ALGOV 2010: Davis Uses End of Quarter to Boost Online Fundraising

by: mooncat

Wed Sep 23, 2009 at 13:29:58 PM CDT

September 30 is the end of the fundraising quarter for federal candidates and, of course, everyone wants to report healthy numbers.  To this end campaigns often cite the filing deadline in an attempt to motivate supporters to give one more time or give for the first time.  This time they aren't alone.  Artur Davis is also using the Sept. 30 deadline to encourage contributions even though he's running for Governor in 2010, not Congress. 

It's a smart move that reminds supporters time is passing and takes advantage of end end of quarter "bandwagon" effect fairly prevalent in the online political community.  This email is from Senior Advisor Jessica Vanden Berg:

I hope you'll help us finish September on a strong fundraising note -- and position our campaign for success heading into October, November, December and then on to 2010. Can you help?

Please contribute $5 or more to Artur's campaign today -- before we close this quarter's books on September 30th!

Over the last three months, Artur has been working night and day to reach out to Alabama voters.
...

And as you know, we did it all without relying on all the usual Montgomery insiders and power players. To support these efforts, we rely on you, and so we're setting an ambitious grassroots fundraising goal of $25,000 by the end of the quarter, September 30th.

Even though he's not subject to the reporting requirements of the FEC (so the end or quarter deadline is irrelevant) Davis is using the proximity of Sept. 30 to push small donors to contribute. Their goal is to raise $25 K from small donors.  In a really nice touch, they even include an Alabama shaped "bat" to show how much they've raised so far.

This is smart fundraising from the Davis campaign and the timing is no coincidence -- they did something similar back in late June when the "ask" was:

Make an online contribution of $10 or more by June 30th -- the end of our first full month of campaigning -- and we'll send you an "Artur Davis 2010" bumper sticker you can use to show your early support! 

Pursuing small donors is as healthy for candidates as it is healthy for democracy.  It can potentially work even better at the Alabama state level than it does at the federal level since our state races are not subject to the $2400 per individual limit -- individuals are never going to max out with small online contributions in Alabama. 

The great promise of online fundraising is that campaigns can ask small donors to give over and over -- even if only for $5 or $10 or $20. Folks get in the habit of contributing and develop a sense of ownership in the campaign -- many of us experienced this during the 2008 presidential election.  By the time the primary was over, I really had no idea how much I had donated to my candidate online because is was mostly $10 or $15 at a time -- I would never have been comfortable writing a check for the total at one fell swoop, but taken in small bites it didn't break the bank.  State candidates haven't done this much in Alabama, but more of them should follow Davis' lead and court small donors.  Face it, as long as our elected officials are dependent on $15K + contributors to fund their campaigns, we aren't likely to see real campaign finance reform.

The other great thing about courting small online contributions is that the candidate doesn't have to be on the phone all the time, sucking up to wealthy donors -- whose interest may not be the same as the public interest.  More small donors = less influence for monied special interests, and that's a very good thing!