| Number of contributions | 27,810 |
|---|---|
| Total raised | $1,185,812.85 |
| Average Contribution size | $42.64 |
| Committees receiving money | 443 |
| Fundraising pages receiving money | 281 |
| Pages created | 180 |
December 2010 saw a huge upswing in donors over 2008, thanks mostly to the efforts of the PCCC and other continuing committees, and bolstered by Bernie Sanders’ filibuster-that-wasn’t-technically-a-filibuster, otherwise known as #filibernie:
| Sept 2008 | Sept 2010 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contributions | 6,166 | 27,810 | 351% |
| Volume ($) | $1,348,627.46 | $1,185,812.85 | -12% |
| Mean Donation | $218.72 | $42.64 | -80% |
| Committees | 350 | 443 | 26% |
| Pages Created | 180 | 169 | -6% |
| Pages w/ Money | 281 | 426 | 51% |
And here are the top committees, by number of donors, for December 2010. Since December is generally a slow month, we’re going to cut to the top four:
| Name | Race | Donors | Dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCCC | Organization | 17,104 | $293,394 |
| Bernie Sanders | VT-Sen | 4,482 | $67,821 |
| Democracy for America | Organization | 3,009 | $27,398 |
| Anthony Weiner | NY-09 | 662 | $13,019 |
As the noise from the election dies down, December’s numbers bring the new method of low-dollar fundraising employed by the PCCC into stark relief. Under a distributed fundraising model, the cost to any given donor in terms of money/time per donation is smaller, and the ease of giving leads to enough conversions to make up the difference. The numbers make the case on their own: in December, no other committee came close to the PCCC’s mark in either dollars or donors. While #filibernie chewed up the airwaves/Twitter and overall ActBlue volume held steady, the PCCC drove a huge increase in donors and the attendant drop in average contribution size.
The PCCC’s success has larger implications for our politics: if political giving remains a luxury good–the sole preserve of people who can afford to shift $1M donations through American Crossroads–it can have corrosive effects on our democracy. At $10-$20 a pop, however, political contributions renew the underlying premise of American politics: everybody gets to play.
