Fundraising – Continuity and Change Robert Boatright

Fundraising – Continuity and Change The Internet and Fundraising The Internet has changed the Fundraising game (for those campaigns cleaver enough to use to tap vast number of small donors) Examples: Howard Dean in 2004 (raised $53 million, $20 online) Obama in 2008 ($765 million, outraised Clintons)

Fundraising – Continuity and Change What Hasn’t Changed: Traditional Fundraising Practices Friends and Acquaintances Bundling Campaign Events Phone Banks Direct Mail PACS People give because they are part of a community and/or a social/professional network.

Fundraising – Continuity and Change Innovations in the 2000s The Internet changed our understanding of both what a community is as well as the idea of a network. Grassroots versus Internet Fundraising Until Dean, and the fundraising revolution brought by the Internet, the conventional wisdom was that you had to spend: 50 cents per dollar for donations under $50. 20 cents per dollar for donations over $50. Grassroots fundraising is labor-intensive and costly.

Fundraising – Continuity and Change Innovations in the 2000s Internet and Presidential Campaign Fundraising Dean upended the way fundraising is done within presidential campaigns. Rather than depend on a centralized, top-down fundraising apparatus, he decentralized his fundraising operation. How Replicable Is the Obama Fundraising Machine? Obama did something very similar: Like Dean, he cast himself as an outsider and sought to build a “movement” as much as a campaign.

Fundraising – Continuity and Change What the 2010 Elections Tells Us About Changes in Fundraising The Speed of Internet Fundraising Internet fundraising has enabled candidates to upend races in a short period of time. Scott Brown (2010) (raised 16 million, $14 million od in the last three weeks of the campaign, “Money Bomb”)

Fundraising – Continuity and Change What the 2010 Elections Tells Us About Changes in Fundraising Citizens United v. FEC (2010) Lifted the ban on so-called “electioneering communications” (ads supporting or attacking a candidate by name) with 30 days of a party primary and 60 days of the General Election established by the McCain-Feingold Act (2002). Court Ruling: The Interest groups (corporations, associations, unions) cannot be legally barred from spending money to promote political candidates through ads. It is protected speech.

Fundraising – Continuity and Change What the 2010 Elections Tells Us About Changes in Fundraising Social and Mobile Media Created an array of new ways to reach and engage new voters and thus potentially raise money.

Fundraising – Continuity and Change Emerging Trends and Implications for Future Elections Speed Matters Stealth and Timing Matters Finding a Niche Authenticity (Message)