I write this piece today in hopes that those reading may share it with their county parties and organization, regardless if they have a website or not. One of the great things about working for ActBlue is being able to help Democrats all over the place, and especially in places where there are not usually resources available.
So did you know that ActBlue can help you with your local County Democratic Party?
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!
From the ActBlue Blog...a lot of exciting stuff to come this year! =)
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.
This week, all that is about to change.
Motivated by a strong sense that we could do better (and by a desire to burn down HTML code approaching its second anniversary), a few weeks ago we got to work putting together a new design with the help of the excellent Steve Ofner of Liberal Art. The result is the new design that that you see at right. (Click the image for a full-size mockup.)
In putting the new design together we had several aims:
A sharper, more dynamic look & feel
A simpler user experience
A clearer presentation of the dollar and donor numbers
A more attention-grabbing "contribute" button at the top
The result is an improved page design that looks good with long candidate blurbs, short candidate blurbs, no candidate blurbs, or all of the above.
We'll be rolling out this design next week, and will continue to refine it in the coming months -- so please let us know what you think!
There are so many bloggers in Texas as well as folks that are getting geared up for 2008 races that I'd like to share this so that it might get circulated around. Cross-posted from the new ActBlue Blog.
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. (And when you hire a blogger, hey, what do you expect, right?)
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. (I'll put them in the Journals unless Matt wants them on the front page.)
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. We started that here in Texas last cycle and raised a few thousand dollars for some awesome candidates and we're already rolling for the race against John Cornyn. So here's to looking forward to some awesome projects in Texas and some interesting posts at the ActBlue blog as well (in case you are pining for some more Musselman goodness that you can't get at BOR).
(This is incredibly important, and I'll keep promoting this to the top of the page throughout the week. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
Personally, I've experienced the value of both BlogPAC and ActBlue and would like to encourage those that may wonder what's up with the project to check it out and donate.
I used to be the primary editor here (now simply Publisher) of the Burnt Orange Report in Texas, one of today's announced recipients of BlogPAC money to pay our hosting for the year. Actions like that help to reduce our overhead costs, allowing me to help fund our direct e-mail campaign of about 2000 users (which raised thousands last year for local directed Student GOTV projects). That's a direct benefit and for just a couple hundred dollars taken off our shoulder, we were able to make the difference in putting one more Democrat into the statehouse and keep a Democratic seat on a Circuit Court of Appeals race in Austin.
Funding ActBlue allows for some great things as well- including one I'm really thrilled about. With the tips, direct donations, and recurring donations like those from this page, it not only helps to activate more states for down-ballot contributions (Virgina is on and Mississippi is coming next) but add talented forward thinking folks to the staff. One of those happens to be me and having just graduated, I couldn't be happier. Also brought on board this month was Nate Thames another recent grad, activist, and blogger from Kansas. Together we're helping to make new projects happen and get way ahead for the 07-08 cycle.
This fundraising project isn't about me or ActBlue or BlogPAC though. It's about you- we just get to work to make things possible to empower any and every Democrat possible.
While I doubt Burnt Orange Report will become web central for news related to the 2008 Presidential contest, it will be impossible to ignore in 2007.
John Edwards is rolling out his campaign and announcement in the next 24 hours and Texas' Fred Baron (of the Texas Democratic Trust) is sure to join back up with Edwards like in 2004. Still, Edwards has impressed this blogger (who of course is neutral) in making his bid and website excessivly blogger and next-generation web friendly. Here's the website and his blog. Check it out.
And be it Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, or YouTube- Edwards has a channel or group or profile at each one, linked from his homepage. RSS for all sorts of things is compiled in one nifty place. He has a message that speaks globally, while encouraging action locally. It's not a rehash of "Two Americas" nor is it a re-invention for 2008. And he's doing it all in the dead days between Christmas and New Years.
On top of that, Edwards has picked ActBlue to be his vendor for all his online fundraising- and I'll tell you why that's pretty awesome in a couple of days.
While the titans have yet to announce (Obama & Hillary), Edwards has every ability and right to put himself among them.
Last week Mark Warner was a featured guest at a fundraiser for ActBlue, the PAC that has made state of the art online fundraising technology available to Democratic campaigns at the federal level since 2004. They're currently fundraising to expand their services to candidates in state races across the county. Congrats to the Texas blogosphere on your successful drive to fund ActBlue Texas -- lots of other states that still need help -- Help ActBlue. Read what Benjamin Rahn, co-founder of ActBlue has to say in the extended entry.
Well done!!! Now that we've crossed $5k in funds for our work in Texas we're full speed ahead.
Will keep you up to date on timeline, but I'm anticipating we'll be up and running by the first week in July.
Best,
Ben
We're having a very lively discussion between all the bloggers in the state. Of course, the TexRoots endorsed candidates are based on the national NetRoots fundraising page idea.
So here is my question to readers. This call is *not* about which specific candidates you think should be on it, but rather, what types or mix of candidates or 'requirements' would you propose for candidates to be on it? What should qualify someone as a TexRoots candidate across the Texas Progressive Alliance? Please discuss!
You did it. And thanks to candidate Chad Khan of Houston, we went over the $5000 mark which will signal ActBlue taking the steps to get Texas as the next state up and running by mid July. Then we can start raising money directly for both our federal and non-federal candidates as we roll out the TexRoots endorsements.
I think this e-mail from Greg, detailing Khan's decision to put us over the top shows exactly why this effort over the last 48 hours was so simple, yet so important for every candidate running in Texas for 2006, 08, and beyond.
[in reference as to why to pay for this] It's a simple proposition:
a) either continue the PayPal option for his own online donations
b) drop $250-300 for a full-fledged online setup
c) spend $90 right now this second
That and I told him he'd be a rock star for doing us bloggers a favor.
Thank you Chad and all the bloggers and readers who have pitched in the close to $1000 in the last 2 days!
(I just donated $50. We're only $200 away! - promoted by Phillip Martin)
As many of you know, ActBlue is the federal clearinghouse for donations to Democratic candidates, having channeled over $5.5 million to Dem contenders so far. But did you know, that with your help, you can activate it for Texas... for statewide, state house, and state senate candidates?
Together, Texas bloggers have agreed to help activate ActBlue for our state's non-federal candidates by asking our readers to put us over the top. Normally, ActBlue asks each state to raise $10,000 before moving forward (Texas being at $4,500 so far). But we've got some good news for you from the people at ActBlue.
However, in doing some more preliminary research Texas turns out to be similar to some other states we've already done -- so if we could break $5000 we'd be ready to move ahead with it. Would the texroots be able to help us out with the remaining $1000 by the end of the month?
As far as timeline, my aim would be to have everything ready to go as early in July as we can.
This is the most important thing you can do for the Hank Gilberts, Juan Garcias, and Kathi Thomas's of Texas as we move forward in unity to support our TexRoots candidates to be announced in the coming months by the Texas blogosphere.
Update- To clarify where this money goes. These funds will go towards paying ActBlue staff to research our state's fundraising laws (easier than most, since we have few limits other than the ones that Tom DeLay breaks). Once we have ActBlue in Texas, then we can fundraise here on the blogs for any candidate in the state, even if they don't have online contributions set up on their website because we will then have ActBlue!
