Political Campaigns

Fundraising Software for Political Campaigns

Quarter closes on the 30th. Clear the over-limit gifts, send best-efforts requests to donors still missing employer or occupation, call the rest during tonight's call time, and hand the treasurer a Schedule A export.

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FundraiserMax Calls & Meetings dashboard with call and meeting totals, calls by status and outcome, and upcoming scheduled calls
A candidate and a staffer shake hands at a lectern in a wood-paneled room
Political CampaignsFrom the first call to the last filing

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. Financials > Compliance > pick the donation account and the period. The pre-filing checklist counts over-limit gifts, itemized donors missing employer or occupation, and the rest.
  2. Open the employer and occupation row > select the donors > send a best-efforts request. Each one goes out by email and is logged on the contact.
  3. Target > Contact Info tab > set Employer and Occupation to Is empty > Search Contacts > add the results to a static list so the callers work the ones with no email.
  4. Calls & Meetings > New Call/Meeting for each conversation; log the outcome, then fill in employer and occupation on the contact record.
  5. Financials > Compliance > Export Schedule A (CSV) for the treasurer.

On screenThe checklist counts drop as answers come in, and the Schedule A file has employer and occupation wherever a donor answered.

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, that batch number, and the co-host credited as the host who brought it in.
  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's raised total moving against their commitment on the event.

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

Every gift is checked against the donor's limit, employer, occupation, address, and batch number sit on every gift, and the pre-filing checklist shows who's still missing detail before the period closes.

FundraiserMax Target Contacts with a map of supporter locations and results ranked by total giving

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

Batches with check numbers, each gift tied to an election, and credit for the host or bundler who brought it in, with tracked links to your WinRed, ActBlue, or Anedot page.

Analytics & Reports

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

FundraiserMax campaign editor with the campaign timeline, donation accounts, and committees

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. Financials > Compliance marks donors itemized once they pass the threshold you set ($200 for the cycle by default), lists the itemized donors missing employer, occupation, address, or a full name, sends best-efforts requests, and exports the itemized gifts in FEC Schedule A columns.
Not in the productFundraiserMax doesn't file the report, and it doesn't produce .fec files or state filing formats. Your treasurer brings the Schedule A file into their filing software.
Contribution limits are per donor per election and change with each cycle.
In the productEach donation account holds its limit and period (per election, per cycle, or per year). Every gift, typed in or imported, is checked against the donor's total for that period, the donation form shows the room left, and an over-limit gift is flagged with a 60-day resolve-by date to redesignate, refund, or mark reviewed.
Not in the productIt never blocks an over-limit gift and doesn't send the refund. It checks the limits you enter, so update them when the cycle changes.
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.

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) decide who can export, edit donations, send or delete, callers only see the contacts assigned to them, 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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