[Top Agency & Direct Response Series] Political Fundraising Success Secrets With Kurt Luidhardt

Kurt Luidhardt is the Co-founder and CEO of Prosper Group Corp., a digital agency that develops online strategy, media, and fundraising for Republican political campaigns and conservative advocacy. Under his leadership, The Prosper Group has raised over $500 million, helped elect more than 100 Members of Congress, 15 US Senators, 15 Governors, and a President, and earned Inc. Magazine’s 2019 Fastest-Growing Company recognition. Beyond politics, Kurt is an investor and expert in marketing to Christian and conservative audiences and a Co-founder of Liberty Business Alliance, which helps businesses reach the $5 trillion Liberty Spenders market.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [5:29] Kurt Luidhardt on building high-stakes political fundraising operations from scratch
• [7:20] How Donald Trump’s first fundraising email generated record-breaking small-dollar donations
• [14:24] Why email list hygiene and engagement matter more than list size
• [20:31] The importance of irresistible offers and value-driven incentives
• [23:16] How urgency and emotional triggers drive action in fundraising and marketing
• [26:11] Why testing messaging and targeting is critical before scaling spend
• [35:54] The 5P framework for reaching values-driven Liberty Spender audiences
• [38:48] How Liberty Spenders helps Christian and conservative brands grow through values-based marketing

In this episode…

Political fundraising has evolved into a high-speed, high-stakes digital game where timing, messaging, and emotion determine success. Some campaigns raise millions from small-dollar donors while others barely move the needle using the same tools. What separates fundraising that scales fast from efforts that quietly fail?

Drawing from years of direct response and political fundraising experience, Kurt Luidhardt explains that the most successful campaigns combine urgency, emotional storytelling, and disciplined testing. He highlights how engagement signals and list hygiene matter more than sheer audience size, and why compelling offers like donation matching dramatically increase response rates. These principles transform passive supporters into active donors, enabling campaigns to scale quickly without compromising trust. He also notes that experimentation and audience awareness are what keep fundraising effective over time.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Kurt Luidhardt, Co-founder and CEO of Prosper Group Corp., to discuss political fundraising success secrets and direct response strategy. They break down building digital fundraising operations, creating irresistible offers, and using urgency to drive action. Kurt also shares insights on applying these tactics to values-driven business marketing.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Kurt Luidhardt Website | LinkedIn
• The Prosper Group
• Liberty Spenders
• Liberty Spenders: How to Reach The $5 Trillion Market of High-Value, Conservative or Faith-Based Clients to Grow Your Business by Kurt Luidhardt and Kristen Luidhardt
• Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump and Tony Schwartz
• Anticipating Heaven: Spiritual Comfort and Practical Wisdom for Life’s Final Chapters by Dr. Pamela Pyle
• Tony Robbins
• Personal Power
• Tony Robbins Business Mastery Event
• David Meerman Scott
• “David Meerman Scott | Turning Fans into Customers, John Mayer, and Lessons from the Grateful Dead” on the Smart Business Revolution Podcast
• Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans by David Meerman Scott

Special mentions:

• Bradley (Brad) Parscale on LinkedIn
• Pamela Prince Pyle on LinkedIn
• Seven Weeks Coffee
• Red Coffee Co.

Related episodes:

• “[Top Giver Series] How to Triple Your Profits and Impact with Dan Kuschell of Breakthrough3x” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Direct Response Series] Crafting Compelling Sales Copy with Paul Bigham Founder of Bigham Agency” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Direct Response Series] Building Political Movements That Last With Richard Viguerie” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] The Magic of Direct Response and AI in Nonprofit Growth With Mike Nellis” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “Most political candidates screw up because they’re so all addicted to these small-dollar donors.”
• “But really, what works in politics is urgency.”
• “Decisions are made emotionally, justified intellectually.”
• “If everything is urgent, then nothing is right.”
• “Most of us don’t need 76.5 million customers to be doing quite well financially.”

