Before we begin, a housekeeping note: I’m going to expand our analysis a bit. While year-over-year growth is important to us as an organization, for observers of politics the more interesting comparison is where we were at the same point in a similar cycle. To provide both views I’m going to compare 2011 to both 2009 and 2007, when we were at the same point in the cycle.
Number of contributions | 10,120 |
---|---|
Total raised | $636,711.13 |
Average Contribution size | $62.92 |
Committees receiving money | 460 |
Fundraising pages receiving money | 447 |
Pages created | 226 |
January 2011 is an interesting case. January is generally a down month for political organizations, a time to take stock and develop a plan for the next year. For ActBlue, January 2011 is the first “true” January we’ve had since 2007. In 2008, the Democratic presidential primaries were in full swing. In 2009, there was a flurry of activity around the inauguration of Barack Obama, and finally in 2010 the special election for the MA-Sen seat. In the following table, change is calculated relative to 2009 numbers.
Jan 2007 | Jan 2009 | Jan 2011 | Change | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Contributions | 5,934 | 8,615 | 10,120 | 17% |
Volume ($) | $589,511.09 | $1,281,487.37 | $636,711.13 | -50% |
Mean Donation | $99.34 | $148.75 | $62.92 | -57% |
Committees | 86 | 366 | 460 | 25% |
Pages Created | 85 | 247 | 226 | -8% |
Pages w/ Money | 80 | 278 | 447 | 60% |
And here are the top committees, by number of donors, for January 2011. Since January was a slow month, we’re going to cut to the top four:
Name | Race | Donors | Dollars |
---|---|---|---|
PCCC | Organization | 2,580 | $33,082 |
Blue America PAC | Organization | 1,074 | $12,558 |
Daily Kos | Organization | 950 | $11,219 |
Anthony Weiner | NY-09 | 567 | $12,916 |
Our first January without a seismic political event shows a number of organizations fundraising for battles down the road. As our February post will show, one of those battles cropped up far sooner than anticipated–ActBlue played a key role in enabling grassroots participation in Wisconsin.