Is it Just Me?

Is it just me, or is the DCCC “flood the zone with SCREAMING subject lines, short hyperbolic copy and link after link with contribute amounts” email strategy spreading like the Spanish flu? Once this was merely an in-box migraine that occurred the last couple days of each fundraising quarter. But now I am getting these HYSTERICAL (not the funny kind) missives several times every day.

And non-political groups are picking it up as well. (I’m looking at you People for the American Way).

For those of you tempted by the riches of going to the dark side, I would just caution you one thing. For reasons I cannot begin to understand, the political committees are raising megabucks by spamming you to within an inch of your life, and it seems to work time after time. But for the most part the political committees don’t care about their small donors. They don’t want a relationship. They want cheap money fast and if it means churning the list, well you’re only as good as the last fundraising quarter anyway.

The calculus with “normal” nonprofits should be different. The focus should be on retention. On relationship-building. On upgrading. Maybe the DCCC approach can work just fine for others. Maybe it works for a time and then your list is dead. Or maybe it doesn’t work at all.

Here’s the thing. One way or another, it looks like we’re going to find out.