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...How
Obama used social networking and online marketing techniques to
mobilize, raise funds and spread his message…
This election cycle, no
other major campaign put technology and the Internet at the heart of
its operation the way President-elect
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign did. The Web played a pivotal role
in how Mr.
Obama’s campaign raised money, communicated his message and, most
importantly,
recruited, energized and turned out his supporters to vote.
Collecting small dollar donations assisted Mr. Obama in successfully
raising half a billion dollars online during his run
for presidency. According to a Washington
Post report:
3 million donors
made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than
$500 million. Of those 6.5million
donations, 6 million were in increments of $100 or less.The average
online donation was $80, and the average Obama donor gave more
than once. (The Trail-Wahingtonpost.com 11/20/2008)
How
did they do it?
The website:
www.barackobama.com
Mr. Obama’s official website was filled with a variety of ways for
supporters to share information and learn about speeches and gatherings
in their
area.With every piece of content came the opportunity to make a
donation.
The tools:
www.MyBarackObama.com
Mr. Obama’s social networking site gave users several options for
customization.The site provided tools
for supporters to hold their own meetings and fundraisers—setting
guidelines to help run the events, but allowing each individual to
determine how much
money they wish to ask for and the style of the event.
The email campaigns:
Mr. Obama’s email list contained upward of 13 million addresses. At
organized events, supporters were only asked for an email address, not
a donation. Those who signed up to be on the official “Obama for
President” mailing list received smart, highly coordinated emails
several times a week. On many occasions, these emails were geo-targeted
to
alert the individual about upcoming events in their area. To give the
emails a
more personal feel, a relaxed writing style was used and emails were
often penned by
the candidate, his chiefs of staff or even his wife Michelle.
The social networking sites:
Mr. Obama’s campaign had no fear of utilizing major social networking
sites
such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace to further his cause.
If you checked into Facebook, you would have found the official “Barack
Obama
Group” and thousands of other supporting groups; moved to Twitter, and
you
were able to follow every move the candidate made. Even MySpace was
filled with
efforts to spread the word among voters who were most likely taking
part in
their first election. By understanding the limited resources of young
Americans,
the campaign would ask for only small donations on these sites.
The access:
Unlike his competitor, Mr. Obama was sure to
play an active part in his online campaigns. He wrote his own emails
and created exclusive
videos just for his online supporters. The result was an immediacy and
personal
nature to his campaign that few candidates were able to match.
By combining each element, Mr. Obama was able to
run the first 21st Century presidential campaign with a successful
outcome. He changed the
way politicians think about reaching out to the American public and
generating
funds for their campaign.He has set an example not only for future
candidates, but businesses that want to
target customers with pinpoint accuracy and build their brand online,
via email,
website or social networking.
...Business
PACs gave more money to Democrats than Republicans in the 2008 Election
Cycle...
For the first time since the 1994 election cycle when the Republicans
gained the majority in the House,
Democratic Congressional candidates received more funds from corporate
Political Action Committees than their Republican counterparts. With
the power shifting from
Republicans to Democrats in Congress, PACs who exist in large part to
support
candidates who support their legislation had to make sure their
interests are
protected.
According
to a report by CQ Today dated
11/12/2008:
Across the board,
PAC donations to Democrats increased by more than 15 percent over 2006
contribution
levels, helping them collect $62 million more than Republicans from
these
interest groups. Some of the PACs that shifted the most toward the
Democrats
this year are related to the manufacturing, health care and defense
industries,
all of which increased their donations to Democratic candidates by more
than
50 percent compared to the 2006 election.
*Click
here to see the
2008 election cycle PAC data which was put together by NABPAC
using the
data assembled from PoliticalMoneyLine.com.
If you would like further detail on a PAC-by-PAC basis, please send an
email to the NABPAC office
(nabpac@nabpac.org)
...FEC’s
Public Hearing on Bundling
Disclosure Rules…
FEC held a hearing on how to implement the bundling
disclosure rules mandated by the Honest Leadership and Open Government
Act of 2007 (HLOGA).
