Last cycle, I started an ActBlue page specifically for Democratic Senate candidates working to pick up seats held by Republicans. I named it the Expand the Map! ActBlue page because the goal was to expand the map of competitive Senate seats. The effort was a big success, achieving over 300 contributions and $40,000 for the Democratic Senate candidates included on the page.
Recently, I kicked off the 2010 edition of the Expand the Map! ActBlue page with three terrific Democratic candidates for Senate: Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, New Hampshire Congressman Paul Hodes, and Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak.
In New Hampshire and Missouri, we have the strongest candidates available, candidates who will also make terrific Democratic Senators. In both races, however, fundraising will always be a top priority. Missouri Republican Roy Blunt will be able to tap his lobbyist buddies and corrupt cronies for cash ad nauseum. No doubt the NRSC will also make holding New Hampshire a top priority; and the D.C. GOP establishment has already begun fawning over Sarah Palin-esque quitter Kelly Ayotte. Carnahan and Hodes need our support! A few years back, all four of New Hampshire's and Missouri's combined Senate seats were held by Republicans. Wouldn't it feel great to have flipped all four?
In Pennsylvania, y'all know the deal. Arlen Specter was a Republican Senator for decades. Even though he changed his Party affiliation, he's still not a Democrat as far as I'm concerned. Joe Sestak is a real Democrat, and he - not Specter - should win the Democratic primary. But Specter has a significant edge when it comes to campaign cash; and, Ed Rendell will do all he can to shut off Sestak's fundraising. Let Specter, Rendell, etc. know that they can't shut down the netroots by supporting Sestak!
Please, please, please help kick off the 2010 cycle's Expand the Map! effort by sending these highly deserving Democrats a few bucks. $100 makes a huge difference, $20 makes a huge difference, $10 makes a huge difference! Hop over to the Expand the Map! ActBlue page and make your voice heard.
This is not just a contribution to these Democrats' campaigns. This is a contribution toward slowing and eventually stopping Republican obstruction in the U.S. Senate. Thank you SO much!
As many of you know, over the last five days, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, in partnership with a number of progressive organizations and blogs including Senate Guru, asked those in the netroots, "Should a Draft Sestak movement be created to take on Sen. Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary?"
The results are in and they are overwhelming. 85% of Pennsylvanian respondents and 86% of respondents nationally want Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak to challenge Arlen Specter in the 2010 Democratic Senate primary. The poll has even gotten the attention of Congressman Sestak, as the PCCC points out:
"I am honored that so many of you took the time to vote in the recent grassroots Straw Poll. Let me tell you, I and many others were paying attention. If I decide to run it will be in large measure because of the grassroots energy of so many people like you. Until I and my family make that decision, please accept my thanks and my best wishes as you continue be active participants in our people-powered democracy. Thank you so very much!"
Due to such an overwhelming response, a Draft Sestak Fund has been created on ActBlue. To contribute and further encourage Congressman Sestak to enter the race, click on the image below:
If you need any additional motivation to contribute to this effort to draft a real Democrat to oppose Specter in the primary, consider Specter's actions since announcing his Party switch:
1) Specter opposed the Obama budget.
2) Specter opposed the "cramdown" mortgage/bankruptcy reform, siding with banks over families.
3) Specter reiterated his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.
4) Specter reiterated his opposition to President Obama's nomination of Dawn Johnsen to the Office of Legal Counsel.
5) Specter announced his support for Republican Norm Coleman over Democratic Senator-elect Al Franken in Minnesota's Senate race.
6) Specter promoted a website that appeared to raise money for cancer research but, in actuality, simply raised money for his campaign.
7) Specter denied reports that he told President Obama that he would be a "loyal Democrat" despite multiple reporters sticking to their story.
The netroots have displayed overwhelming support for Congressman Sestak to take on recently-Republican Arlen Specter. Help the effort by contributing to the Draft Sestak Fund.
"I believe candidates with strong, sound stances deserve our support, and this is a race where your dollars can make the difference. Please make a contribution to this critical cause."
Sound familiar? If you have any experience with our fundraising pages you will have seen this (and perhaps fallen asleep to it) a few too many times. It is the default text for ActBlue's fundraising pages. ActBlue's customizable fundraising pages allow progressive activists to raise money for the best Democratic candidates out there easily and effectively, and the fifty state blog network has taken advantage of this feature to support state and national candidates with customized, targeted pages. But while the original blurb did help Democrats use our pages, we're in year 5 of ActBlue, and this is definitely year 3-4 material. We'll be working with thousands of new fundraisers this cycle, and we want to make sure they have the best language. And, well, this isn't it.
So, we need ideas.
