Even a very sophisticated financial investor made this confession: “Come to think of it, I don’t take a strategic approach to my political investing. When my blood pressure reaches a certain level I just throw $250 at MoveOn.org and treat them like my local aspirin.” As it happens, this individual is a financial advisor to very high net worth individuals and yet even he was surprised to realize that he didn’t employ any sort of strategy when it came to political investing.
Q: Why don’t people take a more strategic approach to political investing?
A: Until now there haven’t been comprehensive resources and tools that educate individuals about political investing and how to do it strategically. It’s also been difficult to measure the impact of your contribution—or the return on investment—when it comes to giving to organizations.
If I give money to a candidate, I can measure my return based on whether that candidate won or lost the election. But it’s not as easy to measure the return on investment when it comes to giving to, say, a progressive think tank, media entity, or advocacy group. That’s why NPC has developed products and services to address these issues and help individuals approach political investing more strategically.
Q: How does NPC help individuals be more strategic and effective with their political and charitable giving?
A: NPC is taking a similar approach to that of a financial services firm—helping our members target their time and money more effectively. Our goal is to help busy people become politically engaged in ways that are effective and fit their lifestyle and we provide different tools and services to make that easier.
For example, we provide an online marketplace and tools that enable our members to make and manage their political and charitable contributions. We also offer individual consultations to help them find organizations they are excited about supporting. For people who are overloaded with information and don’t know where to start we just released the NPC Investor’s Guide to Not Reinventing the Wheel, a short primer that outlines a series of simple steps to smarter political investing. And that’s just the beginning—we are developing tools to help measure political return on investment, political mutual funds, and more.
PREVIOUS PAGE
