Ben Carson is keeping his fundraising tactics old school. Instead of Twitter and Snapchat, the retired neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate is relying on letters and phone calls. As The Atlantic reports, he's "literally sending fliers to voters or cold-calling them and trying to talk them into giving money."
So far, Carson has amassed "astonishing grassroots support" with these tactics, as well as a better reach with older voters, The Atlantic reports. But even with those upsides and Carson's healthy budget — he raised $20.8 million in the third quarter — these tactics still pose one big drawback: cost.
You've got to mail the fliers — nearly $2.5 million, or about a quarter, of what Carson spent in the third quarter was categorized as postage-related — and you've got to have human beings making those telemarketing calls. And even when the investment pays off, what it yields are small-dollar donations — $25, $50, $100 — rather than anything approaching the $2,700 maximum. [The Atlantic]
This quarter, Carson's campaign spent 54 cents for every dollar raised to raise more money — a burn rate of 69 percent. Most of that spending was fundraising costs.
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Read the full story over at The Atlantic.