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Case Studies & Client Results

Three Reasons You Don’t Have Persuasive PAC

PAC fundraising best practices, such as peer to peer recruitment, senior management support, etc., are well known among seasoned PAC professionals. Yet, the average PAC participation rate has stayed in the 18%-33% range for the last 15 years (BIPAC). With the proliferation of PAC fundraising best practices, why isn’t PAC participation at 90%? I believe it’s because the rationale for joining the PAC is poorly developed and does not take into consideration the science of PAC persuasion. see three additional reasons for this stagnation...

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Corporate PAC Fundraising Exceeds Goal by 137% in a Down Economy, PAC Fundraising is Embedded in the Corporate Culture, Membership Grows by 50%

Despite major corporate restructuring, the International Paper PAC was growing. Many PAC professionals would congratulate themselves on this accomplishment and move on. Not IP---in spite of their success, the team realized that to grow the PAC, it had to be more visible in diverse facilities across the country.

The Solution

A hallmark of IP’s team is collaboration, which helps us achieve such high levels of success. Our projects included the following:

-Conducting a PAC awareness and message retention survey to find out the level of general PAC awareness in various facilities across the country. The results showed not just the salient messages that tended to "stick" with PAC prospects, but also what was missing as we sought to make those messages more persuasive.

-Determining the fundraising patterns of the most successful peer to peer PAC recruiters and instituting those as best practices for a broad PAC fundraising campaign

-Facilitating a PAC board strategic planning session that encouraged the Board members to jointly determine their fundraising goals and approach, thus maximizing their buy-in

-Using our Persuasive PAC methodology, we designed a new power point presentation and designed training to equip over 150 PAC Champions to recruit their colleagues to join the PAC.

-Not content with this success, the IP PAC team asked us to uncover the most impactful fundraising patterns and messages to build upon for future campaigns. A pattern emerged from our online surveys and focus groups. This enabled IP to build upon the momentum and formalize their PAC Champion program, thereby instituting the campaign into the corporate culture.

"Amy’s approach works! Our board members said the strategic planning session was the best meeting they ever attended. They also valued the new fundraising materials. We now have board member ownership of the PAC fundraising process through personal accountability, goals, and group metrics. Despite a tough economy, we exceeded our fundraising goal by 137%."

Meaghan Killion Joyce
Manager, Political Affairs
International Paper

Successful PAC Gains over 100 New Members a Month via Persuasive PAC Messages

The largest pharmaceutical industry PAC engaged us to investigate issues with PAC contributor attrition. The staff knew that organizational restructuring had an impact, but not to what degree or how to mitigate that very real impact on PAC fundraising. They engaged us to develop a persuasive messaging strategy to prevent further membership erosion.

We conducted message testing research with five business units which revealed salient (and each different for each unit) messages that have been used to increase PAC participation by over 500 new members in only 4 months. We have also created PAC recruitment materials for senior organization leaders, PAC Ambassadors, and the PAC web site. PAC Ambassador training was conducted to equip the Ambassadors to confidently and persuasively ask their peers to join the PAC. We also served in an ongoing consultative role relative to all PAC operations and strategy.

"Historically we have experienced strong PAC results, but with major legislative issues on the horizon, we anticipated a need to bolster our efforts. I interviewed many PAC consultants who told me what I already knew: that we "needed a peer to peer campaign" (which we had executed in the past). Amy knew that the challenges went beyond basic PAC recruitment tactics and common off the shelf solutions. We integrated a scientific approach to uncovering the reasons our PAC eligibles do and don't contribute to the PAC. We now know what works and what doesn't when communicating about the PAC, as well as how to build goodwill with our contributors."

Ken Hiscoe Director/Team Leader, Political Affairs
Pfizer, Inc.
Ken.Hiscoe@pfizer.com


Marc Scarduffa
Vice President, Government Relations and Public Affairs
Pfizer, Inc.

Internal PAC Culture Change Results in 860% Increase in PAC Receipts

The Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) needed to increase member PAC contributions and commitment, as well as more involvement from their board of directors. For example, many member companies were reluctant to sign a prior authorization form to allow ALFA to conduct PAC recruitment. Further, another competing association that shares many of ALFA’s members was aggressively promoting their PAC; as a result, ALFA members were concerned about divided loyalties and contributing to two Political Action Committees.

We delivered a presentation to the ALFA Board of Directors which demonstrated the rationale for PAC contributions beyond current legislative issues, and helped debunk common objections to PAC engagement. We also created a PAC fundraising manual that provided turn-key tools and templates for their member organizations to recruit for the ALFA PAC among their eligible employees.

"Amy’s tools helped us to persuade our members that PAC involvement is just as important as direct lobbying and grassroots engagement. Now our members are proud to have a larger PAC and understand its value."

Micah Intermill
Director of Advocacy
Assisted Living Federation of America

600 new Members from Increased PAC Awareness and PAC Board Member Engagement

Despite major corporate restructuring, the International Paper PAC was growing. Many PAC professionals would congratulate themselves on this accomplishment and move on. Not IP---in spite of their success, the team realized that to grow the PAC, it had to be more visible in diverse facilities across the country.

The Solution

We discussed the importance of volunteer motivation and participation in the goal-setting process, and explored ways to gain more PAC leader participation on PAC goal setting and execution strategies. We conducted a motivational PAC leadership presentation, as well as facilitated a PAC board strategic planning session. Our pre-workshop research revealed a pattern of fundraising best practices that could be executed by fellow Board members. The strategic planning session encouraged the Board members to jointly determine their fundraising goals and approach, thus maximizing their buy-in.

