Democratic Senators Fundraise for Tim Johnson

The 2008 elections offer us a chance to elect a governing Democratic majority and crucial to that task is increasing our numbers in the U.S. Senate. While the number of potential targets for Democrats to challenge incumbent Republicans keeps growing, we can work to limit our own losses- preferably to zero for a second cycle in a row. This past week saw a online fundraising campaign launched towards that very effort.

Enter www.welcomebacktim.com

To celebrate Senator Johnson's return to the U.S. Senate, his Senate colleagues have united to raise funds for him in a virtual fundraiser to aid his re-election efforts. Launched this week as Sen. Johnson returned back to Washington to rejoin Senate business, Senators Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, Amy Klobuchar, Patrick Leahy, Carl Levin, Bill Nelson, Barack Obama, Jon Tester, and Jim Webb have solicited contributions via e-mail from their separate lists through www.welcomebacktim.com.

What's really cool is that ActBlue is at the heart of this effort which has raised over $70,000 so far.

If you click through to donate, you'll see that ActBlue is the engine running to make this effort possible. Each Senator was given a single link with their own unique referral code to direct their donors to and as a result they have each been credited with how much they've raised for Sen. Johnson. Since various Senators are sending emails through separate systems, they can take advantage of the flexibility, simplicity, and transparency offered by ActBlue handling the technical component. That takes the most troublesome burden off of the shoulders of any one Senate staff and allows them to focus on refining the content of their message rather than the delivery of it or the processing of funds.

The www.welcomebacktim.com effort is more than just multiple incumbent US Senators coming together to raise funds for a colleague through their own email lists. It's about a shared community and a shared investment in our success in 2008. It's about bringing together colleagues in support of one another and bringing together their separate supporters in a common cause that is irrespective of their states. They (and the donors) are invested in making the protection and expansion of the Senate majority a nationalized priority. That benefits all Democrats if we hope to build a governing majority in 2008.

Fundraising With Online Video

One of the fundraising methods that I have explored before here on the ActBlue Blog is integrating online video into your fundraising appeals. This works best with a pre-existing community with whom you have a relationship, but is by no means the only way in which the medium can be used to leverage an appeal for campaign contributions.

Today, I'd like to promote the work of Hank and John Green who have quite the following on the Internet with their Brotherhood 2.0 website in which John and Hank swore off all textual communication with each other for 2007. Instead, they are making public video blogs back and forth every weekday for the entire year. You can read their FAQ to learn more but to really get a flavor of their style and their devoted community of viewers I'd suggest viewing a few shows.

Below, I've provided a condensed 2 minute version of one of the shows where John makes his pitch for their friend Daniel Biss who is running for the 17th State House District in Illinois. It's quite humorous so watch it below.

Pretty cool right? Here are some things this video ask does right.

 

1. Present the Problem- John introduces the segment talking about the current state of affairs in Illinois and certain problems that exist which need fixing.


2. Present a Solution- He then goes on to talk about how supporting Daniel Biss will help solve this problem. Electing him will install someone with progressive values which would improve Illinois.


3. Be Specific- John focuses on one candidate to support as part of this effort. By narrowing the focus, he's able to increase the power of his ask. The more direct the solution to the problem, the more effective the fundraising effort will be. (This is not to say that multi-candidate asks are bad- some of them are highly effective- but the slate of candidates must have a specific point of commonality to encourage donors to give to an entire slate.)


4. Make it Personal- John is asking his own readers to donate as part of a very humorous challenge. There is an existing relationship and a degree of trust built up. Potential donors are more likely to give when asked by someone they know.


5. Make it a Narrative- Through the week, John followed up on this initial post with this spot and this one where he carried through some of the actions as a result of the number of donors.

This is a perfect case of leveraging existing personal connections to make a fundraising ask and because the medium of communication for the ask (video) is the same medium through which readers are used to being entertained, it's that much more effective.

By the way, the brothers have raised $3,273 from 213 donors which puts John in the "find a cat, lick it, wax two limbs of your choice, while drinking a throughly blenderized happy meal from McDonald's category" level.

The Secretary of State Project -- a case study

One of the initiatives we're most proud to have been part of in 2006 was the Secretary of State Project, which used ActBlue to raise $415,000 for seven Democratic candidates for Secretary of State in 2008 presidential battlegrounds.

The result: Democratic victories in Ohio, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, and Iowa, and with them hope for fair 2008 presidential elections in these states.  (One of the project's common refrains was "No more Ken Blackwells!")

The Secretary of State Project is a great example of how you can use ActBlue to bring national attention to local candidates. Normally, raising money for a down-ballot candidate in another state is a hard sell.  But by simultaneously fundraising for candidates across the country around a related theme, you create a national cause whose importance will be readily apparent to your prospective donors.

The SoS project is also a great case study because it exemplifies one of the most important concepts for using ActBlue effectively:

Make a single, simple pitch

In any fundraising situation, it's important to keep your pitch simple: you need one overarching, compelling reason why the person you're asking should support your cause.  If you're just fundraising for a single campaign this is comparatively straightforward, but when you're fundraising for multiple campaigns at once it's all too easy to fall into the trap of just talking about each of the different candidates as if they were unrelated (other than your belief that they are each worthy of support). In the case of the SoS project, their pitch was simple: "Support Secretaries of State in 2006 who will protect voter rights in 2008". This one statement made the argument for supporting all of the candidates all at once.  Of course they had details about each candidate on the SoS project home page (the big banner at the top rotates through each of the candidates) and also on the main SoS ActBlue page) but think of this as "supporting evidence" that these are actually good folks rather than the main argument.

So what does this mean in practice for your own fundraising effort on ActBlue?