Les femmes rwandaises et la campagne électorale - Inter ...

Rwandan Women and the Electoral Campaign • 30 - 31 July 2003
Developing a Fundraising Strategy
Three factors should be taken into account while developing this strategy.
1. Raise all the money required to finance the campaign in a timely and cost-effective way. Most of your
finances must be raised six weeks before the official campaign. Once the campaign is on, you are most
unlikely to attract any other forms of support.
2. Ask different types of donors to contribute to your campaign. The basic principle in fundraising is that
"activity results in contributions; the absence of activity results in the absence of contributions". A
campaign has to do something to raise money. And the best fundraising effort is to put in place a wide
variety of activities targeting the widest possible market.
3. Stretch the limits of your donors. Most of us shy away from asking for political donations. A good
politician should not be shy about soliciting support for her campaign. You should ask until your donors
have nothing more to give. As a tactic, this is good because it, in many ways, counters electoral bribery.
Campaign Budgeting
What is a campaign budget?
• A campaign plan expressed in numbers;
• A financial illustration of the campaign's fundraising component;
• A formal request to the campaign's fundraising component;
• A financial reflection of your strategic choices in the campaign;
• A blue print for victory;
• A firewall against crisis management in the heat of “battle”.
Developing realistic numbers
• Every activity you engage in has a cost;
• Do not use estimates from previous campaigns;
• If you do not know, estimate; if you can't estimate, ask;
• There is no such thing as miscellaneous.
Best Practice in Budgeting
• Update budgets at least twice a week;
• Research numbers so that they are reality-based;
• Break out specific costs and avoid lumping programme activities together.
Budgeting rules that work all the time
• Just say NO!
• Save, don't spend;
• No real numbers ends in zero (do not accept rounded up figures);
• Cheap is good, free is better;
• Nothing is free;
• The power of your money is in cash-in-hand, not raised-to-date;
• Budgets are not just about channeling, but conserving;
• Raise most of your money six weeks before your campaign.
Tips on budgeting
• Identify critical priority areas that will add value to your campaign;
• Allocate budget lines to each priority;
• Identify what you can do with minimum costs;
• Recruit a competent and trustworthy financial officer (preferably a family member);
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