HLOGA required the FEC to create a rule for the disclosure of bundled
lobbyist contributions worth $15,000 or more.
The purpose of the FEC rulemaking would be to clarify some questions
that will determine how much bundling activity will be
disclosed, i.e.
- Which contributions are properly credited to a
fund-raising effort by a lobbyist?
- How to report money donated at fund-raising
events hosted by multiple lobbyists?
- Whether money raised by an agent of a lobbying
organization, who is not a lobbyist should be
reported?
Neither the bundling provisions in HLOGA nor the proposed FEC
regulations impose any affirmative obligations on
lobbyists, their employers, or their PACs. Instead, the reporting
obligations
fall entirely upon the recipient committees. Nonetheless, lobbyists,
lobbying
employers, lobbying firms and their PACs may want to be cognizant of
the fact that
their contributions may be disclosed in this manner as they
plan
their political activity in the New Year and the new election.
...Supreme
Court to Review “Hillary: the Movie...
The Supreme Court decided on Nov. 14 to accept a case that presents a
major challenge to the FEC disclosure rules requiring advertisements
identifying federal
candidates before elections. Under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
of 2002
(BCRA), corporations, including non-profit advocacy groups and labor
unions are
barred from funding electioneering communications out of their treasury
funds
and are subject to disclosure and disclaimer requirements.
The case revolves around “Hillary: the Movie,” a feature-length film
produced by
Citizens United, a conservative non-profit group, that is highly
critical of
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY).
In a lawsuit,
filed late last year when Clinton was still a frontrunner for the
Democratic presidential nomination,
Citizen United argued that it should not have to disclose the funders
of the
film or the 30-second television spots advertising the film’s release.
But in
July a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court rejected the
challenge
against the FEC rules and ruled that the group must disclose the names
of
contributors who pay for the advertisements promoting the movie, and
run disclaimers
along with the ads. Now it is up to Supreme Court to rule on this
electioneering
communications!
End of Cycle PAC Audit
In preparing for the new cycle, now is the perfect opportunity for
associations and corporations to conduct a
variety of audits.
Here is what we recommend:
Financial Audit: You should close-out the financial
year/cycle
by reviewing all records. Make sure all bank accounts are fully
reconciled and compare
the FEC/Cash on Hand balances with your bank statement balances
(adjusting for
cash vs. accrual differences). Order stop payments on older/outstanding
disbursements, and create a package of year-end reports for internal
files,
upper management and external audits. The external audit should be done
by an
independent party, whether it is your internal accounting department or
an
outside auditor well-versed in FEC rules.
Legal
Process Audit:
It would be helpful and beneficial for your
PAC to undergo a legal process audit. This audit involves the review of
the PAC bylaws, solicitation materials,
communications and processes for compliance with applicable FEC rules,
state laws, and
tax laws. The results of this type of audit would provide
additional reassurance to the core PAC constituencies—senior corporate
management,
the PAC board, and the PAC contributors themselves.
Evaluate
your Solicitation process:
The end of an election cycle is the perfect time to evaluate the PAC's
solicitation process. Take time to ensure not only that those being
solicited
are in the restricted class, but also to decide whether the class of
solicitees
should be expanded or contracted to determine whether the messaging
should be
differentiated between different types of solicitees. Once the audit is
completed make any additional changes to the PAC's solicitation
materials.
Introducing
PACmap!
This new feature provides a geographical representation of your PAC
Contributions and PAC Disbursements by state. Break down your financial
information by contribution level, density of supporters, and
disbursement reports mapped out and color coded by state.
- Motivate and inform supporters if they're
exceeding expectations or falling behind
- Impress board members with detailed information
of PAC performance by location
- Enhance accountability and disbursement reports
with geographical analysis
Get in touch with your Account Manager today for more information.
101 PACbuilder
features to enhance your PAC productivity
Continuing from where our last eNewsletter left off, here are the next
ten features of PACbuilder that will help boost your PAC productivity
and ease compliance with the Federal Election Campaign Act. Send us an email
and let us know what you would like to see in this section!
