Kerry Kept Money Coming With the Internet as His ATM

[R.A. Hettinga]

<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."

-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at 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,
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