One of the challenges of running Slatecard is always having to be compared to a website on the Left, ActBlue, which has been operating four times longer than we have.

For example, even a good reporter like Matthew Mosk of the Washington Post makes the mistake of comparing the current standings/totals raised of ActBlue v. Slatecard. But doing so is like comparing apples to an apple seed. Trust me, I know the guys at ActBlue, they will be the first to tell you how hard it took them to get where they are today. 

Success does not happen overnight. There is no silverbullet.

Hopeful that we'll start seeing honest apples to apples comparisons, I left a comment on the post:

Matthew -

Indeed, ActBlue is a tremendous resource for the Left and no one would discount their current success. However, they will be the first to tell you that their success did not happen overnight. It takes dedication and time. You have to build the machine before it runs.

So I would respectfully note that this piece misinforms readers by comparing apples to an apple seed.

Let's try apples to apples for a go.

ActBlue's first election cycle (2004) they raised a total of either $791,900 or $890K depending on whether you want to source the Wall Street Journal or ActBlue. I blogged about it here. I still don't exactly know what they pulled in their first cycle except that it was less than $1M.

Slatecard, of which I'm a co-founder, hopes to raise more than a million this election cycle to beat ActBlue's first cycle. Yes, we have about half a million to go to meet our challenge.

Can we do it? I don't know. It is in the hands of the Republican community.

ActBlue has said it would pull in $100M this election cycle. How's that working out for them?

Look, we are working hard everyday on a volunteer basis to offer the most dynamic, cost-effective platform for Republican candidates.

And leaders like U.S. Senator Jim DeMint have embraced the platform because of its lowest-in-market processing fees and new tools it offers his campaign for FREE.

But at the end of the day -- successful at reaching our goal or not -- developing a tool that effectively empowers Republican grassroots activists and candidates is a win in our book.

I appreciate your focus on this space and I'm very hopeful that you'll better paint the picture for your readers by providing more historical analysis and context.

Revolution,

David All
Slatecard.com

At the RightOnline Summit in Austin, Texas -- Slatecard co-founder Sendhil Panchadsaram announced that on August 1 we were reducing our credit card processing fees from 4.5% to 3.95%. That's the same fee as ActBlue -- a similar utility used by Democratic grassroots supporters.

From the beginning, we've been committed to providing the most honest, transparent, and cost-effective online processing system for Republican candidates and the Right kind of causes. Looking at the other guys' fees, we've clearly been doing just that.

But we had hoped that as we increased our volume, we'd be able to negotiate lower fees, and we are pleased that we've been able to do just that.

To be sure, there are likely other credit card processing solutions that appear lower, but when you start reading the fine print, you find out that there's always a per transaction fee, typically a monthly fee to use the system, a merchant account fee, and many other costs which are "hidden" from the casual observer. For example, even in our system every time someone enters a credit card for processing we're charged $0.35 and a percentage -- ranging from around 2% - 3.85% depending on the type of card being used, e.g., check card, credit card, visa, mc, amex, discover, etc.

Further, rather than having a confusing, shifting variable rate, we believe our community of activists and candidates has a right to know exactly how much of their donation will end up going to its intended destination. And by bundling multiple contributions using a Slatecard - we're only charged one transaction fee which helps save us money and has helped us reduce these fees. (Trust me, as volume increases it adds up.)

The bottom line is that there's no such thing as a "free" credit card processing system but we're just about as close as you can get.

We're proud to be the most cost-effective processing solution for Republican candidates and the Right kind of causes. Our hope is that the community will recognize our good will and chip-in a few bucks every now and then to help us keep the system up and running and even provide some capital to help pay our bills and expand the platform. It's up to the community to help us stay viable and we're willing to work hard to make our supporters proud to have supported us.

Revolution.

Today marks 100 days until the general election in November and the conclusion of Slatecard's first election cycle.

We're still well away from our goal of raising more than $1 million in our first election cycle (which would be more than the Democrats raised through ActBlue in their first election cycle). However, we're hopeful that we'll be able to get there as the campaign season starts to heat up.

• $442,293.58 total raised
  
• 6,672 total donors
  
• $66.29 average donation
  

We're pumped about where we stand but we have work to do if we're going to beat the Dems online.

Carrie Sheffield has just posted a video story on how Democrats are using the Internet to raise money online and how the Right is working to catch up using Slatecard.com.

I have a small piece of the story.

On Friday, Nathan Gonzales, the Political Editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, wrote a story for Roll Call announcing that United States Senator Jim DeMint was the first Senator to embrace Slatecard to exclusively process his online donations for his campaign. I've pasted the Roll Call story (subscription req.) below for your review.

DeMint Embraces Online Fundraising Tool

July 11, 2008, 1:46 p.m.
By Nathan L. Gonzales
Roll Call Contributing Writer   

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has agreed to use the Republican Web site Slatecard exclusively for his fundraising.

DeMint, one of the most tech-savvy Members of the Senate, is the first Senator to utilize the popular Web site. And it's just an extension of his efforts to reach constituents, voters and donors through the Web.

"Sen. DeMint is excited about new technologies that allow direct and dynamic communication with people in South Carolina and throughout the country," DeMint Communications Director Wesley Denton said.

