How To Write A Good Fundraising E-Mail, Episode 1

I'm going to start a new feature tonight. We all get way too many e-mails from candidates asking for money, right?. Many of them are created by over-priced, under-talented communications consultants with messaging straight from the two-legged jokes who work at the DCCC, DNC and DSCC. I tend to recognize the worst of the garbage either from the subject line or by the layout or, if not sooner, by the first sentence. More often than not, I just unsubscribe. But the e-mails never seem to slow down, do they?

Once in a while, a candidate sends me an e-mail that's actually worth reading, one that gives the readers a sense of who that candidate actually is and what they will fight for and who they will fight for when they get to Congress. Our new DWT feature will be to run some of the best of those fundraising e-mails. I hope they set an example for other candidates of how to do it-- and I hope some readers feel moved to contribute or to at least decide to look further into the candidates.

The first one is from the Blue American-endorsed congressional candidate in NC-02, Jason Butler, a progressive Wake County pastor in a district that spans suburbs and large rural swathes of northern North Carolina. Here's what he sent out about a week or so ago. If you like it and you would like to see Jason replace right-wing Trump enabler and sock-puppet George Holding in Congress, please consider contributing to Jason's campaign by clicking on the 2020 Blue America thermometer on the right, even if it's just $5 or $10. That's how candidates build successful campaigns-- $5 and $10 donations at a time.

Howard,

Recently, my wife and I went to Pride Fest here in Durham, NC. My church had a booth there and I wanted to show my support. I didn’t campaign. I just wanted to be a regular guy supporting the LGBTQ+ community. But I saw someone I know who asked me about the campaign, and he told me how tired he is of politics: the climate emergency, friends without healthcare, the impeachment proceedings. He said people were at the festival protesting his very existence. He told me, “I just want to run away.”

We’re all exhausted. The last few years have felt like a decade. But I’ll tell you what I told him: we just can’t give up. I’m reminded of a quote I recently read from Bobby Kennedy which says, “Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened…we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.”

Y’all, I know we’ve been through a lot. But we just can’t turn our heads right now. There is too much at stake. We have to act. The future depends on good people standing up for justice.

One way to act is to give to a candidate who you believe in. Someone you know will fight for you and for all those who are suffering.

Will you join our people-powered campaign by making a contribution of $20 or more today? This will give us momentum, allow us to fight for the needs of everyday Americans like you, and reach out to voters who are waiting for a candidate who will fight for them.

I hope I can count on your support.

Thanks a ton!

—Jason