For all the new up-and-coming digital fundraisers on the Dem side right now (who to be clear are doing incredible work!), may I offer you a tiny piece of career advice: this is not what the rest of campaign life will probably be like. Take it from an Obama 08 alum.

This is the equivalent of what baby Obama organizers experienced after Iowa and South Carolina victories — all of a sudden people were coming out of the woodwork. Organizers who started then were fooled that all campaigns were like that.

I was in a coffee shop in GA during the primaries, someone saw my Obama pin, and all of a sudden I was offered offices, food, teams of volunteers, etc. Normal field organizing is not like that.

Field organizing, like fundraising, is hard work. Right now people feel part of a movement bigger than themselves (which is great! Fighting fascism should feel like that). It’s hard to volunteer so people donate.

And the lessons from this cycle you hopefully are learning (build the infrastructure so you have the net when money falls from the sky, to paraphrase @_clarkekent ) are invaluable and evergreen. But.

Once (if) life returns to normal, and the existential dread of fascism is no longer a motivator, fundraising (and organizing) will be harder. That’s okay! Just don’t assume that every cycle is like this one. We are at a unique moment in history.

People whose first experience organizing under Obama in 08 learned this the hard way in 10, 12, 14, even 16. Learn the lessons, but know the context matters A LOT and isn’t replicable. (And we don’t always want it to be! I would rather never worry about fascism again personally)

Okay that’s the end of my old person unsolicited advice for the fresh faced new generation of campaigners. You’re doing awesome work, go fucking win all the things.