Raising $500,000 (fast) doesn't have to be difficult, but the typical tactics won't work

By Mike Reid | February 2026

I still remember a conversation I had on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, at approximately 3:30pm in the afternoon, with a talented digital fundraiser — one of the most talented digital fundraisers in the history of digital fundraising, a far more talented digital fundraiser than I would ever become.

And look, it's not like I would go on to win any awards for ethics in political fundraising myself, obviously, because those awards don't exist — but in any event, the conversation went something like this:

"It's Election Day!!" I said. "So why are you still sending fundraising emails for [that senator who’s almost certainly going to lose]? I thought we weren't supposed to fundraise on Election Day itself?"

(Back then, I was working at one of the top email fundraising firms in Democratic politics, but I had stopped sending ten emails a day to my own biggest client at 9pm the previous day.)

"The donors are still giving, Mike, so we're still fundraising!" she replied, obviously annoyed by my question because when there is money to be raised, obviously talented fundraisers raise it.

"Ok. But it’s not like the money you raise today can be spent to win the election, obviously, so what's the point....exactly??" I asked.

"Maybe they’ll need the money for a recount!" she said, growing increasingly annoyed because despite having raised a huge amount of money, the senator was still about to lose her reelection.

"Ok, sure, I guess there could be a recount..." I replied, because back then I did a better — far from perfect, but better — job of being nice to people, even when I disagreed with them.

But at what point do we say, “enough is enough?” I still wondered to myself as I walked away, counting down the minutes until the office would empty out for our Election Night Party, to celebrate Hillary’s historic victory — as we all assumed at the time.

The following morning I arrived back at the office, and everyone was still quite shocked. But then someone sent a fundraising email, and very quickly the day turned into a digital fundraising bonanza, a gold rush like we’d never seen before.

And so by about 3:30pm on Wednesday, November 9, 2016, there was no time left to reflect on why we lost the election, because there was now simply too much money to be raised.

But now here we are in 2026 — nine years and two Trump victories later, and what a nine years it’s been for me personally and for all of America — and so I’d like to ask the question once again:

At what point do we all just say "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" already???

The emails, the texts, the countless hours of call time: At what point do we realize that we don’t have to do any of that anymore?

And I think the honest answer is: it'll only stop when a better way of doing things comes along.

So here’s a wild idea: What if we combined traditional high-dollar donor outreach with digital communications — and also threw in some generative AI — to convince millionaires and billionaires to donate large sums of money to create an endless supply of $50/hour jobs, while offering them absolutely nothing in return except a solution to the very problem they’re creating but don’t know how to solve: the AI-taking-away-jobs crisis.

"Sure, Mike, that sounds great in theory, but an everyday American like me can’t just pick up the phone and call a billionaire like Reid Hoffman and ask him to donate half a million dollars," you say?

Ok. I mean, yes you can.

"But Mike, I don’t even have his phone number!" you argue?

Ok. You know you can just google where he works, find the main phone number for his firm, call that number, and ask to speak to Reid Hoffman, right?

"And you think Reid Hoffman’s going to take my phone call?" you say, growing increasingly despondent?

No. Probably not. But maybe. It really depends who you are.

And if you're calling the main number for his firm, that's going to decrease your odds, certainly, because they’ll have to transfer you to Reid’s assistant, who gets a lot of these kind of fundraising calls.

And then Reid’s assistant will ask you who you are and what district you’re running for Congress in, and you’ll say, "I’m not running for Congress. I’m helping to create an endless supply of $50/hour jobs, and my project is…" and then you’ll say the name of your project and then you’ll ask that Reid Hoffman donate a specific dollar amount.

And at that point, the assistant will probably be surprised but also somewhat intrigued, because at least this is more interesting than the hundreds of unwinnable congressional campaigns that Reid gets called about (and actually often donates to).

And then you’ll ask the assistant for an email address you can send some information to, and the assistant will give you one, and then you can send a follow-up email that could go something like this:

And then if Reid Hoffman — or whoever you’re targeting, because there are countless wealthy millionaires and billionaires — doesn’t respond, you’ll want to follow up with his assistant again, and then follow up by email, too.

And then you'll just continue to be politely persistent until the billionaire either agrees to donate or explicitly tells you, "No, I am not going to donate to create an endless supply of $50/hour jobs to replace the ones that AI is about to destroy."

And you’ll definitely want to do this activity in pairs — with a Chair and a Fundraiser working together — and recruiting the right Chair, who can immediately earn exactly as much as a member of Congress earns (without the misery of having to run for Congress and without the misery of actually being in Congress) can make all the difference in attracting the attention of a billionaire donor.

And I also think this will be much more successful — and also way more fun — if a new project's kick-off fundraising sprint is done in group deep work, where everyone steps outside their normal lives, disconnects from digital distractions, and collaborates together IRL.

And given you’ll be asking for large sums of money — because you’re not constrained by giving limits because you’re not running for Congress — you could immediately start creating jobs that pay $50/hour for people who can create digital content (with the help of generative AI) to make your case in a fun and persuasive manner.

You could even pay someone $50/hour to be your Press Secretary or Communications Director, and they could draft up a press release that could go something like:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: BILLIONAIRE HERO REID HOFFMAN AGREES TO MATCH THE FIRST $500,000 RAISED FOR [PROJECT], SETTING UP THE MOST EPIC (AND EXTREMELY REAL) MATCH CAMPAIGN IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL FUNDRAISING.

And then the press release could talk about how generous and forward-thinking Reid Hoffman (or whoever) is, and whatever else ChatGPT can come up with about how they're pioneering a solution to the AI jobs crisis by funding a whole bunch of $50/hour jobs.

And obviously those won't be all of the $50/hour jobs you'll be creating, they're just the initial $50/hour jobs, because to actually execute the project you're launching you'll hire Team Leaders and then a whole bunch more Cast & Crew who will earn $50/hour.

But back to how to raise a lot of money extremely quickly.

Because I don’t know for sure, but I get the very real sense that Reid Hoffman is pretty bored, so you could say to him, "Hey Reid, I know you’ve probably been to Davos and those Napa retreats hosted by Nancy Pelosi, so why don’t you mix up your retreat game a little bit and come to one of our AI fundraising retreats? And we can, you know, really blitzscale $50/hour job creation, because this AI jobs crisis is coming very soon, isn't it? And you love blitzscaling, yes?"

Shovel-Ready Projects:

And Reid Hoffman will undoubtedly be like, "Yeah, wow, I actually do love blitzscaling. It’s one of my greatest pleasures, actually. How did you know that?"

And you’ll be like, "Because you wrote a book on the very subject."

And then Reid will be like, "Wow, you’ve really done your research."

And again, Reid Hoffman is just the example I’m using because he’s one of the most public mega-donors in politics — but there are literally tens of millions of millionaires and billionaires in America.

After all, the United States of America is the wealthiest society that has ever existed, in all of recorded human history.

So if we work together, we can create a greater supply of capital for $50/hour jobs than the demand for $50/hour jobs, because there’s a literally endless supply of money just sitting in rich people’s bank accounts and a finite number of people who want $50/hour jobs.

And then, I think, a whole lot of problems in America will be solved.