Action steps:

1. Build fundraising lists with engagement first in mind: Prioritizing clicks, replies, and activity improves deliverability and long-term fundraising performance.
2. Create urgency tied to real deadlines or milestones: Genuine urgency motivates immediate action and prevents supporters from procrastinating or disengaging.
3. Test offers and messaging before scaling spend: Small tests reduce wasted budget and reveal what truly resonates with donors and audiences.
4. Use compelling value-driven incentives in fundraising asks: Matching donations or tangible benefits increase perceived impact and boost conversion rates.
5. Maintain strict list hygiene and remove inactive contacts: Cleaning inactive subscribers protects sender reputation and increases overall campaign effectiveness.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Kurt Luidhardt, and Kurt, you can check people out. Check Kurt out at LibertySpenders.com also the ProsperGroupCorp.com, and Kurt, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out.

We were introduced by Dan Kuschell. Dan’s awesome. He has Breakthrough3x. We did an episode “How to Triple Your Profits and Impact with Dan Kuschell”. So check that episode out. Paul Bigham you know when I was researching you, Kurt and Kurt has a great book called Liberty Spenders. I did listen to it on Audible. It reminds me of Paul Bigham, and he does more kind of direct mail for non-profits. Right. So you guys would hit it off. We talked about crafting compelling sales copy, but he was the I think he’s raised $2 billion for the state of Israel, from non Jew, from Christian organizations. So it’s like some amazing gold about copywriting sales in that interview.

Richard Viguerie, I don’t know if you know. Richard Viguerie talked about building political movements. I think he started with Reagan and he was at the time in his 80s and still working like 12 hours a day. So that’s a fascinating one. And on the other side of the aisle, we had Mike Nellis, who does, you know, the magic of direct response and AI for not Conservative for more Democratic stuff. So on the other side of the aisle. But wow. Anyways, check those out and more. You know, Richard?

Kurt Luidhardt: 02:06

Or anytime anybody can listen to Richard Viguerie, they should do it. He is the father of direct mail fundraising, at least on the Conservative side of the aisle. And I am coming in as probably a sort of third generation after or second generation after him. The people who came into politics are sort of his grandchildren, if you will. And of course, we do direct response email and that sort of thing, and got a chance to work with Viguerie and his company through the years. He’s a great person to listen to about this kind of thing. And you’re absolutely right and got it all going under Ronald Reagan.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 02:49

Amazing. And he was on The Daily Show at one point. I watched a clip of him featured on The Daily Show. I don’t know how long ago it was, but it’s pretty interesting.

And by the way, this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that in a few ways. One, we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, accountability, and the full execution and production.

Number two, we’re an easy button for a company’s gifting. So we make gifting and staying top of mind for clients, partners, prospects, even people send it to their staff from a culture perspective. You just give us the list. We’ll do everything else. And for us, Kurt, it’s not like one gift. We send a campaign of gifts, so it’s maybe 3 to 4 gifts a year for 4 or 5 years.

So we kind of call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background to make it stress free for that company to build amazing relationships. And, you know, over the past 15 years, I’ve found no better way than to one, profile the people in companies I admire in my podcast and send them sweet treats in the mail. So if you have questions, go to Rise25.com or email [email protected].

Kurt Luidhardt: 03:59

Yes.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:00

So finally I get to. Kurt Luidhardt, he’s CEO and co-founder of the Prosper Group with his wife Kristen. And the prosper Group is a leading digital agency. Obviously they serve Republican politics, but they serve other companies as well. And he started it with his wife in 2006.

And through the Prosper Group, their team has helped raise over $500 million. They’ve helped elect more than 100 members of Congress, 15 US senators, 15 governors and a president. And the same, you know, the same precision when I, you know, researched this stuff, Kurt, the same marketing data storytelling can be used for anything, right? It doesn’t have to be for this. Obviously you’ve used it to shape national campaigns. And now it actually helps power Liberty Business Alliance.

And so people can check out LiberySpenders.com. But Liberty Business Alliance connects founders to the $5 trillion of Liberty Spender market. That means millions of Christian and conservative consumers ready to support companies that share their values. Right. I know Kurtz they founded dozen companies, profitably exited three of them. And I do want to mention the book Liberty Spenders, which is how to reach the $5 trillion market of high value, conservative or faith based clients to grow your business. Kurt, thanks for joining me.

