Recently we spoke with a client that has a Political Action Committee and has their members make contributions to the PAC. The PAC donations are used to support the campaigns of legislators that the organization supports. During the conversation, we discovered that the person that manages the PAC is not also the grassroots coordinator. We wondered if the two organizations share their information and whether this setup has an impact on their efficiency.
Someone that is willing to contribute money to an organization’s PAC probably has some level of interest grassroots efforts that PAC is engaged in. These people may be good candidates to become advocates for the organization. Conversely, if someone shows an interest in advocating for the organization, they may also be willing to contribute funds to help people elected to office.
The idea seem so simple, yet it had not occurred to this organization. If your organization runs a PAC, the contributors should be invited to join your grassroots network so they can continue to be informed of how elections are going and how the organization is approaching the political environment. Melding information from your PAC and your grassroots environment can provide a better set of facts for your audience. The PAC manager will know who the organization wants in office, giving the grassroots person more fodder for their communications as to what is happening at the capitol and how the races are going. And from your grassroots system, the PAC manager can get the list of members in your organization who live in a candidates district to be able to tap those people as potential PAC contributors.
Of course the best environment would be an integrated one where the PAC information is in the same environment as your grassroots information, but most organizations don’t think that way and they get two separate environments. Does your organization have an integrated Grassroots and PAC system? Learn more about our PAC Management and our Grassroots Advocacy Systems.