Historic Fundraising for Ohio’s Abortion Ballot Initiative

Moments matter, and ballot initiatives need to create their own moments. Every campaign needs major moments that resonate with donors, but ballot initiatives have to try harder than candidate campaigns to get them. While digital programs are often unfortunately still siloed on many campaigns, modern ballot initiative campaigns are poised to leverage synchronized, multi-platform pushes to create and capitalize on fundraising moments.

• The connection between communications and digital fundraising is non-negotiable. Ballot initiatives can’t fly under the radar like usual if you want to raise significant online funds. By working in lockstep with the coalition, we ensured that every media appearance amplified our message and supported our fundraising goals. We even created a set of easy-to-remember shortcut URLs for coalition members to drop on national TV, and trained spokespeople to use them (It’s a lot easier to say “AbortionBallotOhio.org” than “ohioansunitedforreproducitverights.win”).
• We sought out media appearances that would maximize eyeballs and donations. Appearances on shows like Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Hayes, Symone Sanders, as well as influential platforms like Pod Save America and John Oliver, were designed to elevate the initiative’s visibility. Over the course of the campaign, OURR leaders participated in 23 MSNBC interviews and countless national print interviews.
• Message discipline built into every media appearance. No one from the coalition engaged with the press without thorough preparation. We ensured that every spokesperson was an authentic, on-message spokesperson for the initiative — turning every interview and appearance into an opportunity to advance our cause.

What works for candidates doesn’t necessarily work for ballot initiatives. Fundraising moments that capitalize on local and national events, timely legal decisions, or opposition moves can make a significant impact. While digital programs often are unfortunately still siloed on campaigns, ballot initiatives are especially well-positioned to integrate messaging across channels for maximum effect.

• Elevating the organization raised the most money. Most candidate campaigns will tell you that their best performing emails are signed by the candidate themselves. With ballot initiatives, there isn’t a person on a ballot – and we found that using the institution as an email signer significantly outperformed team members and most surrogates and elected officials.
• Donors like to know where their dollar is going. Appeals that emphasize yard signs, sponsoring volunteer work, ad buys – with imagery of said ads – or other compelling campaign visuals were among the top performing of the campaign.
• In-state donors are incredibly passionate. In the early days of this program, we tested appeals to both national and in-state prospects. The in-state prospects were 5 times more likely to activate than out-of-state prospects. And while OURR was fortunate to earn donations from all 50 states, fully 87% of email openers were from the Buckeye State — and Ohioans donated 3 times more dollars than out-of-state donors.
• Let the opposition write your content for you. Most of our top-performing content focused on exposing what the anti-abortion movement was doing. We supplied reporters with clear examples of falsehoods in opposition messaging, and these news stories fired up OURR’s donors.