August 27, 2003
Dean "Breaks the Bat"

If you saw my earlier post about Howard Dean’s challenge to his grassroots to raise $1,000,000 in microcontributions during his “Sleepless Summer Tour” (which started Saturday and ended yesterday), you may be wondering if they pulled it off.

The short answer is: yes, they did.

I think it was 9:51 or 9:53 pm ET that we hit $1 million dollars, raised during the Sleepless Summer Tour. The excitement was incredible down here in Bryant Park. At 9:58, as you can see from the bat, 17,115 Americans had raised $1,003,620— doing better than what George W. Bush raised from the special interests at his exclusive fundraiser in Portland last week. And now for the last bat update: as of midnight, 17,717 Americans have contributed $1,032,903.94 to the Raise a Million against Bush challenge.

(That will be our last bat update for a while.)

You have demonstrated that the American people have the power to change the way politics is done in our country.

Not bad for a few days’ work! Note that the final numbers above indicate an average contribution of only $58 — a true testament to how powerful aggregating microcontributions can be.

Posted by Jason Lefkowitz at August 27, 2003
Comments

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but a million bucks is just a few days' fuel for the campaign. You can blow that on one day's TV buy.

The real value isn't the money, it's the buy-in: People feel a real connection to the campaign, and the man, and evangelize for him.

*That* is worth millions all by itself.

Posted by: Dave on August 27, 2003 3:33 PM
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