We know you're best equipped to know what language will appeal to your friends and neighbors, so we wanted to give all of you an opportunity to create the next fundraising page blurb. If we pick yours, it will show up automatically on almost every fundraising page created on ActBlue. To show our appreciation, we'll send the winner and two runners-up an ActBlue Ice Cream Scoop! (No, we're not kidding. And trust us, it's a high quality scoop - The Original Zeroll.)
Okay, here are the guidelines:
The blurb must be fewer than 50 words.
It has to be fairly generic (no specific issues or names), but still get across the basic reason for the fundraising page. This is something our current text does fairly well, if you are looking for an example.
If you can make it apply to pages for candidates and/or committees, all the better. If not, at least make it appeal to people looking to donate to candidates.
We are Democrats, and our pages are for Democrats. If your message would appeal to Democrats, that would probably earn points.
Humor is a big plus, but only that universal humor that works for everyone.
Effective fundraising is personal. Think about what kind of language would help you be a better fundraiser, and think about why your friends and family might feel compelled to give.
ActBlue is active in all 50 states, helping Democrats raise money for their chosen candidate from the comfort of their living rooms and offices. We believe that your voice should be heard everywhere from your state capitol to the Senate floor, and we're working to make sure it is. Please support our work with a $15 recurring contribution today!
In response to the recent Gaza War, a fundraising page was set up on ActBlue.com in order to contribute to elected officials who have been supportive of the peoples of Israel and Palestine. The page is called "A Dream of Peace: Justice and Equality for The People of Israel and Palestine", and can be found here.
The mission of the page states "All of the people of the Holy Land need to live in peace and security. We need to support and elect candidates that are willing to stand up for the rights of the citizens of Israel and Palestine. These candidates support measures to stop violence, increase economic and humanitarian aid, actively engage in negotiation, and promote co-existence among these two Peoples."
So what's the story? This November, Hoosier voters will have the opportunity to change the face of state government. George Bush's former budget man Mitch Daniels is the current governor. He has sold off the state's infrastructure and sold out to big business. From daylight savings time to education to pollution to job creation, Mitch Daniels has been bad for Indiana.
The Democratic candidate is former Congresswoman and Clinton Undersecretary of Agriculture Jill Long Thompson. Long Thompson is committed to the middle class and has a sound plan for economic growth. She also has a plan to help Hoosier families get health insurance. And she represents history by being the first female governor in Indiana's history.
What is the state of the race? Indiana is a strong Republican state, so this race would be difficult no matter who our candidate was. Mitch Daniels has the largest campaign war chest in Indiana history, and has been spending freely since February. Let's face it folks, Jill Long Thompson is the underdog and if she wins it will be a big upset.
But there is good news. The latest poll done for the Indianapolis Star by venerable pollster Ann Selzer (regarded by other pollsters as one of the best in the biz) shows the Democratic challenger within striking distance, and finds that Mitch Daniels is below the 50% mark:
Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels holds a four-point lead in his bid for a second term, including support from one in five voters who plan to back Democrat Barack Obama for president, according to a new Indianapolis Star-WTHR (Channel 13) poll.
Daniels leads Democratic challenger Jill Long Thompson 46 percent to 42 percent. The poll's margin of error is 4 percentage points.
Is the Governor's race the only important race?
No! Indiana Democrats have a fragile hold on the lower house of the Indiana legislature. With Barack Obama's historic field efforts in our state, their numbers are likely to expand, particularly in some of the Indianapolis-area districts that are currently represented by "moderate" Republicans.
Sadly, the Indiana State Senate is so gerrymandered that it is nearly impossible to capture this year.
Why should I care about Indiana?
In 2006, Indiana voters sent three Republican congressmen home, and replaced them with three Democrats, 10% of the total gains nationally that year. In Indiana, redistricting is controlled by the party that controls the governor's office and one house of the legislature. If the Republicans control redistricting, Indiana Democrats will lose between 3 and 4 seats in 2012.
What can I do to help?
As I mentioned before, the Obama campaign has an amazing field operation here, especially in the Indianapolis area. But while this is helpful, it is so important for our candidates for state legislature and governor have their own resources to get their own messages out.
My challenge is to raise $400, or $100 for each candidate on my Indiana for Change ActBlue fundraising page. I'm already almost halfway to that goal, and we need just over $200 to meet it. All the candidates share something in common. They are representing winnable districts (or in Jill's case, a winnable state). But all those districts are currently Republican-held and they need our help.
To show that I'm invested in this, I will match the first $5 of the first 10 donors to my page. Even a small amount like $5 can help a local candidate buy things like clipboards, copy paper, pens, etc.
(Bumped from the user diaries. - promoted by Thomas)
BlueAmerica is hosting a contest to support progressive Democratic candidates. These nine candidates have not yet gotten the support of the Democratic infrastructure (read: cash), but the winner will receive a $5,000 check from BlueAmerica.
