Winners of the 2014 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

What’s a political fundraiser to do when an election ends and supporters had truly given until it hurt?

While the impulse might be to hang back and let the spent donors chill a while, the Democratic National Committee knew it couldn’t ease up too much; high-dollar donors are a cornerstone of the organization’s annual income. The goal of this campaign was “to communicate person to person with major donors about the DNC’s priorities in the coming months, using the importance of early money to build a foundation for election victory as a touchstone for multiple gifts,” writes Lon Chapman, executive vice president at Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey.