Our fundraising problem and a solution.

[ronpaul4pres]

Everyone,

It appears increasingly unlikely that the $4 million goal for October will be met. We have two problems as I see it:

1) the past: the amount pulled in for the first two weeks is much lower than it needed to be
2) the future: the rate of dollars donated is well below the average $129K needed each day.

I cannot fix the past, so I'd like to address #2. Some lament that this goal was too aggressive. Is $8/week too aggressive? I don't think so. I challenge everyone to review the math and prove me wrong:

http://ronpauldonations.blogspot.com/

Without focusing too much on the past, let's all work towards the goal of getting to and sustaining the $129K needed per day. We'll have a decent October and a blistering hot November/December when we do!

Please keep these points in mind:


The $12 million goal is very achievable! I'm afraid some aren't donating because they think this impossible.
Frequent small donations are key
it's much harder to get "donation fatigue" with this plan
very inclusive of everyone

almost everyone can afford $8/week
new donors can feel "comfortable" about not giving $2,300 - everyone's a supporter!

Finally, for those who've yet to donate, I set up a pledge for 100 people to donate $8 this week:

http://www.pledgebank.com/8-for-rp-0ct20

The question is not whether you can afford $8 but whether you can afford to not give $8.

I'd rather have 100 voters give $8 than 1 voter giving $800. That's 100x more votes!

Brian
-------
P.S. I've added a way to digg this article. Please help spread this message that we are all in this together:

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Donating_8_to_Ron_Paul_this_week

It's amazing to me that $8/week can add up to so much.

[ronpaul4pres]

A reminder: I encourage all to challenge the math I laid out on blogspot. I even have some interesting figures calculated like the number of actual donors in Q3.

We have 11 people who pledged $8 in one day. We need just 6 more today to meet our daily quota. We can do this! Do you choose to sacrifice $8 this week, or do you choose to sacrifice your liberties and that same $8 to inflation?

http://www.pledgebank.com/8-for-rp-0ct20

[FreedomLover]

You get a lot more bang for your buck by donating more than 8$ at a time, assuming it's thru online donations, where credit transaction fees eat up a good chunk of each donation.

[ronpaul4pres]

I hate giving away money to the credit card companies, but I calculated it wouldn't eat so much away from $8.

It would be much better to give $32 for the month all in one shot, but I'm trying to promote the $8/week idea. We'll be just fine.

[mesler]

The solution is for each of us to find a few new donors. I've planted a few seeds among a few people I know who are small business owners, I'm going to be bringing them stamped envelopes shortly and ask them to join us. If all of us found a few more people, $4,000,000 is no problem. Even if they only give $25, it will be enough if we all do it.

[wbbgjr]

The solution is for each of us to find a few new donors. I've planted a few seeds among a few people I know who are small business owners, I'm going to be bringing them stamped envelopes shortly and ask them to join us. If all of us found a few more people, $4,000,000 is no problem. Even if they only give $25, it will be enough if we all do it.

Yeah. We need to spread the word.

[Taco John]

Remember that Dr. Paul is going into the Viper's pit on October 21st. He gets plenty of opportunity to shine on the Fox stage, because they come at him with cheap tactics that he obliterates every time. We're going to see a HUGE surge following that debate.

[ronpaul4pres]

I certainly agree that new donors are vital. In fact, I assumed we'll get 20,000 new donors in my calculations (in Q3 there were 40,000 new donors over Q2).

In the end, donors and dollars don't matter. We're trying to win the hearts and minds of voters not their pocket book. We really want and need votes.

But, having money to run the campaign is important, too. It would be embarrassing if the goal for Q4 wasn't met. When I crucnched the numbers, I saw how "simple" it was. What I'm trying to promote is the idea that this is very possible - and we all don't have to be big donors to contribute. I think this message is very encouraging.

All it takes is $8/week.

------
http://www.pledgebank.com/8-for-rp-0ct20

[mesler]

Many potential donors won't do so because they don't think he has a chance. Show them an article that explains how the primaries work and how spread out the Republican field is, they will donate.

[Corydoras]

We need to ask people for more than their vote-- once we know Ron has their vote, we need to ask outright for their donations.

[mesler]

Here ist he magic article:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/pitkaniemi1.html

You just need to take a few paragraphs out.

Such as:

"As noted above, with only 7.2% of the Americans voting in the 2004 primaries, this is not the case. For example, in New Hampshire with a population of 1,200,000 the size of the voting age population is around 1,000,000. If 20% of the shire folk would vote (an extremely high number for a presidential primary) 200,000 votes would be cast. Half would be democratic votes. Thus even if Ron Paul would race himself against all the other republican candidates, he would win with just 51,000 votes. And this is the pessimist scenario. Most likely the voting turnout will be around 10% and no other GOP candidate will gather more than 30% of the state's votes. In this case Ron Paul will win the New Hampshire primary with only 15,000 votes!"

[ronpaul4pres]

I like your ideas of encouraging new Ron Paul Supporters, but what else can I do to encourage this type of donation? I know some people aren't donating because they think they have to donate hundreds or thousands of dollars, but they'd otherwise like to contribute.

How else can I get out the $8/week message?

[CJLauderdale4]

Bump. Let's all pledge!!

For only $2 each day, we can vault Ron Paul over all of the other candidates!!

[AgentPaul001]

I'm a bit tight for cash myself, but I figure I'll donate again today or tommorow. Money donated now to save cash later (smaller government :)).

[jj111]

You cannot steal, but you can beg and borrow to improve your personal donations to Ron Paul.

[cswake]

I'm not sure about the accuracy of those assumptions. If you head to the primary results for 2000 and 2004, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_primary, you can see that about 30 to 40% of the 1,000,000 people will vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary. However, you can see that Bush had won with 53k votes since all the Independents went Democratic in 2004.

[jmdrake]

This is a great idea! As for the credit card transactions if people can just give $16 every two weeks its the same effect. Make yourself a "Ron Paul jar" and stick a little bit in everyday. Then deposit the full amount in your bank and pay that amount electronically.

Regards,

John M. Drake

[mannycp]

I'm going to pledge after Sundays Fox Debate(10/21), I always do after any debate, I also think we should start a thread for everyone to donate after the debate.

[mannycp]

bump

[ronpaul4pres]

This is a great idea! As for the credit card transactions if people can just give $16 every two weeks its the same effect. Make yourself a "Ron Paul jar" and stick a little bit in everyday. Then deposit the full amount in your bank and pay that amount electronically.

Regards,

John M. Drake

Thank you!

Yes! That's the idea. Put away $8/week for freedom. Just a buck and change per day to keep big government away.

Now, who else will pledge $8?

http://www.pledgebank.com/8-for-rp-0ct20

As I see it, we must get 100 people to give $8 by this Saturday. We can't meet the campaign's fundraising goal if we can't do at least this.