<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/politics/campaign/06internet.html?pagewanted=print&position=> The New York Times November 6, 2004 FUND-RAISING Kerry Kept Money Coming With the Internet as His ATM By GLEN JUSTICE WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 - The power of the Internet in this year's election can be summed up in the story of Sam Warren, an Alabama voter who had never made a political contribution before but found himself donating 21 times to Senator John Kerry - all without opening his checkbook. Mr. Warren gave when the senator won the Super Tuesday primaries. He gave when the campaign sent him an e-mail message. He gave during the Democratic convention. By Election Day, Mr. Warren had given almost $2,000. "I surprised even myself," he said. "It's so easy to do. All you do is click-click with a Visa card." The emergence of the Internet as a major fund-raising tool is arguably the largest single change to the campaign finance system to come from this year's presidential race, allowing thousands of contributors like Mr. Warren to react instantly to campaign events as they happen. Although Howard Dean set the pace during the primaries, raising roughly $20 million, no one capitalized more on Internet fund-raising than Mr. Kerry. With a sophisticated marketing effort to keep people clicking, he emerged as the largest online fund-raiser in politics, bringing in about $82 million over the Internet - more than the $50 million Al Gore raised from all individual contributors in 2000. The Bush campaign, which used its Internet site primarily to organize voters, raised about $14 million online. The Internet helped Mr. Kerry cut President Bush's financial lead substantially. Mr. Bush raised about $273 million, while Mr. Kerry raised about $249 million. The amount Mr. Kerry raised online virtually ensures that few presidential and Congressional campaigns will develop in the future without the Internet in mind. "This is arguably the most powerful tool for political engagement we've ever seen," said Simon Rosenthal, president of the New Democratic Network. "It made it easier for the average citizen to participate in politics. Every moment they interact with the campaign can be a direct-response moment. They can watch a speech on TV, get motivated and give money." And they did. Though there is no precise tally of how many people gave to the candidates over the Internet, the amount of cash from people giving less than $200 increased fourfold from 2000, according to the Campaign Finance Institute, which studies presidential financing. Online fund-raising spread quickly, allowing candidates, parties and advocacy groups a low-cost supplement to big-donor fund-raising. The Internet pioneer MoveOn.org, which advocated Mr. Bush's defeat, raised millions. At the popular liberal Web log Daily Kos, its founder, Markos Moulitsas, directed more than $750,000 to the Democratic party and candidates from 6,500 contributors. Just a mention on the blog was worth thousands to a campaign. Even Amazon.com got involved, offering links that raised $300,000 for presidential candidates. "We were happy to make it as easy for people to contribute as it is to buy the latest Harry Potter book," the company said in a letter to customers. It was just four years ago that Senator John McCain made headlines when he raised more than $1 million online after winning the New Hampshire primary. This year, Dr. Dean created his entire campaign around the Internet, relying on it for fund-raising and organization and pioneering many of the techniques that have become standard practice. The campaign posted its fund-raising goals, long a taboo in the political world, and sent a relentless stream of fund-raising e-mail messages, liberally sharing information about why it needed the money and what it would pay for. And it took chances. "The Dean campaign really experimented a lot," said Nicco Mele, the campaign's Webmaster. "The Kerry campaign doesn't have that approach." Mr. Kerry's campaign came late to online fund-raising. He raised just $1.2 million in 2003, with an Internet team in the basement of a Washington townhouse. But the campaign awoke to the possibilities when Dr. Dean's fund-raising began to soar. Josh Ross, a 32-year-old former Republican with a Silicon Valley background, came aboard in late November 2003 to marshal the effort, but it was a period when Mr. Kerry was sagging in the polls and fund-raising had slowed. "Josh was building a car, but he didn't have a whole lot of gas," said David Thorne, Mr. Kerry's longtime friend and former brother-in-law, who was instrumental in creating the campaign's Internet program. The situation turned when Mr. Kerry won in Iowa. The Internet team persuaded campaign leaders to insert a mention of the Web site in the victory speech. Mr. Thorne made a late-night run to Kinko's to create a JohnKerry.com placard for the lectern. When the candidate mentioned the site, hits shot skyward. "There were never any nonbelievers after that," said Mary Beth Cahill, Mr. Kerry's campaign manager. When the campaign moved its headquarters, Mr. Ross ultimately found himself overseeing more than 30 people from a corner office on the sixth floor. Mr. Ross talked about running the operation like a business, with a heavy focus on quantifiable results. "We're not here to entertain," he said. The results often shattered records. The campaign raised $2.3 million online the day after Super Tuesday and $2.7 million the day after that. The one-day record of $5.7 million was set when Mr. Kerry accepted the Democratic nomination. Some campaign finance experts say that Mr. Kerry simply inherited the energetic donors whom Dr. Dean created, and that the campaign did not go far enough to engage them. Others say that anti-Bush sentiment drove the large numbers, and that any Democratic nominee was bound to make millions online. "Part of it is that they had the sizzle," said Ellen Malcolm, a veteran Democratic fund-raiser. "That's a very short-term fund-raising thing. We still all have a lot to learn about these sizzle donors." But the Kerry campaign made great strides to engage its online supporters. It publicized a petition calling for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation that drew hundreds of thousands of signatures. When Senator John Edwards joined the ticket, the decision was first announced online. The campaign challenged supporters to raise $10 million in 10 days online, and succeeded. It also spent a lot of time testing which wording in e-mail messages and on the Web site drew the most contributions. With 2.6 million supporters on the campaign's e-mail list and a Web page averaging 250,000 daily visitors during peak times, even small increases in the percentage of people who donated could equal large gains. "You start adding those nickels up and it makes a dramatic, dramatic difference," Mr. Ross said. The campaign learned that fund-raising letters do poorly on Monday. E-mail messages are best sent around 11 a.m., after people have cleared their mailbox of unwanted "spam." And contributions swell at lunchtime on both coasts, when people spend time online. Mr. Ross's team also tested e-mail subject lines. On the day of Mr. Kerry's convention speech in July - which was also the last day the campaign could raise private money before switching to public financing - the campaign sent out a long letter and a shorter letter, some carrying the subject line "this is it" and some saying "last chance." The short version with the "last chance" heading did best and was delivered en masse. The Web page was also engineered to bring in money. One example was the "splash page," the first thing that new visitors see. At one point, Mr. Ross and his colleagues had 30 versions of the page up on a wall. They tested photos until they settled on a picture of Mr. Kerry flashing the thumbs up. They tested headlines until they chose "Make history with us." Even a small contribution button toward the bottom, which was bringing in more than $75,000 a day at its peak, was maximized. The campaign tested four different versions before finding that the label "contribute before deadline" increased the number of donations by 35 percent. "We have no problem testing our own assumptions," Mr. Ross said. "We don't do anything based on a guess." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'