Cards Fuel Web Donations

  The presidential campaign of 2004 promises to cost more than any election in history, with the two major candidates combined spending over $500 million.
  Republican President George W. Bush and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., will garner most of that money through cash and checks given by individuals or interest groups. But a rising portion of donations is coming through candidates' Web sites where donors punch in their credit or debit card numbers and declare the amount they'd like to give.
  The Federal Election Commission isn't mandated to track money raised over the Web, but some campaigns do volunteer the numbers. The campaign of Kerry and his vice presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., brought in a total of $36.5 million this June. Its JohnKerry.com Web site brought in $12.1 million, making it the campaign's second largest fund-raising vehicle that month behind the $13.8 million it raised through direct mail and over the phone. The average Web contribution was $99 while the average phone and mail donation was $71, the Kerry-Edwards campaign says.
  Kerry has been a more aggressive Web fundraiser than Bush, says Morgan E. Felchner, associate editor with Campaigns & Elections, a trade magazine for election professionals. "Bush has been a little slower but (his campaign) uses the 'Net for messaging."
  (Messaging is the targeted outreach by a campaign to a specific demographic or like-minded voter. Though online fundraising is fast-rising, 'Net messaging will become more sophisticated and influential, predicts Felchner.)
  As a fundraising tool, the Web can be more efficient than traditional methods, says Sheila Krumholz, research director with the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan not-for-profit that tracks spending on federal campaigns. Like many merchants, candidates are finding that it can cost a lot less to do business over the Web than at a brick-and-mortar store.
  "It's cheaper and easier to give small contributions. And it's money not spent on more fundraising," says Krumholz.
  There is a danger for fraud, such as someone making a donation under another person's name to avoid contribution limits and disclosure rules. However, that is a problem with standard donations as well, Krumholz says.
  The Howard Dean campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination last year popularized Web-based political fundraising. Dean, the former Vermont governor, lost the primary race but managed to raise about $30 million through his Web site from contributions with an average value under $100 ("Small Web Donations Have Politicians Thinking Big," December, 2003.)
  This March several strategists behind Dean's Web effort started Blue State Digital, a consulting firm for progressive causes, Democratic candidates and select companies. Washington, D.C.-based Blue State builds Web sites that simplify fundraising and encourage grass-roots involvement, says Joe Rospars, a cofounder.
  People seeking out a candidate often are eager to get involved, according to Rospars. "When people come to you, they want to be engaged. Give them information, take information, get permission to contact them," he says. Make it quick and easy to donate and offer a contrast to the utilitarian form that most campaigns use to accept Web donations, advises Rospars.
  A Dean volunteer could find on the site the names and addresses of voters in battleground states, along with sample letters that encouraged a vote for Dean. Volunteers could also create a mini-site of their own to direct friends and relatives to make campaign donations, says Rospars. "You need to process the transaction right away so (you use) credit cards."
  Blue Digital in June branched out to corporate work, creating five blogs-Web pages that serve as publicly accessible personal journals-for Stonyfield Farm, a Londonderry, N.H.-based organic yogurt producer with nationwide distribution.