I have a lot of Facebook friends. 1,200 or so.

I bet you're in the same boat.

The one thing I'm really sick of receiving are invites to events and gatherings which are meant to raise money for DEMOCRATIC candidates. And, of course, every Democratic baby bundler uses ActBlue. Natch.

For example, here's a reminder to an event I received yesterday helping to bundle $50 contributions for the Democratic Nebraska Senate candidate at a fun bar in DC:

Quick reminder that Boots and Beer with Scott Kleeb is on Wednesday.
(no boots actually required) We are all looking forward to an awesome
event and can't wait to see you.

If you haven't already, please go to http://www.actblue.com/page/bootsandbeers
and make a $50 contribution. You're welcome to write a check or make a
credit card contribution there, but this is SO MUCH EASIER!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Alternatively, last night there was a fundraiser for John McCain (actually the RNC Victory Committee and a slew of other committees) on a rooftop -- typical Republican fundraiser.

I tried to get the crew organizing the event to use Slatecard for their fundraising efforts, letting them know about our referral mechanism which would give them credit for raising money and would continue to help both parties. I even said I'd help raise money for the effort from people who could care less about standing on a rooftop. Sadly, no luck.

Perhaps they didn't want to use Slatecard because it would have raised money for McCain in the Primary Election and they need it for the RNC's Victory Fund (which I'm still trying to figure out if Slatecard can raise money for the fund).

Regardless, it's these young professional Republicans who should be utilizing tools like Slatecard to help change the game for John McCain and our party. I can only stand atop this apple crate screaming at the top of my lungs for so long.

[Cross-posted to Slatecard.]

Last night I spoke with a small group of conservative activists at the Leadership Institute about some of the emerging technologies and tips I offer with regard to fundraising online.

Via my SlideShare account, you can see (and download) my presentation:

| View | Upload your own

Of course, a presentation is only as good as its presenter, and since most of the slides in my deck offer little text, I'll elaborate.

I kicked off the discussion by noting that the Internet has done one major thing, "helped us communicate more effectively with real, live people -- 'smarter, better, faster, NOW.'" We no longer have to wait for checks to be written by our supporter and mailed to our campaign -- instead, we're seeing a trend of folks who are giving donations online.

I use the example of Barack Obama as the latest evidence of this shift from offline giving to online giving. I site Barack's online fundraising numbers that have been reported well by Patrick Ruffini.

With regard to how Democrats have been able to amass so much treasure from previously unturned stones, I always use a personal example to help relate what I call the Long Tail of Fundraising.

Now that the stage is set, I talk about the Left's ActBlue and how Slatecard has helped provide a similar utility for the Right. I then talk about some of the tools that I believe will change the online fundraising space forever like Slatecard's proprietary innovation, Donor Analytics, and our deployment of anywhere fundraising widgets and facebook applications (still in private beta) to help drive donations in popular watering holes.

I conclude by offering four quick and easy tips to help better embrace online supporters.

1. Capture Emails at Every Possible Turn. Use a splash page before folks enter your website to make your supporters make a choice -- join your team or don't -- but the choice must be made before entering a website.

2. Ask for Realistic Gifts. Ask your online community for $25, $50 or $100. Your community will give you what they can afford but the folks that will give you low-dollar amounts online will likely give more to you over time. The point is to lower the barrier of entry and build your donor base.

3. DonationTubes. Have your principle/candidate make the final "ask" via video embedded directly to your secure donation page. Read this blog post for a more thorough answer.

4. Thank Your Supporters. It's hard to believe, but some politicians (and I know from personal experience) do not thank their online supporters. As an example of how to properly thank your supporters, I relate the fact that I received a personal note from Senator Tom Coburn when I contributed a mere $20 to his campaign through Slatecard. The benefit of him taking the time to personally recognize my donation is that, well, here I am blogging about it and I told a room of 30 conservative activists about it last night. In other words, treat every donor on an equal playing field and it will likely yield a great ROI.

The bottom-line with regard to online fundraising is that there's no silver bullet. I can't tell you how to mirror what Ron Paul did or what Barack Obama is doing. But we can keep an eye on the space and help relate what works and what doesn't.

[Cross-Posted at the Slatecard Blog.]

What if I told you that the top five issues driving grassroots online donations to Republicans were the following:

1. Cut The Pork
2. Pro-Life
3. Protect & Defend America
4. Jobs & Economy
5. Conservation Of Resources

And what if I told you that the top five issues by total amount of online donations were the following:
1. Protect & Defend America
2. Cut The Pork
3. Available and Affordable Health Care
4. Jobs & Economy
5. Defeat Radical Islam

Would it change the issues a candidate was focusing on through their fundraising appeals?

In a blog post I just wrote at the Slatecard Blog, we dig in to our first few months of data to help preview Donor Analytics.

