Online campaign contributions have played a burgeoning role in elections for almost a decade. But what was once considered a supplementary method of gathering small donations has morphed into a necessary one.
In general, online contributions offer two things TV spots and phone banks cannot: an interactive relationship between the contributor and the candidate and an easy way to donate small amounts.
"If you see an online video and then right below the video there is a little button that says 'help this candidate' and you can contribute right there, it cuts down on the 'Oh maybe tomorrow.'" said Marissa Doran, communications director for the online contribution clearinghouse actblue.com. "That interactive relationship is something that can't be found in other fundraising methods."
Online contributions first took center stage during Howard Dean's bid for the 2004 democratic presidential nomination. It was cheaper for Dean's campaign than traditional fundraising methods. And those who contributed tended to do so in amounts beneath the legal limit of $2,000, allowing the campaign to continue to solicit the same individuals.
"If so many of the donors are smaller-dollar donors, ones that haven't maxed out, you can build a pretty substantial infrastructure, which for campaigns is everything because if you have the ability to budget how much money you are going to have a month from now, you can plan a winning campaign," Doran said.
In this election cycle, presumed Democratic Nominee Barack Obama has built upon Dean's novel fundraising methods to allow him to raise more through online contributions in January -- $28 million according to a campaign announcement -- than Dean did during his entire campaign.
But presidential candidates are not the only ones to see the value of incorporating Internet donations into their fundraising methods, and donations need not always be made on the candidate's personal Web site. New sites allow supporters to go online and make donations to any candidate they want from any state, to create their own donation pages and to easily find links to candidates' Web sites.
Two popular online fundraising Web sites are actblue.com, a site that supports Democratic candidates, and slatecard.com, which supports Republicans.
Andrew Eldredge-Martin, Bob Lord's campaign manager, said one of the best things about online fundraising sites such as ActBlue and Slatecard is that they are decentralized. They allow people to create their own sites to do their own campaigning and fundraising with family and friends who will listen to their opinion.
"When you have that kind of grassroots effect, you can really reach a lot more people," he said.
But Doran said that the attractiveness of multi-jurisdictional Web sites is mostly in the time it saves.
"Even the difference between asking someone to make four clicks before their donation is complete and two or one click is huge in terms of return.
