Vivek Ramaswamy is paying supporters to find him donors

It now pays to be a supporter of Vivek Ramaswamy’s presidential bid — at least for those who can convince their friends to click a link and donate.

The 37-year-old Republican is launching the “Vivek Kitchen Cabinet,” a scheme that promises to pay participants 10 percent of any money they raise for his campaign. It’s the latest attention-grabbing initiative by the longshot candidate, highlighting the frantic race underway by 2024 GOP presidential contenders to build up their grassroots donor base to qualify for upcoming debates.

In Ramaswamy’s program, supporters will undergo a background check before being issued an affiliate link to share to raise money for the candidate, his general consultant, Ben Yoho, told POLITICO.

“He realized the type of money fundraisers make,” Yoho said. “He wants his supporters to have the same opportunity.”

The campaign still continues to employ three traditional fundraising professionals to generate political donations, and the new program will mostly generate new small-dollar gifts — which has already been Ramaswamy’s main focus. As of the end of March, Ramsawamy, a wealthy biotech entrepreneur, had put $10.5 million of his own cash into the campaign, but said he is prepared to spend as much as $100 million on his bid. Yoho said that the average donation made to the campaign is $30.94 and that last week Ramaswamy passed the 60,000-donor mark, clearing the donor threshold required to qualify for the first debate.

Calling his new fundraising concept a “revolution,” Ramaswamy in a statement to POLITICO said he was “stunned” to learn how much money is made in politics.

“I found out that most professional political fundraisers get a cut of the money they raise,” said Ramaswamy, a former hedge fund investor. “Why should they monopolize political fundraising? They shouldn’t.”

Professional fundraisers retain a percentage of money raised for a candidate, and bundlers work their contacts to drive donations to the campaign, usually in exchange for special access to the candidate, perks and favors. Ramaswamy’s concept marries the two approaches on what will likely be a much smaller scale. The campaign said its legal advisers approved of the arrangement.

The campaign intends to offer special incentives for top grassroots fundraisers, which advisers said could include personal calls from Ramaswamy, invitations to events and exclusive campaign merchandise. Participants, who will be paid monthly, will be considered independent contractors of Vivek 2024 and, as part of the program, must agree to pay applicable taxes.

Ramaswamy will continue to raise small-dollar donations directly through the Republican fundraising platform WinRed, though the initiative will be housed separately, on a platform called e-Donation.

He is among several candidates who say they have already met the Republican National Committee’s 40,000-donor requirement to qualify for the first debate Aug. 23. That criteria is expected to increase for subsequent debates, however, underscoring the importance of a successful grassroots fundraising strategy in the months to come.

Finding small-dollar donors has proven to be a difficult task for Republican candidates in recent years, particularly during the 2022 midterms, as former President Donald Trump has dominated the small-dollar fundraising sphere.