This spotlight of ActBlue Co-Founder Matt DeBergalis in Fast Company Magazine speaks to the concept of community in Democratic fundraising that ActBlue is all about. Here’s the piece from their latest issue.
"Thirty years ago, Republicans began to invest
heavily in lasting institutional assets—they built news institutions,
think tanks, talk radio, and a direct-mail strategy that’s grown to
become a monster at raising money. All of these things were deliberate
choices. The Democrats didn’t do this. The Republicans don’t need to
innovate quite as badly as we’ve had to because they had all of this.We felt there were better ways to organize groups of people and get
them to take action, rather than do all top-down organizing the way a
campaign typically does. So we use existing social relationships,
whether they are coworkers or friends asking each other to donate, or
communities built around email lists or blogs. We don’t comment on the
fund-raising numbers of the campaigns who use our site, but when
Edwards announced that his wife’s cancer had unfortunately come back,
news reports said donations on ActBlue increased $100,000 in the five
hours after the press conference. This approach actually works better
for the Democratic Party than the Republicans. It just seems to fit
more with how we communicate and talk and participate."
