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Fred Raises 23% of His Money Online

by Patrick Ruffini :: July 31st, 2007 11:05 pm

Fred Thompson’s campaign released its fundraising numbers for June, with $3.4 million total raised, $771,783 of it over the Web. That works out to about 23% of his total receipts. For all the frank criticisms I’ve offered about the GOP’s online situation in the last few days, there’s a glimmer of hope in these numbers.

Jon Henke’s memo notes they did no direct mail or telemarketing in this period. I’m not sure why they need to note that. There’s virtually no way that these sources would have matched the online number in just 25 days, particularly with a practically non-existent direct mail base. Though it’s critically important he get these going, if they really work it, Fred’s could be the first major Republican campaign in which online receipts surpass direct mail and phones. That would be truly historic.

I also don’t know if I buy into all the gloom-and-doom Fred coverage of late. Yes, they were probably disappointed in these numbers, but they’ve taken firm corrective action early on, bringing on Randy Enwright as campaign manager. And remember, this reflects returns for just 25 days in June, from a standing start. They did no events that I know of that month. And they didn’t even send an email to their list until last week. That isn’t bad for 25 days, but expectations were clearly a problem.

The challenge for Fred will be building on this online momentum in Q3. There are two types of campaigns when it comes to online fundraising. The ones that attract huge grassroots bases (Obama and Paul) gain strength over time. Online receipts for both shot up in Q2. The more traditional campaigns, like Clinton, actually lost ground after a big splash. The Clinton campaign reported $4.2 million raised online in the first quarter but didn’t report numbers in the second. We can only surmise that it was a good deal lower. Judging from their “One Week One Million” drive, they were doing $250-$300K per email in Q1 and yet on the email they sent on June 30th, they set a goal of $100,000 for that day. The excitement dissipated.

Let’s see if Fred Thompson really is a grassroots candidate, or winds up as a traditionalist.

Tagged: fred thompson fundraising

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