Full Statement on NYT’s Story on NRSC’s Record Investment in Digital Fundraising

Washington, D.C. – Below is the full statement from NRSC Communications Director Chris Hartline, that we provided to The New York Times on NRSC’s record investments in digital fundraising.

“No committee or campaign has put more work into grassroots fundraising this cycle than the NRSC. This cycle we are the #1 total raised, with more than $84 million raised in grassroots donations, #1 in total donors, and #1 new donors to WinRed among Republican committees. 

We will take back the Senate in 2022 and our digital investments will be a big part of the reason why and will ensure we are #1 in the 2024 cycle.  When Chairman Scott took over the NRSC, we went through the budget line by line and rooted out spending that didn’t provide a return to help us win back the majority.  Chairman Scott also instituted the toughest conflict of interest policy at the NRSC for our staff and vendors to clean up issues from the past. 

In previous cycles, the NRSC had one digital vendor with monopoly control in digital fundraising, which also owned the NRSC’s data and infrastructure. Chairman Scott dismissed that model, committed to investing in digital prospecting, brought the NRSC’s data in-house and opened up the NRSC’s digital vendors to competition. Today, there are over 40 vendors that focus solely on digital fundraising.  We have a variety of vendors at the NRSC, also including 15 serving on our IE unit.  We have a robust number of vendors serving this building because we want the best talent to help us win back the majority.

It has been our plan all along to spend early on campaigns and to grow the NRSC’s housefile, which is paying dividends now and will continue to in the future. We made the investment, we’re glad we did it, it will benefit the NRSC and the party as a whole for cycles to come, and disgruntled former staff and vendors will just have to deal with that.  Chairman Scott was sick of seeing the Democrats continue to beat us in digital fundraising and he has made it no secret that our goal is to build the biggest GOP digital file to help the party now and in the future.  Also, while you won’t share the exact document that got leaked to you, you are reporting on a potential draft budget, not real budget numbers or projections. Those numbers do not accurately reflect the investment or the return on investment.”

So, here are the facts on our digital program:

1. INVESTMENT
   1. $28M investment to 3x our housefile
   2. $84 million raised since the beginning of the 2022 cycle
   3. More than 160,000 first time donors
   4. These new donors have given, on average, 5 times this cycle
   5. $38 avg gift of these new donors
   6. 96% of donors are voters. We aren’t just raising more money; we’re also motivating and persuading voters

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