Serious Money offers detailed analysis of the relationship between fundraising methods and contributing decisions in presidential nomination campaigns, based largely upon newly conducted surveys of contributors to both the 1988 and 1992 campaigns. Brown, Powell and Wilcox explore the fundamental differences detween direct mail solicitation and personal-solicitation networks, and how candidate resources dictate the use of unique methods of solicitation. Candidate resources analysed include home state power bases, access to national party networks and the national legislative agenda, congressional office, social identity, and ideological proximity. With respect to contributing decisions, the book focuses on the three fundamental sources of the decision to contribute: the purposive, solidary, and material motives of contributors.