There are some great candidates in the contest - including Annette Taddeo down in Florida, Rabbi Dennis Shulman in New Jersey, and Indiana's own Barry Welsh.
Here's how it works: any donation given to a candidate at the BlueAmerica Contest Page - whether $1, $20, or $2300 - counts as a vote for that candidate. The candidate who receives the most votes by September 6 will win the prize.
Let's help maximize Barry's chances against Mike Pence. Join me in lending a little support. Remember, the amount doesn't matter - even a dollar is a vote.
Alrighty Bloosiers, put the beer down, turn off the Fox News channel and pay attention folks, we got us some guests around here tonight! Joining us at 7pm EST will be Melissa Ryan, Netroots Coordinator, and Jessica Somerhausen, Political Associate for ActBlue, the Democratic online fundraising clearinghouse, are here to tell us about how ActBlue can help us raise funds for our Congressional candidates as well as our statewide, as well as our Indiana House and Senate races as well.
This is a first of its kind live blogging event for us here on Blue Indiana and we will be live in comments with Jessica and Melissa for the next hour taking questions so leave a comment with a question, observation or killer drink recipe and hang out for a while!
Also, this marks the unveiling of the brand new Blue Indiana page on ActBlue and we would love to have you jingle a little jangle into our coffers to support Blue Indiana candidates this fall! Warm up your fingers and grab your credit or debit cards, come on into the comments section and say hey hi howdy!
UPDATE 8:15pm: Thank you to everybody who posted questions in comments for Melissa and Jessica. This was a great live blogging event and I hope to replicate more of these in the future. If you have any unanswered questions Melissa Ryan can be contacted by emailing her at melissa[at]ActBlue.com. - Joh
Melissa Ryan, Netroots Coordinator and Jessica Somerhausen, Political Associate for the online fundraising clearinghouse ActBlue will join Thomas and I on Wednesday evening for a liveblogging event to discuss topics related to fundraising at the state and local level for Hoosier candidates. We hope you will all join us for what will be a lively and interesting discussion of how ActBlue can help our candidates, and what resources they offer to individuals and groups who wish to use ActBlue to raise funds for a candidate or group of candidates.
Join us at 7pm this Wednesday, February 13th for the liveblogging event here on the front page of Blue Indiana and please come armed with questions for the staff. I attended a very successful liveblogging event they participated in at New York's The Albany Project site a couple of weeks ago and was impressed with the event enough to ask my friend Melissa to come do one here at Blue Indiana. I am proud to be able to bring Melissa and Jessica to Blue Indiana to see how ActBlue can help us help our favorite candidates here in Indiana and beyond!
(Bumped from the user diaries. Happy birthday ActBlue! - promoted by Thomas)
Today ActBlue marks its 3rd Anniversary. Seriously, 3 years? I know- time flies.
Back in 2004, our founders Matt DeBergalis and Benjamin Rahn thought they could build something that would change Democratic fundraising- making it, well, more democratic. The two of them, living off of savings and limited investment, set out to build a platform that would end up changing our Party. Working out of their homes, they built the first generation of ActBlue.
This innovative, secure, and groundbreaking way to give money to Democrats was launched in June of 2004 before the end of the fundraising quarter. The earliest adopters, the blogosphere, helped push $250,000 into federal campaigns that summer. Printing $1 million in checks out of Matt's living room by the end of 2004 was an accomplishment for the start-up. ActBlue caught the eye of Democratic campaigns, organizations, and establishment investors and it was time to grow.
And grow ActBlue did. You can see it for yourself in the numbers.
Total Raised for Democrats through ActBlue: $24,167,741
# of months until ActBlue outgrows its 600 sq foot office: 1 (that's over $40,000/sq.ft. of productivity!)
There a lot of talk about investing in lasting infrastructure for the Democratic Party. ActBlue returns over $20 in aid for Democratic candidates for every $1 in investment. We have more ideas under the hood than you can shake a stick at, limited not by our creativity, but by time and investment.
ActBlue is an investment in our Party. ActBlue is an investment in a Democratic future.
So, in honor of our 3rd Anniversary, will you invest in ActBlue?
(Bumped from the user diaries. - promoted by Thomas)
Since 2004, ActBlue has helped Democrats raise over $22 million in online contributions. We are a Political Action Committee, not a business, so our motivation is getting Democrats elected instead of padding profit margins. We know how much of a hassle accepting credit card donations on the Internet can be, and we want to help.
One of the areas that ActBlue can help in is with your local County Democratic Party. Click here to see over 90 Indiana counties ready to go on ActBlue.
If your local county party or committee is in one of the 22 states where ActBlue is already active (minus some clean-elections states like Arizona), you can have all the ActBlue fundraising tools utilized by top tier House and Senate campaigns at the disposal of your county party. Several county parties are already using those tools to achieve success! (Click here to view any of the 93 County level committees already set up and active for Indiana!)