Kurt Luidhardt: 05:18

Yeah, I’m excited to be here.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:21

Let’s start off with Prosper Group and what you do. And I’m going to pull up the site.

Kurt Luidhardt: 05:29

Yeah. Prosper Group was started in 2006. My wife and I met in college in the college Republicans. No more nerdy meet cute than meeting in a college Republican club and decided we really wanted to get both passionate about being involved in Republican politics. And we thought, man, we’re just going to go out and change the world.

And so started working for political candidates, focusing on digital. And the reason we were focused on digital in 2006 was because we thought this is sort of emerging. You know, digital marketing for political candidates. And so we got involved in that.

Now, almost 20 years later, we’ve helped elect over 100 members of Congress, 15 governors, 15 US senators. And we were on the ground managing digital fundraising activities for Donald Trump even in 2016, which was a unique experience.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 06:33

We’ll get into Liberty Spenders. And if anyone’s watching, listening to the audio, there is a video here. And we have Liberty Spenders here. And we have, you know, Prosper Group Corp. But I do want to dig into the Prosper Group Corp for a second. And because in your book you talk about this. Doesn’t go into all the detail that I wanted to know, but there was a very successful email campaign with Donald Trump.

Kurt Luidhardt: 06:56

Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 06:57

And regardless of what you think of Donald Trump or politics, you know, put that aside or, you know, just listen to the actual message because people this is.

Kurt Luidhardt: 07:04

Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:05

You know, it’s a fiery topic for people depending on, you know, either side. So, yeah, I always tell people, just listen to the content, don’t worry about the politics for a second here. So what did you do with Donald Trump and the email?

Kurt Luidhardt: 07:20

Yeah, it’s a fascinating story. You know, it feels like a million years ago. But in the summer of 2016, in May, Donald Trump finally vanquished his final opponent in the Republican primary, Ted Cruz in Indiana, my home state and we then reached out to Donald Trump after and said, well, do you need any help on digital? And Trump was such a surprise candidate, whereas Hillary had 250 people in her digital marketing department alone, Trump was operating with just Brad Parscale at the time, who eventually became his campaign manager in 2020 and a couple of his staff. And so they needed to really grow super fast. I just happened to get Brad Parscale on the phone.

I mean, nobody in the business knew who he was at the time because he had not really worked in politics previously. He had a pre-existing relationship with Trump. And so we ended up meeting with him. And by June, we had been, we were hired to help spool up a digital fundraising operation, which didn’t exist previously because Trump had self-funded his entire primary to the tune of about $38 million of his own money. And he had not really formally ever asked anyone for money at that time.

He had built an email list, but he hadn’t sent an email to them because he was not asking for anything. And so we were to help him with a standing start, you know, build out a fundraising campaign on email, which I could go on because there’s probably 45 minutes on just what all happened in the first two weeks alone.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:18

You mean to get the email, like, warmed up or what do you mean?

Kurt Luidhardt: 09:21

Oh, yeah. I mean, he’s got hundreds of thousands of emails who’ve never been emailed. And they hadn’t cleaned up the list or anything. And you’ve got a lot of pranksters. There was some prankster who got on his website and loaded up every member of the Swedish parliament or something.

And so all the emails got validated because they were real emails, but they weren’t real people who signed up on their own. So we sent out our first email blast. Every member of the Swedish parliament got a solicitation from Donald Trump asking for money, which became a bit of a story. And, you know, because technically.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:59

Someone opted them in.

Kurt Luidhardt: 10:00

Yeah, someone opted them in. But you can’t solicit a foreign person for money for your campaign. And so we you know, so we had sent an email to these people not knowing who they were asking him for money. They can’t give, we can’t receive money. So it’s just kind of those kinds of things that normally, if you had had a year or so to build everything out, you’d have all nailed down. Didn’t happen. And we were also trying to convince the president to do email fundraising and, and and what to do and what to ask for.

Of course he wasn’t the president at the time but he was trying to find out what he wanted to say in his first email was even a thing. We wanted to offer signed copies of his book or some other things as a way to kind of. And he thought, well, I don’t want to personally. He says, I can’t if we sell 10,000 of these, I can’t personally sign all of these. And he felt like, well, I can’t use an auto pen. That’s not really, you know, my signature. I was just all of this going on.

