PACbuilder & American Academy of Family Physicians

In just one year, AAFP was able to launch, build, manage, and grow its PAC to over $300,000. PACbuilder was an essential tool in effectively building AAFP’s political action committee.

Challenge:
Since 1947, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has grown to become one of the largest national medical organizations, representing more than 94,000 family physicians, family medicine residents, and medical students nationwide. The AAFP seeks to preserve and promote health care to ultimately achieve optimal health for everyone.

The motion to establish a Political Action Committee for AAFP had been debated for years. The organization finally decided that in order to more effectively advocate its issues, it was necessary to start up its first PAC, FamMedPAC. Once this decision was made, it became essential for the program to be up and running effectively in a short period of time.

Solution:
PACbuilder helped the American Academy of Family Physicians successfully launch its first PAC by providing an online contribution module, tools for member communications, and reporting features.

PACbuilder created immediacy, which helped engage AAFP members to donate to the organization’s cause. The online contribution module made it very easy for busy physicians to take immediate action and conveniently make credit card contributions from their home or office computer. When members gathered together for an event, they could make contributions at designated laptops while issues were fresh in their minds.

The communication feature of PACbuilder allowed FamMedPAC to send thank-you notes to contributors, which proved to be a helpful form of outreach to members. Each month, AAFP sent thank-you notes and regularly tracked its donors in order to determine which solicitation campaigns were most effective.

PACbuilder’s detailed reports made it easy to present the results to the AAFP Board as well as strategically plan future fundraising efforts. By knowing who was contributing, AAFP was able to determine how to better target its communications.

“Even with no prior knowledge of the tool, it has not been intimidating to use," said Joanne Wright, PAC Administrative Coordinator for FamMedPac, AAFP. "It’s been very user friendly and a comfortable learning curve. I was able to learn it just by trial and error.”

PACbuilder was an essential product in effectively building American Academy of Family Physicians’ first PAC program. With the help of its easy-to-use features and Capitol Advantage’s premium customer service team, the AAFP was able to identify crucial donors and focus on a plan for its solicitation efforts.

“PACbuilder has been essential in getting our PAC up and running," said Mark Cribben, Director of FamMedPAC, AAFP.

www.aafp.org