While it's certainly true that ActBlue continues to boast impressive volume, given more exposure and a stronger embrace by Republican candidates, Slatecard's numerous innovations will help Republicans catch up in no time.

Want to help us make a difference? Make a donation to Slatecard.com PAC today to help us keep the lights on.

It's no secret that I've been spending a majority of my time working on Slatecard, a utility to support and enhance Republican activism. I haven't talked about it much in this space, but it's worth digging in.

Since our launch on October 8, with absolutely zero marketing other than earned media, Slatecard has put up some impressive fundraising numbers for Republican candidates and committees:

* $74,884.65
* 457 contributors
* $163.86 average contribution

This past weekend, we urged our small but growing Slatecard community to help us break the $75K mark. And to be perfectly honest, we came up $115.35 short of that goal.

Coming up short of a goal -- especially your first -- is never easy to swallow. Especially when you're watching, waiting, praying, emailing, and hoping that the goal is reached. But such is life. It was important to see what would happen when we took action.

In the end, 101 contributions were made over the weekend from the Slatecard community. That means that quite a few Republicans will be getting a check in the mail when they were least expecting it and from donors who may have never contributed to a campaign before. In short, the community stepped up to the plate and gave the goal a good run for the money (no pun intended).

And that's good news in an off-year when donations aren't exactly walking in the door for Republican candidates and committees. They need all the help they can get.

Importantly, we helped highlight two new candidates who face a Special Election on December 11:

* Bob Latta, Ohio-05 (seat formerly held by the late Paul Gillmor).
* Rob Wittman, Virginia-01 (seat formerly held by the late Jo Ann Davis).

To be sure, both seats are traditionally Republican. But in this environment, who knows what will happen... especially in a Special Election where turnout means everything.

At Slatecard, we're proud of what we're seeing and hearing from the community. And we're proud that seven candidates for Congress have made a decision to use Slatecard as their primary vehicle to process online credit card donations. And there's much more to come.

Stay tuned. The game is about to change.

Promise.

Robert Bluey has a column on the front-page of today's Townhall.com called "Leveling the online playing field," which notes the launch of Slatecard:

Slatecard was founded on the notion that conservatives identify with issues. The site gives the community the ability to assign "issue badges" to a particular candidate, making it easy to see which candidates share the same values, hence the name Slatecard. All and business partner Sendhil Panchadsaram have come up with 26 "issue badges" that users can associate with a candidate. Rudy Giuliani, for instance, has badges for "Defeat Radical Islam," "Social Centrists" and "Tax Simplification."

"Slatecard is what ActBlue would look like today if it was created in 2007 in a Web 2.0 world," All said. The site allows users to connect with candidates on a variety of social networking websites, making it a one-stop destination. It also employs a ticker function to see what's happening in real time.

For this piece, Robert asked me a series of questions via email which I've pasted below (with answers) for your review: (read more after the jump)

Here's what my Slatecard widget looks like.

The "bigger" version:

And the "smaller" version:

What does yours look like?

Last night just after Midnight, we flipped the switches and dropped the firewall opening up Slatecard. Slatecard is a utility to support and enhance Republican activism.

The goal of Slatecard was always to be much more than just a top-down, ‘online shopping cart’ which would likely only be used the last few months of a campaign.

Instead, the Slatecard utility embraces effective Web 2.0 technologies and collaborative principles to provide a robust directory of candidate information which will not only be used by a financial donor, but by anyone looking for more information about a candidate’s online activity.

Slatecard will help bridge the chasm between modern online activists and Republican candidates by not only encouraging candidates to be more active online, but also increase support by placing a premium on the issues which cause supporters to give to a candidate.

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder has more details on some of the innovative tools on Slatecard.

Slatecard was co-founded by Sendhil Panchadsaram and I earlier this year. I serve as the Executive Director and Sendhil is the Chief Developer/Chief Information Officer for Slatecard. Joe Mansour serves as a Special Projects Coordinator for Slatecard.

If you want to read a bit about the genesis of Slatecard and the process, read our first blog post, "It was time for Slatecard."

Slatecard is guided by a Board of Directors who play a critical role in determining how the non-earmarked funds of the site should be spent and offer suggestions to help improve the utility for candidates, committees, bloggers, and activists.

Members of our Board of Directors include:

* Saul Anuzis is the Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and a well-recognized proponent of using technology to strengthen the Republican Party.
* John Hawkins runs Right Wing News and Conservative Grapevine, and writes a weekly column for Townhall.com. Hawkins also founded and led the Rightroots group, a grassroots effort that collected almost $300,000 for Republican candidates in the last three months of the 2006 election cycle. John's blogged about Slatecard here.
* John Hinderaker is one of the most well-respected conservative bloggers who blogs at Power Line Blog, and is a lawyer with a nationwide litigation practice.
* Steve Urquhart is a State Representative in Utah and is the founder of Politicopia.com, a groundbreaking blend of politics + Web 2.0 which aims to politically empower individuals, encourage better dialogue, and produce better legislative solutions.
* Todd Zeigler is a senior vice president at The Bivings Group whose clients include Friends of Fred Thompson, Inc., the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the Republican National Committee. He blogs about the smart application of open-source technology and Web 2.0 at The Bivings Report.

