advice needed re: fundraising for Gore Letter in the NYT

[ourbluenation]

So, the blogosphere is abuzz with Gorementum. Dkos has an 08 straw poll and Gore is blowing everyone away.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1265368

Just about every Gore post here blows up the greated page. HuffPo has had three Gore blogs in as many weeks and Arianna was on tv herself this am talking about Gore in 08.

Last week I posted an open letter to Al Gore written beautifully by Blockbuster at Dkos here and it blew up the joint.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1229807

So...The idea has come up to take out a full page ad in the NY Times the first or second Sunday following the November mid terms, running the open letter to Gore to run. I'm in contact with a rep from the NYT and have gotten a quote of $150,000. (Which can be raised easily I think - all we'd need is 1500 people to be in for $100). My question is...does anyone know the best way to set this up? I could open up an account that people could directly deposit to, but would everyone feel comfortable with that? I'm more than willing to see this thru to the end, but could use some guidance on fundraising protocols.

PS) I thought of contacting our local democrat party since they probably have a fundraising mechanism in place already...thoughts?

[ourbluenation]

1. No wisdom from my peeps?????

:-(

[IndyOp]

2. Today - DKOS poll - Gore dominates the potential 2008 pack !

Here are the top vote-getters in the fantasy poll (as of 1:42)
Al Gore 3509 votes - 69%
Russ Feingold 799 votes - 15%
Wesley Clark 269 votes - 5%
Mark Warner 168 votes - 3%
John Edwards 103 votes - 1%
John Kerry 35 votes - 0%
Hillary Clinton 27 votes - 0%
Joe Biden 19 votes - 0%


<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1265368>

[ourbluenation]

3. Yep - I believe he could take the whole enchilada but re:

fundraising? Thoughts?

[IndyOp]

4. To raise $150K - you need to create the ad so people will see what

they are contributing for and you need to, I think, come up with an 'organization title' -- some entity that media can contact when they want to know who done it... :shrug:

And, I would suggest that you not specify that you need $100 from 150 people - you might get it, but then again $50 from 300 people might be easier. It is, I think, exciting to be able to show that the donations were small - it was a populist effort.

[ourbluenation]

5. Thanks Indy...re: an ad. I was thinking of just posting a call for

funds here and at DKos. Hopefully people would tell two friends, and they would tell two friends, and so on and so on. Wht I need help with is the technicalities of taking donations...annyone here ever done such a thing?

[IndyOp]

6. I think "helderheid" set up a Paypal account for the "Roses for Helen"

fundraiser...

helderheid's profile

BenBurch uses Paypal to take donations for WhiteRose, too...


I would suggest that you log onto Paypal and just look around...

On Edit: And I think you have to ask Skinner if it is okay to ask for donations here at DU, I don't know about DKos...

:hi:

[ourbluenation]

7. Great idea - paypal would solve a lot of problems....

thanks for the skinner heads up too!

[calmblueocean]

8. Great idea! You might want to use Fundable.org

I think something like this, something beyond the same-old same-old, is going to be necessary if we're going to send Gore the signal that we really need him in this race. Here's my suggestions.

1. Register a website so you're easy to link to. "AskGoreToRun.com" is available, for instance. "RunAlRun.com" is taken, but "RunAlRun.org" isn't. If none of those do it for you, you could ask DU to brainstorm more. :)

2. Ideally, I'd make this a contest. Publish the dimensions of the ad, and let everyone submit their letter or mock up. Let visitors nominate the ones they like for the final round. (Tallies are kept private. Obviously Freeped letters will be rejected.) Put up the top 5 nominees for the final round and get everyone to vote for the winner.

3. Fundable.org allows you get pledges toward a goal that are only redeemed if the goal is met. You could set a goal of $150,000 and then everyone could donate knowing that, if you don't meet the goal, they don't get charged. Hopefully this would overcome the trust issue.

4. Get a blog, too, and blog about the contest and as you get closer to the goal.

I've been looking for some big project to make a statement about getting Gore in the race for a while now. I don't have any money to donate, but I believe I could knock together the backend for this site in PHP. If you or anyone else is interested, send me a private message!

[ourbluenation]

9. Fundable.org is exactly what I'm looking for....thx!