Subject: Re: Outline of finance structure
From: Dennis Cheng <[email-masked]>
To: Robby Mook <[email-masked]>
Cc: John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 18:19:20 -0500

With respect to the “kickoff” strategy, I suggest launching a “founders”/“angel investors” group (name is just a placeholder) on day one for the first quarter of the campaign, with each member being asked to raise $X by the first FEC filing deadline. All donors who want to raise will be enlisted to this group - basically, the precursor to our official Finance Committee. And we set the minimum levels, benefits, and ground rules up front. For example, to be a “founder”, you are expected to raise $25K in primary money by the first FEC deadline. And then to be a Finance Committee member (our version of Pioneers and Rangers; again, name TBD), you are expected to raise a minimum of $50K (inclusive of the first $25K) during the primary campaign. And then down the road, we can decide if we want to give finance titles based 100% on fundraising performance. For example, we can have levels and corresponding merit-based titles at $50K, $100K, $250K, $500K, etc. And establish a fair and clear policy for how we count bundling (for example, if you bring in new raiser, you get credit for their first $25K but nothing beyond that).

For “friends” who want to help or who have asked for consulting roles, we either steer them to join the founders group (and then the finance committee) or if it makes sense, we create an ad hoc “finance advisory” group for the worker bee types to leverage their strengths and to make them feel included.

And I think for every elected official who gives their support to the campaign, we ask each of them to max out personally and from their candidate committee (and leadership PAC if we decide to accept leadership PAC $) and encourage them to join the Finance Committee and raise at least $25K by the first FEC deadline and $50K+ overall for the primary.

I think for the first quarter of the campaign, we leverage our senior campaign officials to headline recruitment briefings around the country; leverage HRC for direct fundraising events; and then in the 2nd quarter, we hold our first official Finance Committee meeting for raisers who successfully raised $25K+ and are pledging to raise $50K+. So that only those who deliver are invited to attend. Again, 100% merit based.

> On Jan 17, 2015, at 5:54 PM, Robby Mook <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> Below is the finance organizational outline I wanted to discuss on our 7pm call.  John, I'm sending you another document I want to discuss with you afterwards.  
> Talk to you soon!
> 
> 
> PRINCIPLES
> 
> •	No titles (for the first two quarters?)
> •	Merit based system for titles or roles later in the campaign
> •	No consultants (say at least for the first two quarters?)
> 
> 
> STRUCTURE
> 
> Finance Chair (necessary)?
> This person would be a point of contact to manage politics and incoming from key donors.  
> 
> 
> “Kickoff committee”
> This would be a committee of die-hard supporters and past raisers that would organize regional briefings (with John?) in target cities/markets to kick off the raising effort.  Attendees would be asked to raise a certain amount of primary money each by Q2 (do we need events to support this?).
> This committee would be a select group with demonstrated capacity to organize raisers.  It would act as a test for people who desire a leadership role in the campaign’s fundraising efforts.  This could also be a place to direct people who have asked for a consulting role in the campaign.  
> 
> Examples: 
> --Capricia Marshall?
> --Brian Wolff?  
> --JB Pritzger?
> --Laura Hartigan?
> --How do we want to engage elected officials?
>