If you want to know more, you can read our about page and our frequently answered questions.

There’s a people-powered movement energizing the Slatecard Revolution and we’re proud to be a part of it.

UPDATE 10:28 AM: Adam C of RedState has this to say about Slatecard:

Slatecard.com is now live. It is a Republican answer to ActBlue, which allows individuals to select from a full list of all Rs running for national office. You can then title your slate and get a direct link to it. This allows you to pick your favorite challengers and incumbents and solicit small donations for all of them. It empowers the individual rather than a top-down list selected by the site itself as RightRoots did last year (with 20 site selected candidates).

For example, I have created a "Close Senate Race" slate here. If you would like to donate to the close senate races, that link provides you a quick opportunity to do so. I will be changing my signature to direct people there.

I encourages RSers to create their own slates based on whatever issues are most important to them. Then use RS, other blogs, and social networking sites to direct your friends and fellow politicos to your slate of candidates. This is a big step for the online GOP. Congrats to Slatecard for making it happen.

The profile in today's Boston Globe on the Left's ActBlue is yet another reason to make sure you're on the list to receive updates from the Right's counter to ActBlue, Slatecard...:

Internet-based PAC driving Democratic push
Small donors fuel big support drive

By Scott Helman, Globe Staff | August 7, 2007

CAMBRIDGE -- The new headquarters of ActBlue, with its tangled cords, leftover Deval Patrick signs, and 20-somethings tapping on white MacBook laptops, is what a political campaign would look like if it shared space with a dot-com start-up.

ActBlue is in fact both -- an Internet-based political action committee that is quietly becoming one of the biggest forces in Democratic politics. Its founders aim for nothing short of revolution, and they are already partway there.

The PAC, operated from a former architecture studio on Arrow Street near Harvard Square, functions as an online clearinghouse for campaign contributions to Democrats of all stripes, allowing anyone in the country to donate any allowable amount to any candidate with the click of a mouse: You send the money to ActBlue (actblue.com), and ActBlue funnels it to the campaigns. This gives local, state, and national Democratic candidates a cheap, efficient means of building a base of supporters over the Internet.

This simple but transformative concept has raised $25.5 million and counting since its creation in Cambridge in 2004, when two computer-savvy scientists with liberal leanings set out to take political action in a new direction. They believed that armies of small donors, mobilized effectively, could be more potent than the "bun dlers" who have dominated fund-raising by amassing checks from wealthy contributors. (Read full story.)

I'm quoted extensively in a story in today's New York Times about the Democrats lapping Republicans when it comes to online fundraising:

The Democratic dominance in online fund-raising appears to have widened in the last three months. The disparity online is even more pronounced than the overall fund-raising gap for the first two quarters of the year, in which the leading Democrats raised almost 50 percent more than the leading Republicans, $144.3 million to $101.7 million.

David All, a Republican online strategist, said his party was being beaten badly online. “We need to have a revolution just like the Democrats did,” he said.

Just as George W. Bush took “bundling,” the practice of relying on wealthy donors to reach out to their own networks of the rich and powerful for large contributions, to new heights in the 2000 and 2004 elections, the Democrats are transforming the fund-raising environment for 2008 by drawing mostly small contributions from tens of thousands of people online. Their success over the Internet is made more significant by the fact that small-dollar donors have long been the strength of Republicans, who wielded sophisticated direct mail operations.

Mr. Obama’s own Web site has helped create more than 10,000 grass-roots events and 5,500 volunteer groups. He brought in $10 million in online donations in the second quarter; $17 million over all; 90 percent of his money over the Internet came in contributions of $100 or less.

Mr. All characterized the small-dollar donors as part of the Democratic Party’s “long tail,” a formidable list of potential supporters who can be turned to repeatedly for additional contributions later in the primary and then in the general election.

“It’s these people who have never donated money before, who can’t afford $2,300 or $200 at once,” he said. “What they can do is $10 a month, or $15.”

Republicans are getting trounced online for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is that we don't have a tool like ActBlue.

Fortunately, with the launch of Slatecard.com in the next few weeks, that dynamic is going to change.

Revolution.

As many of you know, I've been working on a project behind-the-scenes since spring which will finally give candidates and activists on the Right the tools they need to effectively tap in to the Long Tail of political fundraising.

We're calling it Slatecard.com. And it's going to change the game.

For more information on how it will work and to answer the question, "What is Slatecard.com?" you'll need to head over to the site and subscribe to the email list. Upon doing so, you'll get updates on the site and be the first to hear about the launch of the site.

Further, if you're interested in helping out with the final design or financially, please email us.

Revolution.