At every dramatic turn during this presidential election cycle, you may have received floods of text and email messages asking you to chip in $3 here or $5 there. But why such a small ask?
According to Money.com, small donations tell a candidate a lot about their grass roots support. They love to brag about it because the candidate can say they are in touch with the people and not just big donors.
Of course, the money helps. Lots of small donations add up for campaigns that will spend about $6 billion on the presidential campaign alone. And that chunk of money is all to get about 6 percent of the undecided voters, according to pollster Frank Luntz.
It's not cheap to send out a half a million text messages, but it costs much less than mail and the returns can be high. Sending out one million text messages might cost around $30,000, but if the message is sufficiently compelling, they might get donations from 1 percent to 5 percent of recipients. That would be about $20,000 to $50,000 at $1 each.
While they collect your dollar, they are also collecting information. Your name goes to other candidates in the same party who also send out a blizzard of text messages, confidently assuring you that the end of the world is near and your $2 is the only thing standing in the way of the apocalypse. Type STOP all you want. You are still getting more texts.
Donations aren't the only goal. Even if you don't open your wallet, the text messages keep the candidate at the front of your mind. And reminds you that Armageddon is coming, so please — send $2 or die.