We also conducted a PAC awareness and message retention survey to find out the level of general PAC awareness in various facilities across the country. The results showed not just the salient messages that tended to "stick" with PAC prospects, (because that is only one part of the PAC persuasion equation) but also what was missing as we sought to make those messages increase awareness and membership in diverse facilities. Over 150 new members (in addition to the 600 above) joined as a result of the second campaign phase.

"Our board members said this was the best meeting they ever attended. We now have board member ownership of the PAC fundraising process through personal accountability, goals, and group metrics. Despite a tough economy, we have gained over 600 new PAC members."

Meaghan Killion Joyce
Manager, Political Affairs
International Paper

Association PAC Development

The National Association of REALTOR’S PAC and their state REALTOR association PACs are routinely rated as the largest in the country and their respective states. NAR and numerous state associations have hired us to teach their members how to use the science of influence to recruit more PAC members. For example, the Connecticut Association of REALTOR’s average individual PAC contribution increased by 300% and annual PAC receipts have increased by 35%. The CAR attributes this to “the solid scientific persuasion principle our members learned during AmyÂ’s workshop.”

“Our state chapter staff and members have not stopped buzzing about your presentation regarding the science of persuasion and how they can apply it to their PAC fundraising.”

John E. Ferruggiaro II
Managing Director, Political Field Operations
National Association of REALTORS

PAC Commitment Escalation Strategy

The California Hospital and Healthcare Association wanted to increase their individual hospital member’s’ average PAC contributions, as well as help create a positive culture of PAC involvement. We conducted several member hospital teleclasses where we enumerated the scientific persuasion points relevant to PAC fundraising. As a result, they reached their PAC fundraising goal several months in advance, and saw a dramatic increase in their average member contribution.

“Our consultations with Amy opened up a whole new era for our PAC fundraising campaigns. She helped us realize we could reach our goal with a systematic, persuasive approach to PAC recruitment. As a result, we achieved a 70% increase in revenue, our largest ever. Our average corporate contribution increased by 400%, which helped us surpass our goal several months in advance. Her philosophy changed the entire outlook of our PAC. It also changed the structure, as we added staff and increased our PAC budget.”

Rachel R. Wanner
Former CHPAC Administrator
California Healthcare Association

Corporate Grassroots and PAC Recruitment

Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA) is the nation’s largest provider of dialysis services and products for those suffering from kidney failure. An acquisition of another large dialysis provider presented new advocacy and PAC outreach opportunities for FMCNA’s government relations team. We collaborated with Fresenius’ direct lobbying and advocacy staff on several projects, including PAC/grassroots message testing and advocacy workshops. As a result, Fresenius now has 252 new Key Contacts, and has experienced an increase in PAC receipts.

Corporate Grassroots and PAC Change Management

The ConocoPhillips government affairs team was tasked with integrating multiple PAC and grassroots cultures, both from a major merger and several large corporate acquisitions. Cultural differences were significant on how the PAC’s were managed.

We collaborated on a variety of grassroots and PAC development initiatives, including, but not limited to: PAC and grassroots message testing, employee PAC and grassroots leader training, a persuasive turn-key PAC presentation, a new PAC recruitment campaign, a members-only web site featuring special streaming video messages, and a comprehensive employee grassroots leader manual.

The PAC participation rate has increased 78% and receipts have increased 64%. Employee awareness of legislative issues impacting the company is clearly on the rise, and employees come forward on a regular basis asking to be on the grassroots leadership team. Membership on the grassroots leadership team has grown to over 200 employees in 14 states.

PAC Development

The National Association of REALTORS and their state realtor organizations comprise the largest association PAC’s in the country. They have hired us to teach their members how to use the science of influence to recruit their colleagues to join the PAC. The Connecticut Association of REALTORS’ average individual PAC contribution increased by 300% and annual PAC receipts have increased by 35%. The CAR attributes this to "the solid scientific persuasion principles our members learned during Amy’s workshop."

PAC Reinvigoration

For We Energies, we coached the PAC staff on creating appropriate PAC recruiting and promotional materials, created PAC Board development materials, facilitated PAC member feedback meetings, and trained the staff and PAC recruiters on how to utilize the science of influence to recruit more PAC members. The staff and PAC Board have a renewed focus and mission. “We have never seen this much focus and attention to our PAC before we worked with you. You taught us how to stay focused and on track to meet our goals. In our first small group recruitment meeting, we gained over 40 new members!”

"Contracting with The Showalter Group to help reinvigorate our PAC was important in teaching us what was needed in order for the program to survive. Due in large part to your involvement, I have seen a definite change in the PAC Board and staff. I have not seen this kind of excitement or interest in our PAC since I’ve been a part of the Government Affairs staff. In fact, in our very first PAC recruitment meeting, we gained 40 new PAC contributors!"

Judy Job
PAC Manager
We Energies

Corporate PAC Fundraising Campaign

We have collaborated with the Dow Chemical Company for several years on numerous PAC and grassroots improvement projects. Our most recent effort involved facilitating senior executive momentum toward a major PAC fundraising campaign, creating all executive campaign communications, designing the campaign brochure and PAC recruiting presentation, training employee PAC recruiters, and providing counsel on PAC administrative management. In phase one of the campaign, 100% of the most senior executives contributed at the maximum allowable level. Average individual PAC contributions increased by 400%.