A volunteer fundraiser’s journey from anxiety to action

Here’s the story from one of our peer coaches on how she shifted from candidate to organization giving and utilized creative strategies like hosting in-person donor briefing watch parties and writing local op-eds to get her message out there!

Below is written by Vera Sandronsky. Vera is a retired attorney, volunteer fundraiser, writer, and peer coach.

I lived the problem.

As my anxiety grew in the lead-up to the 2020 election, I began to donate to candidates. My friends and I became increasingly vulnerable to the fear-inducing ads from candidates we didn’t know at all who were asking for money to avoid political catastrophe. It was easy to donate, and yet giving didn’t ease our worry.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

At a friend’s invitation in September 2020, I attended a Zoom meeting of Walk the Walk, an all-volunteer group that supports giving to organizations committed to voter education and mobilization in their communities. Giving to support lasting change fundamentally shifted my understanding of how to give. In 2021 I learned about Galvanize, which focuses on messaging to moderate women voters in the swing states. 

How do I share what I’ve learned?

I wanted to bridge the gap between what I had learned and the political giving habits I saw around me. Whether my friends had $50 or $1,000 to give, I wanted their money to be used wisely. So, without any background in fundraising or sales, I began to send my friends emails, encouraging them to attend a webinar and then to donate. I kept track of my contacts on a spreadsheet. I connected personally before asking them to register for a webinar or donate. I wrote follow-up emails to ask for reactions and had phone calls with some friends if I thought they were good prospects for donating. Whenever possible, I talked in person, often after an initial email. I learned that reminders 1-2 days before a webinar would yield positive responses. Since my first and most important request is for my friends’ attention, not for their money, I took any response as an invitation for continued dialogue. 

I found a partner in my local community, someone I introduced to Galvanize and whose enthusiasm now supports me. We sent invites to our friends and 25 of us came together to watch a Galvanize webinar in his living room. We shared our friends’ feedback with Galvanize staff. At our next watch party, we will ask supporters to invite their friends.

Find a community and make your message personal.

In the summer of 2023, I joined the leadership of Indivisible Yolo and met fellow activists receptive to strategic giving and focused on fundraising as an important form of activism. We had the first-ever Indivisible Yolo fundraiser in December 2023 where 45 people gathered in person on a Saturday afternoon to learn about donating to civic engagement organizations in CA congressional districts 13 and 22. I shared my personal giving journey, including a fact about money wasted from a race that would be familiar (McGrath’s infeasible challenge of McConnell). My comments resonated, and we raised over $10,000.

Last month, I turned my comments into an op-ed, which was published in my local paper to reach people who weren’t yet in my network but live in my area. I hope to publish the op-ed reshaped for the Sacramento Bee, a regional newspaper, to reach a much bigger audience.

Acknowledge frustration and discover joy.

When friends don’t respond, it can feel like a personal rejection. Yet I am always willing to refine my approach. How can I make them feel comfortable as I share my passion for effective giving? How can I make my messages more succinct? 

This work is always about building relationships. I’m happy when a friend donates, and my happiness is multiplied when the same friend offers to reach out to their friends. And the circles of influence that start with one person’s action can extend beyond what any of us can predict.

This piece was written to introduce Donor Organizer Hub’s Peer Coaching for Volunteer Fundraisers program, of which Vera is a peer coach.