Obama Camp See Value in Small donors

[illinoisprogressive]

I find this an interesting article. Barack Obama seems more and more to be someone who thinks outside the box. The way he succeeded in fundraising is simply creative. He is using new ways to make money and build up a base of donors that out paces everyone's including Clinton. What is so stunning is that he began his race 6 months ago with a very small group of mostly Chicago people, no organization or money.



But his campaign’s ability to harness the energy of its early supporters and outpace even the well-established fund-raising machine that Mrs. Clinton brought to the race seems to have settled any question of whether Mr. Obama of Illinois, after only two years in the Senate, could hold his own in a field of candidates with more national experience and exposure.

Of the $33 million Mr. Obama raised in the second quarter, about a third consisted of donations of less than $200 — more than the $10 million raised in $2,300 checks from big donors. Mrs. Clinton, in contrast, raised $2.3 million in donations of less than $200. Contributions of $2,300 made up $12.3 million — or more than half — of the $21.5 million that she raised for the primary during the second quarter. Both candidates now have about the same amount of cash to spend on the primary.

Mr. Obama’s roster of 258,000 donors has exceeded the national mailing list that Mrs. Clinton accumulated through her two Senate races and Bill Clinton’s two runs for the White House. None of the other primary candidates in either party has claimed more than 100,000 individual donors.

In some ways, Mr. Obama’s donor base differed from those of his rivals. An analysis of his Federal Election Commission filing using census data by ZIP code found that in the 3,210 ZIP codes with the largest proportion of black residents — at least 25 percent — Mr. Obama led the other candidates for both parties in money raised in the first half of the year. He received $5.2 million from those ZIP codes in the first half of the year, while Mrs. Clinton received about $3 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/us/politics/17obama.html?ref=politics

[sandrakae]

1. Every camp sees values in small donors.

This is why I keep receiving mail from all of them asking for campaign contributions. I certainly am not a corporate donor.

[maximusveritas]

2. There was a good frontpage story on Daily Kos about this

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/16/155836/361
It has a nice table showing the percentage breakdowns from each type of donor to the candidates.

It's quite striking to see the differences in how Clinton and Obama raised their money.

29% of Obama's total was from small donors ($200 or less), while Hillary only got 10% of her total from that group
Meanwhile, 82% of Clinton's total was from large donors ($1000 or more), while only 60% of Obama's total was from that group.

[bonito]

3. Check out opensecrets

I was going over those figures last week Obama does indeed have the numbers in donors in his favor.
here http://www.opensecrets.org/

[Bitwit1234]

4. Yep and Obama is using other ways foreign to other candidates

He is selling campaign literature, such as bumper stickers and putting them on the list as DONATED money. He is charging to speak before a group to push his campaign and putting that on the list as DONATED money. Now while this is a good idea if he can raise money that way, and he lists the money, but saying it is donated is a little bit above and beyond isn't it.Why list is as donated, tell it like it is.