Society 2.0: DC Fundraisers Going Online

President Obama’s former director of online fundraising Stephen Geer is convinced “We’re not gonna see 2008 again.”

Geer led the President’s successful online campaign that ultimately raised $500 million … the majority of which came from a click of button. His main tool? Email. Something we’ll see a lot more of he tells a crowd at The Liason attending a BizBash breakfast on fundraising’s future.

Geer was part of a panel of Washington money makers. Moderated by CBS’ Nancy Cordes the talk included insight from Wiley Rein’s Jan Baran,  Dick Cheney’s former press secretary and Washington hostess  Juleanna Glover, Hillary Clinton’s former National Finance Director Jonathan Mantz and Lisa Spies from The LS Group.

All agreed that the ’08 election took campaigns, specifically Obama’s to a new level via the internet. While  candidates are catching on most of the panelists doubt that level of ‘online buzz’  will be created again. If anything it was something to learn from… and not just on the campaign trail. For instance, following the recent health care vote we watched the RNC quickly fire back by creating website “Fire Nancy Pelosi“. The goal was to raise $400,000 in 40 hours and they quickly exceed that. Glover says this is a good example of Republicans getting more savvy online and we should expect to see the party’s web presence surge. Geer adds just look at  Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, “He ran 10 times the online campaign”. Many political experts say the success played a major part in Brown’s outmaneuvering  of Martha Coakley.

So what’s next? With so much technology and access, it appears more young people are following the political process than ever before. In a world where it seems there’s an ‘app for that’ and everything else will the old fashion email still have a place in political fundraising. Geer confidantly says yes. As the VP of New Media for OMP, a D.C. based direct marketing firm, Geer predicts Twitter is the next big thing to bring in the bucks. What about donating by text message? We all saw the $22 million the US raised through a simple SMS after the Haiti earthquake.  Geer reminds us because of the crisis the government generously waived the text message fee for all donors.  He says if political camps can figure out a way to do the same we could see ‘the text’ as one major money making tool in 2010 and 2012.

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About the writer: Angie Goff covers traffic, entertainment and social media for WUSA-TV Channel 9 in Washington DC. Her blog Oh My Goff is also a daily TV segment that shares local buzz as reported by people in the community via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.