Even small donations ($5/$10) will help the Tea Party be successful

[davidhperry]

I wanted to encourage everyone that even relatively small donations provide a great benefit to the campaign. The main reason is that each donation, no matter what the size, represents an individual donor. If we can get a lot of new donors to give on that day, then it'll be almost as important, if not more so, as the money.

We need both - money and donors.

Sometimes people think that the CC charges are too expensive and that people shouldn't give small amounts - that's not true. If someone donates $5, the campaign pays no more than 20 or 30 cents in CC authorization fees - perhaps even less since they do a lot of volume. Trust me, they would MUCH rather have a new donor come in the door with a small amount than not donate at all. They PAY to advertise so that they can get new donors. The would gladly pay 20 or 30 cents to add new people.

[jonahtrainer]

I wanted to encourage everyone that even relatively small donations provide a great benefit to the campaign. The main reason is that each donation, no matter what the size, represents an individual donor. If we can get a lot of new donors to give on that day, then it'll be almost as important, if not more so, as the money.

We need both - money and donors.

Sometimes people think that the CC charges are too expensive and that people shouldn't give small amounts - that's not true. If someone donates $5, the campaign pays no more than 20 or 30 cents in CC authorization fees - perhaps even less since they do a lot of volume. Trust me, they would MUCH rather have a new donor come in the door with a small amount than not donate at all. They PAY to advertise so that they can get new donors. The would gladly pay 20 or 30 cents to add new people.

I agree; even small donations are extremely helpful.

But I was talking to a buddy (MBA in Finance, former employee of the Federal Reserve in LA who Ron Paul and I have converted to gold) yesterday and he brought up the 16th Tea Party to me and asked if I'd heard. I said "Yes, I'm giving $1,000. How much are you going to give?" He said he could only afford $200 at the moment (he has been out of work and vacationing for a few months...). I said "Great!"

Friendly competition is always fun; especially if you win! :cool:

[MyKillK]

I totally understand your point, but I do want to state that each transaction has a:

30-40 cent transaction fee
PLUS
3-5% of the transaction amount

So while donating small amounts may seem like a good idea, if you only donate $5, 30 cents represents a 6% cut, and then add on the 3-5% cut...that's 10% of your donation being taken by the transaction companies...I think donations should be $10 MINIMUM.

[kylejack]

I totally understand your point, but I do want to state that each transaction has a:

30-40 cent transaction fee
PLUS
3-5% of the transaction amount

So while donating small amounts may seem like a good idea, if you only donate $5, 30 cents represents a 6% cut, and then add on the 3-5% cut...that's 10% of your donation being taken by the transaction companies...I think donations should be $10 MINIMUM.
90% of 5 dollars is superior to 100% of 0 dollars. People should donate all that they can, but if they can only donate 5 dollars, they should certainly do that. It brings down our average donation and makes the number of total donors appear more impressive.

[jake]

90% of 5 dollars is superior to 100% of 0 dollars. People should donate all that they can, but if they can only donate 5 dollars, they should certainly do that. It brings down our average donation and makes the number of total donors appear more impressive.

+1 indeed. The number of donors is a huge thing, hopefully it can hit in excess of 75,000 unique donors :D

[francisco]

I wanted to encourage everyone that even relatively small donations provide a great benefit to the campaign. The main reason is that each donation, no matter what the size, represents an individual donor. If we can get a lot of new donors to give on that day, then it'll be almost as important, if not more so, as the money.

We need both - money and donors.

Sometimes people think that the CC charges are too expensive and that people shouldn't give small amounts - that's not true. If someone donates $5, the campaign pays no more than 20 or 30 cents in CC authorization fees - perhaps even less since they do a lot of volume. Trust me, they would MUCH rather have a new donor come in the door with a small amount than not donate at all. They PAY to advertise so that they can get new donors. The would gladly pay 20 or 30 cents to add new people.


The real-time $ donation counter on the campaign site was a tremendous innovation that spurred the viral success of the November 5th fundraiser.

In the same way an additional counter on the website showing the number of donors will build excitement as the day goes on and inspire futher donations.

I am reasoning that this information is readily available to the campaign, because statistics were released at the end of the day on Nov.5. I also reason that a widget providing this information could be made available to other websites to further spread the word and enthusiasm.

A potential first-time donor gets validation from seeing that large numbers of others are donating also. This is the "Jump on the Bandwagon" effect.


I am firmly of the belief that the statistics of the number of individual donors can be as powerful as the amount of money raised as a point of media interest, especially if we can claim records in this regard. This is the media play that tells the world that we are not just a small but vocal minority, but instead a large and growing force to be reckonned with.

Does anyone have a contact within the official campaign to present this idea?
Alternatively, does anyone have a recommendation as to how I could get word to them myself?

Thanks in advance for any input.

[ShowMeLiberty]

90% of 5 dollars is superior to 100% of 0 dollars. People should donate all that they can, but if they can only donate 5 dollars, they should certainly do that. It brings down our average donation and makes the number of total donors appear more impressive.

+1

When I was reminding friends and family about November 5th I specifically said that even $5, $10, $20 donations would be very welcome. I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

[angrydragon]

PayPal is only 2.9% plus $0.30 cents.

The more they receive, the lower the rate.

A five dollar donation will cost $.15 cents ($5 X 2.9%) plus $0.30 cents which totals $0.45 cents.

The merchant account the campaign has probably has a lower discount rate.

