< Obama's Fundraising Mimics Radio Pledge Drives

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Heard on All Things Considered

July 19, 2008 - ANDREA SEABROOK, host:

Senator Obama is talking to America's friends around the globe. He started his campaign season world tour today, first stop Afghanistan. The candidate met with American troops and Afghan government officials. Next on the agenda, a possible sit-down with President Hamid Karzai and then on to Iraq.

It's been an eventful week for the Obama campaign. New fundraising numbers show he collected $52 million in June, more than doubling up Republican John McCain. The Obama money strategy, it's a new bag of tricks in political circles, but for some of us, well, it's as old as a giveaway tote bag.

Here's Chicago Public Radio's Ben Calhoun.

BEN CALHOUN: The similarities emerged early. Last June, the Obama campaign sent an e-mail, quote, if you make a donation in any amount between now and 11:59 p.m., Wednesday, June 13, you could join Barack and three other supporters for an intimate dinner. For public radio listeners, that might sound familiar.

Unidentified Woman #1: Everyone who pledges today will be entered in an hourly drawing to win a Dahon folding bike.

CALHOUN: But the similarities between the Obama e-mails and public radio pledge drives go further. June 28, 2008, if you make your first donation right now, you'll receive a special gift. Make a donation of $15 or more and show off your support with an Obama-logo car magnet not available anywhere else. Perhaps you've heard that before.

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Unidentified Woman #2: Three reusable Chicago Public Radio nylon shopping bags.

CALHOUN: All sorts of thank-you gifts at different levels.

Unidentified Woman #3: Public radio diner mug, $100. What a deal, huh?

CALHOUN: Then there's the matching. The Obama campaign sent an e-mail, February 25, quote: If you give as part of our matching program, a previous donor will double your impact by matching your gift. That's another technique you've heard somewhere else.

Unidentified Man: Dollar for dollar matches.

Unidentified Woman #4: Your pledge of $50 is $100.

Unidentified Man: Double your pleasure, double your funding.

CALHOUN: There's also tons of language about people giving whatever they can afford and how the campaign needs you, needs your donation. Familiar, right? Here's "This American Life" host and pledge-drive veteran, Ira Glass.

IRA GLASS: If you're even hearing me say these words, we mean, okay? We do mean you.

CALHOUN: Public radio fundraising experts say some of these similarities are just basic sales techniques, but that's not the whole story.

Mr. JOHN SUTTON (Fundraising Consultant): What makes political fundraising more like public radio fundraising today is the ability to broadcast and get an immediate response.

CALHOUN: John Sutton may be the leading consultant for public radio pledge drives. He sees two things going on here. For one, the fundraising e-mail is much more like radio or television, reaching huge audiences instantaneously.

Mr. SUTTON: The e-blast is the equivalent of having a broadcast signal.

CALHOUN: Sutton says Obama's reported 5-million-person e-mail list is essentially a giant radio station. He says the other thing that makes broadcast fundraising effective in e-mail is that both urge immediate action.

In radio, you hear the phone number; in e-mail, there's the embedded donate-now button.

Mr. SUTTON: It turns every computer into a cash register.

CALHOUN: Republican fundraising consultant Dan Morgan(ph) agrees with all that. Morgan says he thinks Obama's strong support among young voters has helped him exploit this new intersection of e-mail and broadcast.

Mr. DAN MORGAN (Fundraising Consultant): They're the ones that buy things over the Internet. They're the ones who spend their time looking at Web sites. So this is quite an easy thing for them to push that button, put their credit card in there, and you'll get that contribution quickly.

CALHOUN: But Morgan warns that technology is changing so quickly, next election it could be donations on cell phones or text messages.

Mr. MORGAN: Someday we might have chips implanted in our brains where we could just think of something, and it's going to happen.

CALHOUN: So you'll just be able to think your pledge, if you want that tote bag. For NPR News, I'm Ben Calhoun in Chicago.

SEABROOK: We called the Obama campaign about his purported public radio connection. They refused to comment.

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SEABROOK: It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

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