This is a fundraising email—maybe just one of many fundraising emails you’ve gotten this week. I know they can be a lot, and, honestly, fundraising has been one of the hardest parts of this early campaign for me. However, I’ve quickly learned just how critical fundraising is to running an efficient and effective campaign—especially in these early months!
My team and I have two main goals when raising money for the campaign:
- We need to raise money to reach as many voters as possible in each of Richmond’s nine City Council districts. Money helps support our campaign in a bunch of different ways, including yard signs and other materials, my hard-working campaign staff, and, most importantly, advertising, advertising, advertising that launches this fall.
- We need to raise money to show donors that we can…raise money. It’s a little bit of a Catch 22, but here is why it makes sense: folks want to be sure they’re supporting a viable candidate that others support and that will use the money to get elected, and so one of the ways I can demonstrate my viability is through a commitment to fundraising.
And it is a serious commitment! Several hours of my day are booked for “call time,” which is when I sit down for hours and make dozens—sometimes hundreds!—of fundraising calls. It’s an unbelievable amount of work, and it wouldn’t be possible without the support of my team. Like I said, it’s been the hardest part of the campaign for me so far, but I do 100% recognize its importance. None of the campaign infrastructure we’ve built—the ability to communicate to voters how I will lead and govern—would exist without it!
All of that hard work is paying off, too, thanks to so many of you. From April 10th, when I announced, through the end of our first reporting period on June 6th, our campaign raised $409,908. We have more donors overall than any other candidate in the race, and 78% of you are from the Richmond region. I’ve been absolutely humbled by the support so far.
So, and here comes the fundraising part of this email, June 30th is the next fast-approaching fundraising deadline. This week, you’ll probably get a handful of emails (or maybe two handfuls) from political candidates asking for your support. You’ll probably archive most of them without opening them, but I hope this one has explained the process a little and how your financial support of even $5, $10, or $25 is so important.
Thanks for reading, donating, and getting involved.
See you out there!
Danny
Get involved
See above! The best way for you to get involved this week is to consider donating $5, $10, or $1,000 🙂 ahead of the June 30th deadline. But if you want a yard sign or to help canvas your neighborhood, just head over to DannyForMayor.com.
News
- Now hiring: Field Director! If you or someone you know is excited to join Team Danny, we’d love to talk to them. Read the job description here, and email sarah@dannyformayor.com if you have the campaign expertise we are looking for.
- This week, CNN named Richmond the #1 city to visit in America, which is awesome! But we’ve got more work to do, and Danny will fight to make sure Richmond has the top schools, the most efficient City Hall, and the most resilient neighborhoods in the country.
Looking back
- This past week, Danny attended his very first mayoral forum. It was a great chance to see all of the candidates together and for folks to hear Danny’s plans and ideas for Richmond. Thanks to the Urban League Greater Richmond Young Professionals for putting it all together and VUU for hosting. Thanks, especially, to all the Richmonders who showed up!
- Councilmember Katherine Jordan also hosted a forum this week. Danny really enjoys these forums, and they give him an opportunity to talk directly to Richmonders, to answer great questions, and for people to hear his specific plans for making Richmond the healthy, thriving place we all know it can be.
If you weren’t able to make it to either forum, don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of opportunities later this summer. In the meantime, you can go to DannyForMayor.com and check out Danny’s priorities for Richmond (including the first of his policy papers on City Hall).
Looking ahead
- Dem-o-Que (June 29, 1 p.m., Forest Hill Park). Come out and have a good time socializing with fellow Democrats, eating good food, and listening to some tunes. Hosted by the Richmond City Democratic Committee, you can get your tickets here.
- The People’s Evolution Music Festival (June 29th, 4–9 p.m., Broad Rock Sports Complex). Join Danny for some music, fun, and a celebration of community. Thanks to Councilmember Jones for hosting what should be a great event!
- Stay tuned for our lineup of July events coming soon and have a great Fourth of July next week!
From the trail
Danny and team after his very first (and very successful) mayoral forum! More to come!