[francisco]

90% of 5 dollars is superior to 100% of 0 dollars. People should donate all that they can, but if they can only donate 5 dollars, they should certainly do that. It brings down our average donation and makes the number of total donors appear more impressive.

100% correct.

Furthermore, we need to remember that the bottom-line objective must be to gain new supporters, including those of limited means or willingness to commit funds.

ONLY BY GROWING OUR RANKS CAN WE WIN AT THE POLLS.

[Jobarra]

While any amount is helpful, I'm hoping people are pushing $10 donations if possible. People who have stolen credit cards like to make $5 'test' charges(I've had it happen to me, although my card wasn't stolen. Always look at your statements ;) ). We saw it happen during Nov. 5th, and the less charges there are for this amount, the easier it will be for the campaign to work with law enforcement afterwards to get rid of the inevitable stolen credit card charges. This is not something unique to Ron Paul. Any major online sales outlet deals with this. It's harder to distinguish a few bad charges from thousands of transactions.

[davidhperry]

I totally understand your point, but I do want to state that each transaction has a:

30-40 cent transaction fee
PLUS
3-5% of the transaction amount

So while donating small amounts may seem like a good idea, if you only donate $5, 30 cents represents a 6% cut, and then add on the 3-5% cut...that's 10% of your donation being taken by the transaction companies...I think donations should be $10 MINIMUM.

Good points. However, those numbers are a bit high. For instance, my company processes a fairly small number of CC transactions per month and our fees are 10 cents and 2.6% of every transaction. So, for a donation of $5, the fee would be roughly 23 cents.

Since they process a much higher level of transactions, I wouldn't bee surprised if their costs were better than ours - 5 cents per transaction and around 2%.

At any rate, this is just the cost of doing business and they gladly pay it since they are getting new donors - they would probably pay a lot more for a donor. They pay for postage to send mail and to buy airtime on radio and TV stations to essentially do the same thing.

[davidhperry]

While any amount is helpful, I'm hoping people are pushing $10 donations if possible. People who have stolen credit cards like to make $5 'test' charges(I've had it happen to me, although my card wasn't stolen. Always look at your statements ;) ). We saw it happen during Nov. 5th, and the less charges there are for this amount, the easier it will be for the campaign to work with law enforcement afterwards to get rid of the inevitable stolen credit card charges. This is not something unique to Ron Paul. Any major online sales outlet deals with this. It's harder to distinguish a few bad charges from thousands of transactions.

I'm having trouble following this. Are you saying that HQ might reject small donations because they might be from criminals?

When retailers and law enforcement people investigate illegal activity, they are looking for the account numbers which have been compromised, not a particular amount of money. The amount is irrelevant since using a card fraudulently is illegal, no matter what the charge.

[Benaiah]

I try to get everyone to donate $10 or more. $5 is what the credit card thieves use and we don't want real donations to be confused with those.

[Benaiah]

I'm having trouble following this. Are you saying that HQ might reject small donations because they might be from criminals?

When retailers and law enforcement people investigate illegal activity, they are looking for the account numbers which have been compromised, not a particular amount of money. The amount is irrelevant since using a card fraudulently is illegal, no matter what the charge.

The campaign doesn't seem to be real effect at most things. The more trouble we save them, the better in my opinion.

[OferNave]

Agreed. I already called my broke-ass friend a few days ago (lives with his parents, still doesn't have a CC) and forced him to borrow his mom's CC and donate $5, just to add to the donor count. :) They really can't afford more anyway.

[kevinblack]

The real-time $ donation counter on the campaign site was a tremendous innovation that spurred the viral success of the November 5th fundraiser.

In the same way an additional counter on the website showing the number of donors will build excitement as the day goes on and inspire futher donations.

I am reasoning that this information is readily available to the campaign, because statistics were released at the end of the day on Nov.5. I also reason that a widget providing this information could be made available to other websites to further spread the word and enthusiasm.

A potential first-time donor gets validation from seeing that large numbers of others are donating also. This is the "Jump on the Bandwagon" effect.


I am firmly of the belief that the statistics of the number of individual donors can be as powerful as the amount of money raised as a point of media interest, especially if we can claim records in this regard. This is the media play that tells the world that we are not just a small but vocal minority, but instead a large and growing force to be reckonned with.

Does anyone have a contact within the official campaign to present this idea?
Alternatively, does anyone have a recommendation as to how I could get word to them myself?

Thanks in advance for any input.

QFT.
This is WAY TOO IMPORTANT to burry on this thread, we shoul do everything we can to make this happen in either the main site or the teaparty site.

[Jobarra]

I'm having trouble following this. Are you saying that HQ might reject small donations because they might be from criminals?

When retailers and law enforcement people investigate illegal activity, they are looking for the account numbers which have been compromised, not a particular amount of money. The amount is irrelevant since using a card fraudulently is illegal, no matter what the charge.
No, I'm saying that to help the campaign it would be better if they didn't have to wade through 10,000 $5 donations if possible. Yes, account numbers will be the first thing looked at, but I wouldn't be surprised if the authorities asked to see other $5 transactions as that is a very popular 'test' amount. Also, the media picked up on the $5 donations extremely quickly and will do so again most likely. That said, if all someone can donate is $5, I'm not complaining. I was just saying I was hoping $10 was being pushed as an option. $10 is still not a big make or break amount like $100.

[LiveFreeorDie]

Agreed.

We need to focus on the number of donors as well.