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CATHERINE CONNOLLY’S PRESIDENTIAL campaign says it is closely monitoring donations made through its website by supporters to ensure they are compliant with regulations as she seeks to raise funds ahead of the election.
Connolly is using a grassroots fundraising campaign, similar to ones often used in America, to help build support and raise money, in the absence of clear commitments from the parties that are backing her to provide cash for her campaign.
The Galway TD held her first rally of her presidential election campaign online in recent days via a Zoom call.
The online rally began with one of Connolly’s team members appealing for donations from supporters.
The campaign spokesperson said 3,400 people had already signed up to donate, with the average donation being around €30 and 82 people saying they would be repeat donors.
Those on the call were told that unlike other candidates, who might have the backing of the larger parties, Connolly needed funding in order to be able to run a strong campaign.
The spokesperson urged attendees to sign up five friends or family to the campaign and to ask them “to donate a fiver or whatever they can afford”.
“Even the smallest contribution makes an impact,” attendees were told.
After the online meeting, an email was sent out saying that almost 1,000 people attended the Zoom meeting at one time or another, with 750 people present at its peak.
“We were just €133 off raising €5,000 on the call, and the donations keeping coming in. This will help us to buy leaflets, badges, rent venues, office space, record videos, place ads and more in the months ahead,” said the campaign. There were also appeals for supporters to sign up to hit the phones for donations on behalf of Connolly.
In the first 48 hours after Connolly announced she was running for president in October’s election, a website with a donation page section was launched where people could choose to donate. The options given were between €5 and €200, or to manually input the amount a person would like to donate.
The Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) which oversees ethics and financing in Irish politics, told The Journal that the presidential election guidelines are not yet published.
It said information regarding limits on donations for presidential candidates will be covered in full in the new guidelines which will be published in due course.
However, it pointed out that under Section 48A of the Electoral Act 1997, donation limits are set out that presidential candidates must abide by.
The Journal asked the campaign what safeguards were in place to ensure that the rules around donations were being followed, given the option for donors to manually input an amount of money on the website.
“We have already surpassed the total declared donations of many previous presidential candidates’ entire campaigns. Something very exciting is happening here, and it gives us hope for the future,” said Connolly’s spokesperson.
“We monitor all donations to ensure each and every donor is thanked for their support and to ensure the donations are fully compliant, and that no donation pushes the supporter over the cumulative maximum donation allowed,” they added.
In the first week of the campaign, the largest donation made was €208.43, while the smallest donation was €1. More than 600 people donated in the first 48 hours after she announced her campaign, with the average donation totally €28.
The campaign said every donation is reported to and reviewed independently by SIPO as well, as per the Electoral Act.
Addressing concerns about the donate page on the website, the campaign team said that it is not possible to contribute more than the maximum allowable €1,000.
“The backend of our customer relationship management (CRM) system is set up in such a way wherein donor’s contributions are tracked and prevented from surpassing this figure,” a spokesperson said.
“On top of this, repeat donations are monitored daily and manually to ensure there are no flaws in this process, with repeat donors monitored carefully. If a donor was to exceed the figure in multiple donations, the donor would be refunded immediately. Each and every donation is reported to and reviewed independently by SIPO, as per the Electoral Act,” they said.
The only other candidate in the race, Mairead McGuinness, has Fine Gael’s party HQ funding behind her campaign. Connolly has the backing of the Social Democrats, People Before Profit, and most recently, the Labour Party, but this does not necessarily translate to the same amount of money – if anything, it’s likely that the parties will not be able to provide the same kind of support that Fine Gael is offering.
Connolly has already confirmed that the parties will be contributing to her fight to win the Áras.
“I also have parties that are supporting me, and they’re open to providing funds in whatever way they see fit,” she recently told reporters.
Asked how much they are giving towards the Connolly campaign, a spokesperson for the Social Democrats said the party is proud to be supporting Connolly’s presidential campaign and believe she is an exceptional candidate for the role.
“While we envisage there will be a financial contribution from the party, the bulk of donations will come from individuals and fundraising efforts around the country,” they said.
Meanwhile, Labour, how decided this week to back the Galway TD, said it was still working out some of those issues as it’s a new model of presidential campaign where multiple parties, groups and Independents are involved.
TD Ciaran Ahern has been appointed as the campaign coordinator for the Labour Party to liaise with the Connolly campaign.
Labour said over the next few weeks it will be working out its approach to the logistics and fundraising for the campaign, but the party has committed to setting up a separate fundraising stream specifically for the purposes of the presidential campaign.
In her first press conference with the media, Connolly said asking for money from people to fund her campaign will be a “big shift” for her, stating that she funded her own general election campaigns out of her own pocket previously.
Connolly said she had heard figures bandied around that running a presidential campaign can cost upwards of half a million euro, stating that she wasn’t sure if she would be spending that much, but her team were in “the process of looking at that”.
She added that anyone who heard those figures might not run at all, as it is so overwhelming.
“I will need money and we will be opening and asking for contributions, because obviously we need a campaign. But the stronger message is we can do this. This is bigger than wealth and money. This is about having a voice, having a vision, and reflecting the people on the ground, in all its diversity, north and south,” she said.
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