The key to donor communities?

Posted 5/25/20

Someone recently tweeted the following:

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A predictive model of human behavior:

People nearly always act in the interest of increasing their social status.

People’s beliefs are less arrived at by reason and more by whatever will boost their reputation in the milieu they care about.

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In many domains, communities are an effective way to get and keep people engaged.

In politics, “community” is regarded as an effective way to get and keep interest from donors.

Unfortunately, the idea of “community” is too broad to guide action. “Building community” is a huge menu that includes cocktail parties, conferences, listservs, and much more.

So what is the critical element of a successful political donor community?

Perhaps it’s what this tweet describes; a social group in which status is conferred by being a smart, effective, and/or large donor. And the resulting camaraderie of seeing peers working alongside you to similar ends.

How does this match (or not) your own experience with political donor communities, or with mission-based communities more broadly? What do you think is the critical element for success?