Finally, what we settled on and he and his team liked was an email that offered a matching contribution from Trump. So if, you know, if we raised $1 million, Trump would put in another million dollars, which is always nice. You know, when your donor feels like, well, hey, I’m doubling. If I give a dollar, I’m really getting two. And Trump could do that legally. And so we got all spooled up.

And that same email I was referencing with the like Swedish parliament or whatever we sent out. And that was his first email solicitation. It was in the summer. So I think June might have been late May. But at the time, the record for the most money raised out of a single email blast was for former President Barack Obama. I can’t remember what the number was, 1.5 million or something that he raised in his re-elect or something from a single email. And we hit 2.6 and it was on just that email. And there was all this pent up demand. Right. He’s never asked these small dollar donor types to give, which was surreal to watch, because $2.6 million in 24 hours from thousands and thousands and thousands of donors.

You’re just refreshing the donation platform and you’re seeing these numbers go up and you’re thinking, this is crazy. Not to mention we also launched some prospecting campaigns that day via email that raised another 1.4 to get to 4 million on that first day and the whole campaign continued that way. The most interesting thing about that 2016 race is the Trumps had never run, really run a big campaign before. So there were no rules. There was no standard operating procedures that would exist if it was Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush or something.

And so they just did what worked. And, you know, he was attracting a number of crossover Democrats for that first campaign. And we were just consistently shocked to see donations and money coming in from people we knew weren’t Republicans. And so it was just a really interesting campaign to be involved with. We ended up doing much, but not all of his copyrighting for his email campaigns.

We ran all of his text message fundraising, his app. He had the America First app on that campaign and worked on that. My wife worked on it four and a half months full time. She moved at San Antonio, Texas, where they headquartered all of this and worked in their offices.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:53

I’m interested when you first, and again this is applicable to any business really. I was talking to another business owner last week and they’re like, we were just talking. I don’t know why. We were talking about email lists. And they’re like, I have 9000 people on my email list.

I’m like, when’s the last time you emailed them? And they’re like, five years ago. I’m like, that’s terrible. But what do you do? What do you send for the first few emails to warm those people up? I mean, I’m not sure if you just straight out flat out ask them for money at that time or you have a couple. One. What? What do those look like?

Kurt Luidhardt: 14:24

I would never do that. What I did, you did. You know, what we did for Trump was just load them up and say, give us money, right? What I would normally encourage is to send an email that demands a response, or asks for a response, or gives them a reason to click. So maybe you’re asking an opinion, please reply back or give them something really interesting that encourages clicks because you’re your email service providers are judging the merits of your email campaigns by the kinds of engagements and responses they’re seeing. So the more you can get that, the better.

And then I would be very aggressive in your hygiene. So if you have 9000, if your friend has 9000 emails and sends out a couple of emails and half of them don’t respond, I wouldn’t cry about it. I’d just get rid of them. Because your percentage, your engagement is going to be represented in a percentage. So having a bunch of dead emails on your list is really hurting your deliverability for your emails.

If you want to know why are all my emails going to junk? Well, it’s because half of your list doesn’t engage, or 80% of your list doesn’t engage, and you just need them off your list and it makes your percentage much more appealing.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 15:46

I’ve gotten those emails to Kurt where, hey, I’m taking you off like it’s actually I’m taking you off unless you click this or whatever. And it was probably just them doing hygiene. I probably hadn’t responded in a while and I was thinking, oh, should I stay on or not? So I like that email or approach too.

Kurt Luidhardt: 16:04

Yeah, I’ll tell you one of the craziest things I learned once, I learned by accident. So as a marketer, one good rule, by the way, is you never use Lorem ipsum text when you’re writing something, because inevitably you forget that you have fake stuff there and you don’t replace it. And we had written an email for a candidate who was running in Michigan, and the email was targeted towards people who had not donated before, and we couldn’t think of a good subject line. So we just put the subject line was just email to non donors. That was a subject line, but we didn’t have.

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