2012 Online Political Donation Projections

In the olden days of the 2006 political cycle, we saw that only about 10% to 15% of Republican political donations were processed through campaign websites.In 2008, the number was pushing more like 20% to 25%... Then came February for candidate Obama. The Obama campaign raised $55 million in February, $45 million, or 82% of it, came from online donations. Those were crazy-huge online donation numbers, shocking all of us.During the 2010 cycle, of the 125 campaigns I worked with, we saw the better performing candidates with 30% of their donation coming in as online gifts.

My 2012 Online Donation Rate Prediction

I believe that we will see online giving for political campaigns jump to over 45% of all gifts. Once the Republicans have selected a candidate and the Obama team kicks into gear, I think there will be a trickle down affect and campaigns at all levels will begin the retail phase of the political fundraising calendar and maximize the efficiencies of online donation processing.On top of that, the technology has gotten so much better then even 2010. CMDI's WidgetMakr allows our campaigns to create an infinite number of uniquely styled donation forms, without the creator having to know a lick of code.Back in the early 2000s, web developers were charging at least $5,000 for a campaign online donation form. Now much more flexible and secure forms are practically free AND you can set them up for any fundraising event, advertisement, direct mail piece, or individual volunteer fundraisers (bundlers).With WidgetMakr, and other like minded tools, it is only natural for campaign finance teams to push their donors to customized donation landing pages for all donation processing.