See What’s Out There

Having a good donation page is important so that you can convert those who clicked to get to the page into people who give. You also want them to give more.

Increasingly we see from research that people like to give where they think they can make a difference. If you ask me to save Africa from HIV/AIDS, I am just totally overwhelmed by that. If you ask me to save this one orphan, I can handle it. The success of new internet philanthropies such as DonorsChoose.org and Kiva are connected to the same idea of letting people make a difference where they can actually see the difference.

This idea can find different forms for different circumstances. One that I like is how Hillary Clinton is fundraising for the upcoming primary in Pennsylvania.

Here’’s a screen shot of her donation page:

You can see the original here. What is interesting is how she is letting donors decide where to place their money, whether on radio, tv or online ads, vans or printed door hangers. And, you can spread your money around, putting small amounts in each category. The campaign hopes the overall amount will be greater than you would give otherwise.

As Colin Delany pointed out in an online forum, the money is fungible anyway — when they fill one category they can simply reallocate general support money to another.

Can you use this technique in your fundraising? Have you thought about how you can give donors more choice and more transparency? If not, now is the time to get started.

With online video, we can relive the memorable moments and easily connect past and present. Here’s George Bush throwing out the first pitch at the start of this baseball season. The people show him the love he deserves. We’ve come a long way since 2001.

Hat Tip [jspot]

Barack Obama just gave a really thoughtful speech on race in America. You can read the transcript here or see the video below. What I hope it will do is start a conversation we often don’t have in this country about race and what it means to be American.

MoveOn is inviting the public to make a commercial on behalf of Barack Obama. They are inviting the public to make a spot and then the winner will get a national airing of their spot as well as $20,000 in video equipment. Nice. This is just the latest example on having your community create content for you. $20,000 is a low budget for a single professionally produced spot. It is nothing at all compared to the likely hundreds of entries they will get as well as the PR value of the whole thing.

Here are the details:

MoveOn.org has a message for all filmmakers, writers, directors, actors, editors, composers, graphic artists, and animators: Whether you’re a total amateur or a total pro, now is the time to use your creativity to help Barack Obama win. We’re launching an ad contest: “Obama in 30 Seconds.”

Powered by grassroots enthusiasm, Obama has won the most states and the most delegates. But the race isn’t over, and we’ve got to pull out all the stops to help him across the finish line.

We’re counting on you to make amazing ads in the next three weeks. Then, MoveOn members and the public will rate the ads, and a panel of top artists, netroots heroes, and filmmaking professionals will pick the winner from among top ads. We’ll air the winning ad nationally, and the winner will receive a gift certificate for $20,000 in video equipment.

Continuing the move to user generated content and political involvement, a new site launched where people can upload videos saying farewell to President Bush. Farewell Mr. President is a basic video sharing site designed for a little catharsis in the count down to having a new president.

You can see a little complication video they did here.

You think the Yes We Can video was inspiring. Look at what the McCain people came up with.

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

I am so impressed with the Obama campaign’s use of video. They are really making video a central part of their online strategy and I am certain it has an impact on the crowds they are drawing and the enthusiasm they are seeing.

I got a link to this video by email today. It is the 5th anniversary of Obama’s speech against the war, on October 2, 2002.

Here’s an excerpt from that speech:

“What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income — to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.”

-Barack Obama, October 2, 2002

It shows impressive foresight. But as powerful as it is to read those words, see what they did with the video when they only had 13 seconds of the original speech on tape.

There is nothing here particularly complicated in terms of shooting or editing video. If your organization isn’t finding a way to start using this tool, you are missing a tremendous opportunity.

One of the things we know about email fundraising and advocacy is that requests that are timely are more likely to result in gifts. For example, if legislation is being voted on today and I get an email today asking me to call my Senator, I am more likely to do it than if I received the request two weeks earlier. In fundraising, if I am told that we have 36 hours to meet a deadline so that food aid can be delivered with the next convoy — this is a compelling ask.

I have noticed recently the added idea of speaking to me like I am an insider. I am seeing this mostly in political fundraising. I got a note from Barak Obama last week. Have a look:

I’m just now leaving New York, and you’ve got me fired up. Nearly 25,000 people came together last night for the rally.

Here’s the video:

I’m inspired by your continued energy and support. But we’re still shy of our goal of 500,000 donations to the campaign by Sunday’s deadline.

Make an additional donation now and help us get there:

https://donate.barackobama.com/promise

More soon,

Barack

Paid for by Obama for America
This email was sent to: michael@see3.net

To unsubscribe, go to: http://my.barackobama.com/unsubscribe

The subject of the email above was “Hey.” Hey? As in, “Hey, I just wanted to fire off a quick note to my buddy.” The signature was the uber-personal “Barack”. Yeah, we go way back.

The next day I got an email from Michelle Obama with the subject line “re:Hey” It’s like we’re all friends on a normal chain of emails.

Today, I received an email from Rahm Emanuel at the DCCC.

Hi Michael,

I know it’s Sunday so I don’t want to take up much of your time. You know me, I like to speak frankly.

Here’s the reality check: This election is far from in the bag. There are 60 Democrats sitting in seats that Bush carried in 2004 and there are eight Republicans sitting in Democratic seats. We have a lot of seats to protect and an historic opportunity to expand the playing field. The resources we have now will determine whether or not we win next November.

The FEC end of quarter deadline is MIDNIGHT TONIGHT and the DCCC is just $38,000 shy of its goal. House Dems are matching every gift until midnight tonight so please give what you can before this critical deadline.

http://www.dccc.org/r/99581/3018530/

On to Victory,

Rahm
Sent Wirelessly Via Blackberry

I like the urgency. We have hours to go and we need your help. But “Sent Wirelessly Via Blackberry”???? Yeah, sure. I wonder how my good buddy Rahm got all of this far at the bottom of the email:

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That’s a lot of Blackberry typing for him to remember.

Yes, friendly and urgent work. But maybe sometimes you need to give your audience a more little credit.