In January, Barack Obama raised as much money, $28 million, as Howard Dean raised in his entire campaign last time around. And they have done it using $25 and $50 donors. Think about it. On the one side you have the traditional way to raise money — rich people asking other rich people to give. “Bundling” is when the partner asks all the associates to ante up the maximum to attend a local fundraiser.
An individual may give $2,300 per federal election. So if I give $2,300 to Clinton I am “maxed out” and the only way for me to do more is get $2,300 from my buddies. Lets say I am that law partner and by making a lot of calls I can get 50 people to max out for my candidate. That’s $117,300, including my own contribution. I become a Hillraiser.
The Obama campaign is raising money differently. They have raised lots of money from those small donors. For the Obama campaign to get to $117,300 from $25 donors mean they have 4692 people donating instead of only 51. Wow.
We care about this because we care about using the internet for fundraising and advocacy. What Obama is doing is a major milestone in the development of the web. The internet, only the internet, makes possible this kind of retail fundraising. There would simply be no other way to get people, excited in their own homes, across the country, inspired by speeches and videos, organized enough to get these donations flowing. People wouldn’t write the checks or fill out the forms, but they can click and give, just like they click to buy a book or a Pez dispenser or, in 2008, pay their parking tickets.
The Obama campaign says they have more than 350,000 donors this year so far. 350,000 donors! Holy smoke that’s a lot of donors. And they are talking about this many in just over a month.
What the internet makes possible, the candidate makes happen. The internet didn’t raise the money. Obama’s inspiration activated people and the internet made it possible to turn that excitement into dollars. As I have written before, the Obama campaign has been amazing at using video to make that excitement portable across the web, capturing those moments that get people juiced.
There is a lot to learn from this campaign and at See3 and among other nonprofit communicators we will be studying it for a long time to come.
It feels to me like something is happening here. I guess we’ll see on Tuesday.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can.
We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics…they will only grow louder and more dissonant ……….. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea –
Yes. We. Can.
Celebrities featured include: Jesse Dylan, will.i.am, Common, Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Adam Rodriquez, Amber Valetta, Eric Balfour, Aisha Tyler, Nicole Scherzinger and Nick Cannon
MoveOn has been a leader in using the web, and email in particular, to get their message out. If you don’t know MoveOn, they started with a simple email during the Clinton impeachment — lets move on — and it grew and grew.
They are no strangers to using video either. They have had video contests, and have made lots of 30-second spots. They have used the web to fundraise for these spots.
Today I saw something different from MoveOn. Eli Pariser, the Executive Director of MoveOn.org Political Action did a direct response video. It came in an email with a little text and a large screen shot of a video player window. It said:
Dear MoveOn member,
I recorded a video message for you about this election year—it felt too important to put in a regular email.
The page is their standard fundraising page (the kind you get with services such as Convio or Kintera). In the video he even points down to the donation form from his YouTube box, asking the viewer to donate right now to kick of the 2008 campaign activities.
At See3 we’ve been exploring this direct response video technique for a while. We think that in certain circumstances it can work well and we will try to find out how this does relative to non-video landing pages.
The UN Foundation practices much of what See3 has been preaching for years. They understand that an organization, or a campaign, must tell a story to build an audience, and then activate that audience with a compelling call to action. They understand that video is a critical communications tool in creating that narrative, especially online, and they strategically incorporate video onto their web pages. Perhaps most importantly, they are committed to a culture of documentation: they record almost everything.
The Nothing But Nets campaign makes use of various styles of video with varying production values, and each well serves its purpose.
• They documented the efforts of their street teams, and made a fun and inspiring piece out of young people advocating their way onto the Today Show.
• One of their staff members recorded himself in the field helping save lives in Chad in one of the best on-location home videos I’ve seen.
• They use a professionally produced, light-hearted PSA to get the point across, which currently serves as their home page video.
The People Speak also demonstrates the UN Foundation’s dedication to online video, featuring video throughout the web site, running video contests, and inviting supporters to capture and submit their own stories.
Despite their sophisticated sense of the importance of video in nonprofit communications, the UN Foundation still struggles with their video strategy. Now that we have all this footage, what do we do with it? When, if ever, do we need a professional touch? How do we distribute video online to expand our constituency? Where and how should we focus our energies to get the most ROI from our video production resources?
Stay tuned for a future post on the distribution question. On the production side, See3 believes organizations must capture their own footage on an ongoing basis in order to create an archive of material from which to pull stories and show the impact of your work over time. That’s why See3 offers hands-on training on video documentation. And bravo to the UN Foundation and orgs like it who create terrific pieces that keep web site users engaged and inform supporters of your activities. But the most compelling content – the piece that your supporters will feel obligated to pass along, because it captures the essence of your work in a quick and powerful expression of creativity and experienced messaging – will often result from a strategic assessment of your material, understanding of the most visually engaging stories, and incorporation of high production values. These are the lasting pieces that should be used as the flagship media piece of your campaign, that most efficiently and effectively convey your crucial message, and that exemplify the importance and gravity of your work.
Don’t let the tail wag the dog. Video is not a strategy unto itself. Nonprofits need to make the best use of video by strategically incorporating various styles into your outreach, advocacy, and fundraising campaigns.
A commentator on YouTube said that the best thing those Mac/PC ads have been good for is a template for parody. How true! This format has been used by quite a few folks to poke fun at other things and to get people’s attention to make serious points.
The Center for American Progress uses this as part of a new campaign to educate Americans about what it means to be a Progressive. Here’s one of the spots:
Watch the videos and see how an idea blossomed and then grew some more. The site is well done and you can learn a lot from the small elements and how they put it all together.
Now, what can you do with your organization to harness this kind of creativity and passion? Imagine what it could do for you.
The site and corresponding outreach campaign are designed to educate the American public about why US engagement in the world and the alleviation of global poverty is critical. As we say on the site, it’s the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.
The site includes lots of video (with more coming), quizzes on global development and extensive Q/A on a variety of global development topics. A marketing campaign is launching this month. We would love feedback on the site and we are interested in having groups that share our agenda promote the site as well as grab and embed the media materials for their own use.
The site’s sponsor is the Center for Global Development (CGD), the leading think tank on US policy toward the developing world. Because CGD is not an advocacy organization, the asks on the site mostly come from other organizations working for the same goals, such as Oxfam, Mercy Corp and One. There are many possible areas of cooperation with other groups, including a push soon to do home screenings of a documentary series on global development issues.
As Lawrence MacDonald, Director of Communications and Policy at CGD wrote:
“Why has CGD launched this initiative? Like you, I believe that the United States can be a powerful force for good in the world. Polls consistently show that Americans want the U.S. to become more effective in helping to end global poverty. Yet elected officials often tell us that voters don’t seem to care about development. This happens partly because we in the development policy community have not yet done a good enough job of communicating with Americans who care deeply about poverty reduction but are not policy experts.
The 2008 election is our chance to change that. Several national groups are already working to make global development a part of the national debate. With the election now just one year away, CGD is supporting this effort by offering new media—including short, compelling online videos—that tell the stories of people in developing countries whose lives are being shaped, for good or for ill, by decisions made in rich countries half-a-world away.”
Please visit the site and sign up, tell your friends and lets make a difference this year.
