I have just watched the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as she addressed the nation in her first public appearance since winning the election and I was unexpectedly moved to tears. I acknowledge that I have a conditioned narrative that Americans in the media are commercial and crowd pleasers – this is very narrow and certainly limits me and the person communicating. What a landmark – the first women elected as Vice President of America !
I have read how much money is involved in the American campaigning, with that amount of money – can you imagine the budget planning that the investors hold the campaign management accountable for ? This year, as of Aug. 31, 2020, all of the $531 million funding Joe Biden’s campaign so far came from private funds, according to Open Secrets, a publicly available database that tracks campaign finance data.
| Large Contributions | $580,956,297 | 61.19% |
| Small Individual Contributions (< $200) | $368,342,252 | 38.80% |
So did the $476 million funding President Donald Trump’s reelection bid so far.
| Large Contributions | $325,998,209 | 54.71% |
| Small Individual Contributions (< $200) | $268,172,675 | 45.00% |
I have so many tentacles going out, wanting to drill down on the above information and I did spiral on the web for a while and then stopped ! I was a product manager at a global travel agency (14 years ago !) and was responsible for a turn over exceeding €1,000,000. I worked very closely with a finance manager; spreadsheets and sophisticated formulas – I felt very safe that a highly skilled accounting guru was recording the euros and cents. I salute the Biden Finance Director Katie Petrelius and am intrigued so spend a few days in their office witnessing the planning and reconciliation. Small or big numbers accountability is vital to a healthy heart beat of any organisation.
When we are smaller our outsourcing capacity is limited – if we can’t access paid professionals look within our personal communities for help.