Threshold Pledges, the billion dollar money bomb, AN ARMY

[wildermuthn]

I am a web developer and long-time Paul supporter, a vet, a CO, and I have a plan for raising one billion dollars on one day.

Sound crazy? Impossible? Only as impossible as Dr. Paul being elected President.

To raise 1 Billion, we need one million Paulites to give a cool grand. That is probably every single one of us plus some. So how do you get a thousand from everyone? The THRESHOLD PLEDGE.

"I will give one hundred dollars a month for ten months, but only if a million others do too."

That is a threshold pledge, and it isn't an empty promise, because you make the pledge with a credit card, not with your word. The technical implementation is not difficult. The pitch is. Why are we giving a hundred a month for nearly a year? Yes, because the media will go nuts. Yes, because we need money.

But, a billion dollars needs a larger bigger and more specific purpose. It needs a 'woah' factor about a thousand times greater than a blimp.

A billion dollars to hire 20,000 grassroots campaign organizers at a salary of $50,000 a year

That's right. Our greatest resource is, clearly, ourselves. Let's send twenty thousand people into Iowa and New Hampshire. Let's organize like no campaign ever has!

The revolution needs an army!

Nate Wildermuth
314-646-1009
Nate@steindom.com

[Chowder]

sounds like a good idea..........but you going to have to herd a LOT of cats to get through this!

[TheTexan]

I'd say it's unlikely you'd get a million people to make that pledge. I'm not saying not to do it, in fact I'd be one of the first to make a pledge.

Go for it.

[teacherone]

no...what we need is 1 thousand supporters to pledge 1 MILLION DOLLARS.

http://www.allmystery.de/dateien/uh59514,1264444514,dr-evil.jpg

[pacelli]

Talk to the people at revolutionpac.com

[Chester Copperpot]

sound like a good idea to me.. im in

[tekkierich]

I really like the idea of reoccurring contributions. I wish the campaign pushed them more. If people would sign up for a month subscription with their credit cards, the campaign would be able to budget and plan ahead of time.

[cucucachu0000]

Id be up for that, you gonna make a website?

[Von Helman]

Good idea and if you could set up a website or have the Ron Paul people do it officially I think you would possible make your goal if people stood up and did what they committed to.. that and finding one million Americans who have jobs and could make such a pledge in these difficult times.

I give you props for your idea

[Von Helman]

double post

[trey4sports]

no way paying 20,000 organizers 50K is a good use of funds. 1,000,000,000 can be used much more efficiently than hiring 20,000 organizers.

[Matthew5]

I'd make it more realistic...perhaps 100 million?

And ditto on using the money for 20,000 organizers. Talk about an HR nightmare.

[Exponent]

Make it a progressive threshold pledge. Instead of pulling donations from no one until the full million threshold has been reached (which would delay the initiation of donations), base the amount that each individual pledges on the number of individuals donating that month. For example, the chart below is based on the square of the number of people pledging. Per-person per-month pledge would be equal to (number of pledgers) / 10,000, and the per-month total would then be (number of pledgers)2 / 10,000. You could still use the minimum threshold, though; any fewer than 100,000 pledgers, for example, and no pledges will be collected. But even at that level, it would be tempting because an extra million dollars per month would be awesome for the campaign.


Monthly Per- Monthly
Pledgers Person Donation Total Donation
1,000,000 $100 $100,000,000
800,000 $80 $64,000,000
600,000 $60 $36,000,000
400,000 $40 $16,000,000
200,000 $20 $4,000,000
100,000 $10 $1,000,000
50,000 $5 $250,000

To make it even more complicated (but hopefully still simple for people to understand in general, if not all the details), let people choose a pledge factor from 1 to 10, indicating roughly how much they can afford (10 = maximum, 1 = one tenth of the maximum). Then the per-person per-month donation would be (personal pledge factor) * (number of pledgers) / 100,000. That would let people still participate who don't feel they can afford the full $100 per month even if a million pledgers were obtained, and would still up the effective pledge count (proportionally) and thus total amount donated.

[freshjiva]

Make it a progressive threshold pledge. Instead of pulling donations from no one until the full million threshold has been reached (which would delay the initiation of donations), base the amount that each individual pledges on the number of individuals donating that month. For example, the chart below is based on the square of the number of people pledging. Per-person per-month pledge would be equal to (number of pledgers) / 10,000, and the per-month total would then be (number of pledgers)2 / 10,000. You could still use the minimum threshold, though; any fewer than 100,000 pledgers, for example, and no pledges will be collected. But even at that level, it would be tempting because an extra million dollars per month would be awesome for the campaign.


Monthly Per- Monthly
Pledgers Person Donation Total Donation
1,000,000 $100 $100,000,000
800,000 $80 $64,000,000
600,000 $60 $36,000,000
400,000 $40 $16,000,000
200,000 $20 $4,000,000
100,000 $10 $1,000,000
50,000 $5 $250,000

To make it even more complicated (but hopefully still simple for people to understand in general, if not all the details), let people choose a pledge factor from 1 to 10, indicating roughly how much they can afford (10 = maximum, 1 = one tenth of the maximum). Then the per-person per-month donation would be (personal pledge factor) * (number of pledgers) / 100,000. That would let people still participate who don't feel they can afford the full $100 per month even if a million pledgers were obtained, and would still up the effective pledge count (proportionally) and thus total amount donated.


This. +1.

Regardless, sign me up for this pledge idea. I am a huge fan of it and will promote it locally here in Maryland. We have 100+ RP activists and/or C4L people here.
Though I do agree that reaching 1 million pledges is somewhat unreasonable. We might just set ourselves, and the public, up for disappointment.

I think 100,000-250,000 pledges is a much more attainable goal. Just sayin', bro.

[wildermuthn]

Okay, so I spent that last three weeks getting a prototype site up. I've also scaled down my initial target down to twenty million. Check out the new thread:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?331755-Pledgebomb.com-the-Next-Generation-Moneybomb