How The North Carolina State Party Built an Online Powerhouse With WinRed

The North Carolina Republican Party is consistently one of the top Republican state parties on the platform.

We interviewed Chairman Michael Whatley to learn how they use WinRed and our unique features to grow their online fundraising program.

1. How do you use WinRed as part of your digital strategy?

Chairman Whatley: “Everything we do via SMS or Email drives people to a WinRed page. It’s the cornerstone of our digital strategy.”

See all the WinRed features that raise you up to 40% more

2. What’s an interesting or memorable example of how you’ve used a WinRed feature?

Chairman Whatley: “We’ve had great success with list exchange / tandem fundraising partnerships. In the 2020 Election Cycle, we raised some $170,000+ from partner committees (TMAGAC, Thom Tillis, etc.).”

Download the State Slates Playbook and learn how you can use Slates to reach new audiences on WinRed

3. How did you come up with your favorite merch idea?

Chairman Whatley: “Our favorite merch has to be the Let’s Go Brandon T-Shirt. WinRed’s Merch Team was really helpful in helping us have a quick turnaround time, so we were able to go live on our website in a timely manner. “

Source: North Carolina Republican Party

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4. How did you build your email and supporter list, and how has that helped your fundraising?

Chairman Whatley: “Our supporter list is primarily built via Facebook Ads, though we’ve seen diminishing returns from Facebook in recent months. Without our supporter list, we would not have been able to raise much. We do very little by way of list rentals, etc., so our housefile is critically important.”

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5. What advice would you give to another state party or campaign looking to build their online fundraising program?

Chairman Whatley: “Approach your online fundraising program with the mentality of a national committee. Think big. Online fundraising is primarily effective at large scale. We hired an agency, Hines Digital, to help manage and grow our program quickly.”

Download The Official WinRed Guide to Online Fundraising here

6. What would you want others in the GOP to know about what you’ve experienced using WinRed?

Chairman Whatley: “WinRed is a powerful platform, and there are lots of little optimizations you can do to pages / Upsells that help you raise marginally more money. It’s worth taking the time to really learn the platform to get the most out of it.”

Learn about the four keys to raising more on WinRed

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