & Meetings screen with Dashboard, Calls & Meetings, dialer, and Settings tabs and a campaign filter

The Calls & Meetings screen in FundraiserMax. Real product, not a mockup.

How a state senate campaign would run the quarter

Hypothetical scenarios. No customer is described.

Finance director, three weeks before a filing deadline

The report needs employer and occupation on every itemized gift, and a few dozen donors gave online without filling in either one.

  1. Target > Contact Info tab > set Employer and Occupation to Is empty > Search Contacts > Save Search.
  2. Add the results to a static list under Lists so the callers work from one sheet.
  3. Calls & Meetings > New Call/Meeting for each conversation; log the outcome, then fill in employer and occupation on the contact record.
  4. Financials > Search Records > date range for the period > Export Report to Excel.

On screenThe export has employer and occupation filled in where the calls landed, and the saved search is there to run again next quarter.

Candidate, a two-hour call time block on a Tuesday night

The finance director built the sheet from a smart list of donors whose last gift was more than 90 days ago.

  1. Call Time > the sheet assigned from that list. Each contact comes up with lifetime given, giving on this campaign, and the last call outcome.
  2. Make the ask, log the result (reached and pledged, callback requested, not interested), and set the follow-up date.
  3. A pledge made on the phone goes in as a pledge with a due date, not as a gift.
  4. With a provisioned number, the dialer under Calls & Meetings works the same list and drops a voicemail on the ones that go to machine.

On screenPledges sit on the records with due dates, and the follow-up list is waiting for staff in the morning.

Treasurer, the morning after a house party

A co-host brought a stack of checks, and the campaign wants all of them in one batch that matches the deposit slip.

  1. Financials > Batches > Create Batch with a batch number for the deposit.
  2. Events > the event > Financials tab > Add Donation for each check, with the check number and that batch number.
  3. Financials > Batches > open the batch > export to Excel.

On screenOne batch total that matches the deposit slip, with every gift tied to the event, and the co-host on the Co-Hosts tab.

Campaign manager, onboarding a WinRed export in week one

The online donors live in a CSV nobody has cleaned up. Some of them are the same person twice.

  1. Data > Data Import > choose the campaign > upload the CSV > Map Columns > Review & Import.
  2. Data > Dedupes to review the matches before anything is merged.
  3. Lists > Create List > Smart List with the rules total given over an amount AND state equals the district state.

On screenThe contact count on the list, an import history row with the counts, and a queue of duplicates to review.

What a campaign uses, screen by screen

Campaign Finance

Employer, occupation, address, and batch number sit on every gift, and the Target filter for an empty employer or occupation gives you the call list before the period closes.

FundraiserMax Target Contacts screen with Contact Info, Financial, and Calls-Meetings tabs, Employer and Occupation fields, and Match All or Match Any rules
The Target screen, where the missing-employer list starts.

Calls & Meetings

Call Time sheets are assigned from any list, results are a fixed set, and the dialer runs inside the 8am to 9pm window and drops a voicemail when a machine picks up.

Donor Targeting

Filter by zip, county, or state and by total given, gift count, and last gift date, then save the search, put the result on a list, and assign that list to Call Time or export it.

Event Management

A public RSVP page with a ticket price and capacity, email-verified RSVPs, VIP flags, co-hosts, and check-in at the door.

Donation Management

Contribution limit amounts are recorded per donation account for reference; the treasurer still checks each gift.

Analytics & Reports

Campaign dashboards show goal progress and today's activity and export to PDF or Excel.

FundraiserMax Campaigns list with a New Campaign button and Campaign, Status, Progress, Stats, and Dates columns
The Campaigns list, with goal progress per campaign.

Rules that shape the work

Filing rules differ by office and state. Your treasurer or counsel decides what applies; here's what the product records.

Federal committees itemize contributions from an individual once they pass $200 in aggregate for the cycle, with name, address, employer, occupation, date, and amount. Many states use different thresholds.
In the productEmployer and occupation live on the contact and are carried on each gift. The Target screen filters for contacts with either field empty, and Financials exports the period to Excel with batch numbers.
Not in the productFundraiserMax doesn't produce .fec files or state filing formats, and it doesn't tell you when a donor is near a limit. Limit amounts on a donation account are a reference, not a check.
Contribution limits are per donor per election and change with each cycle.
In the productEach donation account can store the limit amount and period for reference, and a donor's total given, gift count, and last gift date are on the record and in Target.
Not in the productIt won't compute how much room a donor has left, flag an over-limit gift, or handle a refund.
Calls to residential numbers are restricted outside 8am to 9pm local time.
In the productThe dialer refuses to start a session outside that window in your account time zone and detects answering machines so callers talk to people.
Not in the productThe window runs on your account's time zone, not the donor's. A list that spans time zones is yours to split.

What isn't here

  • There's no voter file, walk list, or canvassing tool; FundraiserMax is the donor side of the campaign.
  • It won't file your report. It gives your treasurer the contribution detail in Excel.
  • Bundler and party are text fields on the record, not targeting filters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does FundraiserMax file FEC or state reports?

No. It records what the report needs (name, address, employer, occupation, date, amount, batch number) and exports the period to Excel. The Target screen lists the donors with employer or occupation still empty; chase them before the deadline instead of after. Your treasurer or filing software takes it from there.

How does call time work on a campaign?

Assign a list to a caller under Call Time. The caller works through it one donor at a time, with lifetime given, giving on this campaign, and the last call result on screen. Log the result from a fixed set, set a follow-up date, and move to the next name. The dialer under Calls & Meetings needs a provisioned number at $10 a month; it places the calls, detects answering machines, and drops a voicemail, with no per-minute charge.

Can I import WinRed, Anedot, or ActBlue donations?

Yes. WinRed comes in as a CSV import, Anedot through a signed webhook, and ActBlue as an import. Each import runs through Map Columns and Review & Import, and Data > Dedupes shows the likely duplicates before you merge them. Merges are logged and reversible.

What does a campaign pay?

$40 per user per month, or $425 per user per year, with unlimited contacts and no feature tiers. A candidate, a finance director, and a treasurer are three seats. Add-ons are phone numbers at $10 per number per month with no per-minute or per-message charges, marketing email past 100 sends per account per month at $2 per 1,000, and email validation at $0.01 per address.

Can volunteers and the treasurer have different access?

Roles (owner, admin, manager, volunteer, viewer) and per-campaign permissions (view, edit, manage) decide who sees what, and a caller can be given Call Time access with no CRM screens at all. During the 7-day trial you can import contacts, build segments, set up campaigns and events, and log calls; sending marketing email, buying a number, and running validation wait until the paid plan starts on day 8.

Other organizations

Close the quarter with the detail already on the record.

Import the last export, build the missing-employer list, run call time, and hand the treasurer an Excel file.$40 per user per month, 7-day free trial, no charge until day 8.

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