There’s no escaping it: The roadsides are already clogged with yard signs, urging the public to vote for senators, state representatives, judges, sheriffs, city council and a slew of other offices. And, oh, yes, there’s another important election coming up this year.
If you enjoy politics, you may be feeling the urge to roll up your shirt sleeves, embrace democracy and volunteer for a campaign. It’s an admirable pursuit, but like anything that takes time, there are some expenses that may come with that commitment, especially if you get overeager and don’t think things through first.
[See: 11 Expenses Destroying Your Budget.]
The more you volunteer, the more money you will spend. Think of politics as a hobby. If you dabble, your costs will be negligible (think: gas money to drive to your candidate’s headquarters). But if your house serves as a meeting point for a bunch of volunteers, so they can stuff envelopes and make signs, you might spend money on snacks or a cleaning service, to spruce up the place before your fellow volunteers arrive.
Or if you’re going door to door to drum up the votes, you might easily talk yourself into buying a new outfit, to look more presentable.
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But then you have people who are on a whole different political plane, where they’re literally getting on planes and traveling to conventions, like Lorna Johnson, a serial entrepreneur who has actively volunteered in politics since Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign for president. Now, she volunteers extensively for Hillary Clinton, to the point of even doing radio and TV interviews. She also attended the recent Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
“That’s hotel accommodations, food, airfare. It can be very costly,” says Johnson, who makes it clear that the financial costs come with the territory and don’t bother her.
Those costs also don’t concern Michael Abramson, an Atlanta-based attorney who has his own law firm. He has been volunteering since George W. Bush’s first presidential campaign, when he was stuffing envelopes. In 2012, he volunteered for Mitt Romney, making phone calls. Two years later, he volunteered on the 2014 campaign for Sen. David Perdue, of Georgia. And now he is volunteering for Donald Trump’s campaign and volunteers for a separate organization called the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. For the latter group, Abramson has spent a decent amount of money — for instance, on travel costs that took him to Trump Tower in New York City.
But for the most part, Abramson says it’s easy for political campaign volunteers to get away with spending next to nothing.
“The main cost is the opportunity cost. You could be doing something else with your time,” Abramson says.
Your car may get a workout. Joshua Battin, an associate professor and department chair of criminal justice at Mansfield University in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, spends a lot of time volunteering on political campaigns. Several years ago, he was a campaign manager for a Pennsylvania state senator, and over the years, he has worked on numerous campaigns at the local, state and federal level.
He says that if you’re going to several neighborhoods to drum up the vote, expect to shell out plenty of money for gas — and incur wear and tear on your vehicle.
“I once went in my car, driving around Philadelphia, for a whole day, stopping every two or three houses. It felt like I wasn’t driving a car but a mail truck,” he says.
Be careful about spending money you can’t afford to lose. You’re in the thick of things. A candidate needs something, and it costs money. You decide to help out, provided you can be paid back.
That’s fine — assuming you can afford to lose the money.
[See: 12 Ways to Ensure You Don’t Run Out of Money in Retirement.]
That scenario happened to Dana Todd, a marketing professional who works in Schaumburg, Illinois. Last year, she volunteered to help a politician run against a mayor seeking reelection in a suburb of Chicago. Most of her time was spent walking the streets in cold weather, meeting voters and making a pitch for her candidate.
At some point, however, she agreed to set up and run some Facebook ads. It would cost $300, and Todd made it known that she wanted to be paid back and was told that wouldn’t be a problem.
“I sent an invoice for repayment of the media costs, but the candidate has been unable to pay me back,” Todd says. “I know I’ll never see it again, but it was great experience for me, and I really believed in our mission. Definitely not bitter, but for sure wiser.”
It’s also easy to imagine an overexcited volunteer donating money better reserved for, say, the rent, because he feels the campaign needs it more. Abramson cautions against that.
“You don’t want to be so emotionally involved that you make an emotional decision rather than a financial one,” he says.
Don’t give more time than you have, either. It’s easy to overcommit to time you don’t want to give away, Battin says.
“Once you volunteer, you’re going to keep getting these calls, asking you to volunteer more. You don’t want to be in a position where you’re not willing to do these things, but you’re too nice to say no,” Battin says. He urges people, if you have two hours to give a week, and that’s it, be clear about that up front — and stick to it.
Battin also says to naturally expect the requests for your time to increase exponentially throughout October and into early November, all the way up to Election Day.
But, hey, the rest of November and December will be quiet, and while you’re giving a lot of yourself to a campaign, you’ll get back a lot, too.
“You’re doing something that has a real-world impact, or it could have, and that’s a pretty neat thing,” Abramson says.
Johnson may be on the other side of the political spectrum, but she has a similar sentiment.
“It’s all about making a difference,” she says.
Not that volunteering is always rewarding. “Sometimes you’re going to get the door slammed in your face, and some people will hang up on you when you do your phone calls,” Johnson says.
Still, Johnson notes, “You meet so many awesome people. … I’m trying to get my family more involved in volunteering because this is an experience you cannot buy.”
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The Costs of Volunteering for a Political Campaign originally appeared on usnews.com
