Spark is the latest Republican secret fundraising weapon

Tysons Corner, VA, May 28, 2013 – CMDI has launched what could become one of the most important online fundraising tools of the 2014 election cycle, Spark™ Smart Donation Forms. Much like Amazon’s recommendation engine that suggests products that will most likely appeal to a shopper based on their past shopping behavior, Spark looks at a donor’s past giving history and generates custom donation amounts optimized for each donor’s giving behavior.

With current online fundraising methods, campaigns are leaving money on the table,” said John Simms, CMDI founder. “Campaigns are pushing donors to generic forms that may ask for less than the donor has already given and fail to ask for an upgrade lift. Spark optimizes the ‘ask’ for each donor so campaigns can get the highest yield from each supporter."

Fundraising is not a one size fits all business. You shouldn’t ask a $500 donor for $5. Nor should you ask a $5 donor for $1,000. By customizing the ask amount for each individual donor, campaigns can substantially increase their online fundraising totals.In addition, Spark utilizes best-in-class online fundraising methodology to convert supporters into donors, including: 

One-Click Donations

Popularized by the 2012 Obama for President campaign, enterprise one-click donation processing has not been available to Republican campaigns… until now. Starting today, Republican campaigns across the country have begun accepting political donations, sparked by the single click of a button.Spark’s innovation is in how it allows campaigns to use any action by a supporter to trigger a donation. Donations can be triggered by:

• single clicks on a “donate” button,
• text messages,
• a link in an email,
• QR code scans,
• or any other action that takes place on an internet connected device.

One-click is just the tip of the iceberg when you think about taking the friction out of fundraising,” commented John Simms, CMDI's Founder. “With Spark, imagination is really the only limit in how campaigns can collect donations.”

 Another significant benefit of Spark is that donors who give to any campaign through Spark, can also one-click donate to any other campaign who also utilizes Spark. The pre-existing network of Spark donors will be a huge advantage for the 2016 Republican presidential cycle.As friction is removed from the giving process, supporters are more likely to give more and more frequently. 

Sequential Multi-step Contribution Forms

For new donors to a campaign, it has been proven that sequential multi-step contribution forms can increase donation rates by 5%-10%. Spark now makes multi-step donation forms available to all Republican campaigns.Learn more at cmdi.com/spark.  

About CMDI – www.cmdi.com


CMDI is America’s largest Republican campaign finance services platform, providing software and FEC compliance services that have managed over $8.5 billion for federal campaigns and committees. During the 2012 cycle, CMDI's flagship software, Crimson, was used to manage $2 out of every $3 raised for Republican federal committees.As a close partner with the Republican Party, CMDI has consistently provided innovative solutions throughout the company’s 30 year history:2012 – Republican National Committee, Romney for President and 6 other Republican presidential campaigns: CrimsonRPM, the only political multi-level, volunteer fundraising platform available for campaigns from Presidential to Congressional, was launched for the 2012 cycle. Using CrimsonRPM, Republican candidates and the Republican party raised more than $100 million by providing their volunteer fundraising (“bundling”) networks with the tools they needed to interact directly with the finance committees.2011 - NRCC, NRSC, AmericanCrossroads and many individual campaigns: CMDI released WidgetMakr to fulfill the special compliance and cash management needs of political organizations that wasn’t being met by non-profit online fundraisng tools. WidgetMakr quickly became a Republican industry standard for Republican campaign committees.2008 – McCain, Romney, Giuliani, and Thompson for President: Crimson, the first and only web based enterprise campaign sofware was launched to manage all aspects of the campaign donor relationship, from donation to FEC filing. Since 2008, Crimson has been leveraged by hundreds of campaigns and thousands of campaign workers.2004 – Bush for President: DexTeam, the first automated donor downline tracking software built to power the Bush Pioneer and Ranger fundraising programs.1996 – Dole for President: DexFile, the first electronic FEC filing system for Presidential matching funds.1993 – Republican National Committee: Released Dexter, the first SaaS (software-as-a-service) political fundraising and compliance data system.1987 – George H. W. Bush for President: Developed a PC based Iowa caucus tracking system.1984 – Republican National Committee: CMDI integrated an online automated list order fulfillment system with national voter database.1980 – Reagan for President: Built voter databases in key states overlaid with demographic characteristics and targeted voter clusters with personalized messages utilizing new xerographic technology.

Press Contact:

John SimmsCMDIjsimms@cmdi.com703-790-9389