(Bumped from the user diaries. This is my final week of exams, so I plan on dedicating next week to getting Blue Indiana's ActBlue fundraising page up and running. Until then, go ahead and check out some of the great new things they have in the works. - promoted by Thomas)
Fundraising pages are the most important component of ActBlue: the vast majority of visitors to the site arrive directly on a fundraising page because a friend, an organization, or a campaign has channeled them there. We pride ourselves on these pages' simplicity: donors can show up, immediately understand what's going on, and contribute with no distracting bells and whistles.
But we harbor a dirty secret (or, not-so-secret if you've been with us a while).
Over the past three years, $22 million raised, and 200,000+ donors, these pages haven't actually changed all that much. For a bit of nostalgia, check out the DailyKos dozen page as it looked back at the end of 2004 (compare to the same page with today's look). Yeah, the site framework has changed a little, but the makeup of the fundraising pages is remarkably similar.
On Monday I posted a tip for spicing up ActBlue fundraising pages by embedding video into 'asks'. This is a very powerful fundraising tactic--especially when the asker and audience have an existing relationship.
Over at Calitics, a great community blog in California, they've taken that suggestion and run with it. I've included a screenshot of their pitch to the right (click on it to view a bigger version in a new window). Besides the video, Calitics’ blogger Brian uses several of the principles of fundraising to make a really compelling plea for his candidates. Some of the successful elements they have included:
Create Urgency- The pitch is for end-of-quarter donations. Brian clearly states that there’s a deadline before which donors need to fundraise. And he timed his pitch just a couple of days away from the end of quarter.
Be Specific- Rather than overloading their page with a dozen candidates, Brian stuck with three candidates that have a common theme. The majority of ActBlue donors give to an entire page's slate of candidates…remember that when choosing your slate of candidates.
Make it Personal- Brian, a Calitics blogger, is asking his own blog readers to donate. They have an existing relationship and a degree of trust built up. Potential donors are more likely to give when asked by someone they know and the pitch is personal. They’re less likely to donate when spammed by someone they don’t know.
Think Longterm- The Calitics’ ask offers the option of giveing once or of setting up a recurring contribution. Recurring donations are growing in popularity on ActBlue, with over 1000 users having chosen that option for a variety of candidates. If a donor can’t contribute a lump sum amount at once, recurring contributions allow them to invest in the page in installments.
Most of these elements are included in their Calitics ActBlue fundraising page as well. To improve the impact, some ideas might be to include the text from the Calitics post next to the video on their ActBlue fundraising page itself or add the recurring contribution buttons below the embedded video. If that happened, their ActBlue fundraising page could be e-mailed around to additional friends or registered users of the Calitics blog extending the end-of-Quarter ask into a new medium.
One other thing that might help the effort is to set a goal, similar to what the bloggers at Raising Kaine have done (screen shot at left again, click to enlarge). They are shooting for $20,000 to all their endorsed candidates by the end of the state quarter on Saturday, giving a real sense of momentum to their efforts. Adding some text about that immediate goal on their fundraising page would be perfect to tie it together with their blog posts.
While it is early in the cycle, bloggers can build upon their early adopters to make effective asks in creative ways that fit their audience. What ideas might you add?
With as many friends as ActBlue has in the Democratic bloggingcommunity, it's about time we joined the party with a blog of our own. So today we are launching our official ActBlue Blog where we look forward to bringing our donors, candidates, campaigns, fundraisiers, and bloggers interesting resources, analysis, tips, and other information to more effectively raise funds to elect Democrats!
Here's just a sampling of things you can expect to see-
Case Studies on some of the most creative ways ActBlue has been used
Analysis on how and why people donate
State Reports that highlight successful state level campaigns
Tips & Tricks about ways to use ActBlue you may not have known about
Page of the Week where we will highlight our favorite fundraising strategies
Monthly ActBlue Zeitgeist to explore trends, patterns, and other cool stuff
Major Series where we will explore how we are most relevant to your efforts in fundraising
This week I'll be cross-posting some content from our blog as a way to introduce it to our friends in the online community. Tomorrow we'll be releasing our version of a case study on the Secretary of State Project (which I was a blogger for last year before being hired by ActBlue). Later in the week I'll introduce you to successful state level fundraising efforts by blogging communities and local organizations.
Our posts will strive to be informative and useful while maintaining the Democratic grassroots values which have driven us for the last two and a half years. We encourage you to subscribe to our RSS feed or sign up to receive new posts via e-mail to keep up with our latest posts (both available at http://blog.actblue.com).
Much of the growth for ActBlue and the netroots in the next 2 years will be at the state level. Hopefully I'll be able to work with you to enable more successes in the statehouse while we work to expand our DC majority. If you have thoughts or questions, please leave me a comment!
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