71: Identify groups of leadership
With your PAC or grassroots effort, you have a group of people who are
your leadership: usually ranging from 10 to 100 people who may be part
of a Fundraising group, key contacts, volunteer leaders, PAC board or
other function. It is useful to have them properly noted in your
database and assigned to categories and groups (Main Code) to easily
communicate with them. In PACbuilder, you can create an unlimited
number of Main Codes assigned to an unlimited numbers of groups and
people.
70: Automate member record updates
Having a difficult time reconciling your members’ contact information
between you contact management system and PACbuilder? You can solve
this issue easily with the PACbuilder integration service. This feature
allows you to automatically conduct a bi-directional transfer of
information between PACbuilder and your CMS. Contact your Account
Manager for more information.
69: Delegate PAC administration without fear
of data corruption
With PACbuilder restrictions and authority settings you can grant
PACbuilder access to other members of your office, or to contractors
that will be temporarily going through your PAC records (such as
auditors) while maintaining the integrity of your financial data. Log
on today to review the different access controls available by going to
File > Users > Templates.
68: Balance your checkbook
Have you ever used PACbuilder to balance your checkbook? It is so easy!
Log on today and generate a disbursement report grouped by check
number. This report not only provides you with all the checks that have
been written out of your account and recorded in PACbuilder, but also
gives you the purpose for each disbursement.
67: Customize communication based on member
giving history
The broadcast email wizard in PACbuilder allows you to customize
messages to your members based on their giving history, and then
solicit future contributions based on the history. Send encouraging
“keep it up” messages to your highest contributors and booster messages
to contributors not meeting their maximum contributions. Contact your
Account Manager if you need further assistance with this feature.
66: Get FREE help on building an
Education/Admin fund
An education/admin fund can be used to support the efforts of your
political action committee. With PACbuilder, you can easily manage
these and other funds, in one database, while integrating your
Fundraising and communicating efforts efficiently. Contact your Account
Manager today to get free assistance on building your education/admin
fund.
65: Update your default cycle and period
Now that the 2008 cycle is over, you should update your summary
information calculation data to reflect the new election cycle. Get a
jumpstart on updated reports with the new election cycle by logging on
and going to File > Preferences > Campaign Preferences,
and updating the Summary Information Calculation and Data Entry
section.
64: Setup your election cycle dates
In addition to updating your default cycle and period, you should also
setup your election cycle start and end dates to correspond to upcoming
elections. This is used in calculating the contributions and
disbursements that fall within the election cycle dates for your
reports. Contact your Account Manager for more information.
63: Track and manage Prior Approvals
By using Main Codes and User Defined Fields in PACbuilder, you can
easily manage each member’s prior approval and update it based on
employer.
Monitoring prior approvals in PACbuilder gives you the advantage to
maximize compliance when soliciting approved members, and have a
uniform resource to track upcoming prior approval expirations. Contact
your Account Manager today if you need any assistance managing your
prior approvals through PACbuilder.
62: Contributing toward election debt
retirement for a particular
candidates
Please remember debt retirement is not a separate election and
“Contribution Limits” apply. Let’s assume that a candidate ended their
General 2008 campaign with debt, and your committee is going to assist
with helping to “retire the debt”. If you have already given $1000 for
Primary, and $3000 for General, you can give only $2000 bringing you to
the limit of $5000 for the General 2008 election.
You’re invited to attend Bringing Together Powerful
Strategies with
Perfect Tools – the webinar that showcases all of the
Roll Call Group’s
latest products and features. Sign up today
online!
This session will illustrate how to:
- Connect with key policymakers and stay connected with critical legislation.
- Research key developments and stay on top of issues.
- Mobilize member-activists to take action on impending votes and bills.
- And much more!
A political committee that is
not a candidate committee, a party
committee or a separate segregated fund.
Email the correct question to mkordestani@capitoladvantage.com.
The first 3 people with correct question will receive a Starbucks gift
card.
Question
to last edition's PAC Jeopardy Answer: Who is a
conduit?
The
Winner of last edition’s PAC Jeopardy: Carla
Lochiatto of ASAE,
and Bethany Field of
American Bus Association, and Ned Monroe of National Restaurant
Association
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