DeMint, the chairman of the Republican Steering Committee, has a sleek Senate Web site, where he and his staff blog. The site also has six separate regional blogs maintained by staff and accessed by inputting a county or ZIP code. He used YouTube to respond to President Bush's most recent State of the Union address. And he has a Twitter account, but it's just a feed from the blog on his campaign Web site, not a minute-by-minute breakdown of his daily activities.

The former owner of a marketing company, DeMint has engaged the blogging community and embraced the Internet has a strategic and marketing tool.

He committed just a few days ago to Slatecard and has taken in $3,581 from 12 contributors. But his race for a second term isn't until 2010.

The move could give the Web site a boost. DeMint is a star within conservatives in the caucus. He raised $9 million in 2004 and will raise more next cycle. DeMint is also using the site to raise money for his political action committee, Senate Conservatives Fund.

Slatecard, considered the Republican equivalent of ActBlue on the Democratic side, has taken in about $411,000 since its inception nine months ago. The goal of the site's founders is to raise $1 million for the cycle.

ActBlue was founded in 2004 and has taken in $56.8 million since. According to the Wall Street Journal, the site took in nearly $792,000 in its first cycle.

The top Republican fundraiser on Slatecard thus far was Kevin O'Neill, who raised $64,744 from 126 contributors by using Slatecard exclusively for all his fundraising for the special election last fall in Virginia's 1st district. He lost the GOP nominating contest to Rep. Rob Wittman (R).

The site was co-founded by David All, a former communications director to Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), and San Diego software developer Sendhil Panchadsaram. All is also the founder of TechRepublican.com.

A few weeks ago, the Left's ActBlue team announced on their blog that they had raised more than $50M for liberal candidates and committees since their launch four years ago. To be honest, this is quite an impressive fete and is credit to the hard work and dedication of the ActBlue community which their staff has worked hard to support. I'm willing to tip my hat in their direction and acknowledge what they've done.

However, there was one little nugget in their press release that I've been thinking about quite a bit. You see, they decided to take a little swipe at Slatecard.com, the Republican counter to ActBlue.

From their release:

ActBlue's nearest Republican counterpart, Slatecard.com, has raised $350,000 since 2007. (For comparison, ActBlue raised more than $890,000 in its first six months of operation.)

But according to this Wall Street Journal (no subscription needed) grapic, ActBlue raised $791,900 in 2004/the 2004 election cycle:

Let's be the better people and collectively agree that ActBlue raised somewhere between $790-$890K in the 2004 election cycle and let them clarify the inaccuracies.

Making an apples-to-apples comparison -- first election cycle to first election cycle -- could Slatecard outraise ActBlue's 2004 election cycle? Could we raise $1 million dollars by the end of this year?

I believe so and I'm hoping the Slatecard community joins us in beating ActBlue's first cycle by raising more than $1M in our first election cycle (2008).

Reaching this goal will not be easy. We are more than $600K away from breaking $1M.

TOTALS:

• $397,869.48
• 6,280 donors
• $63.36 average donation
  

So look, I'm willing to do everything in my power to help make it happen. I believe we can raise more than $1 million and beat ActBlue.

In fact, if every donor makes a $100 donation right now , we'd break their goal today.

But we're going to have to do it alone. You, me, we, us -- the Slatecard community.

We can't count on "big donors" who give hundreds of thousands of dollars and want a handshake grip picture with a candidate next to a flag. We can't count on any help from anyone.

It's up to us to make it happen.

To reach our goal, simply contribute money to any Republican candidate in our candidate directory, give money to a Cause you believe in, or make a contribution to Slatecard to keep this site up and running. If you're looking to contribute money to a Republican candidate -- do it here. Trust us, your contribution, name, address, etc. will be sent to the campaign so you'll be noted in their books as a supporter.

The time to step up to the plate and beat the Democrats at their own game is now.

We need to win this one for the team.

I have a lot of Facebook friends. 1,200 or so.

I bet you're in the same boat.

The one thing I'm really sick of receiving are invites to events and gatherings which are meant to raise money for DEMOCRATIC candidates. And, of course, every Democratic baby bundler uses ActBlue. Natch.

For example, here's a reminder to an event I received yesterday helping to bundle $50 contributions for the Democratic Nebraska Senate candidate at a fun bar in DC:

Quick reminder that Boots and Beer with Scott Kleeb is on Wednesday. (no boots actually required) We are all looking forward to an awesome event and can't wait to see you.

If you haven't already, please go to http://www.actblue.com/page/bootsandbeers and make a $50 contribution. You're welcome to write a check or make a credit card contribution there, but this is SO MUCH EASIER!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Alternatively, last night there was a fundraiser for John McCain (actually the RNC Victory Committee and a slew of other committees) on a rooftop -- typical Republican fundraiser.

I tried to get the crew organizing the event to use Slatecard for their fundraising efforts, letting them know about our referral mechanism which would give them credit for raising money and would continue to help both parties. I even said I'd help raise money for the effort from people who could care less about standing on a rooftop. Sadly, no luck.

Perhaps they didn't want to use Slatecard because it would have raised money for McCain in the Primary Election and they need it for the RNC's Victory Fund (which I'm still trying to figure out if Slatecard can raise money for the fund).

Regardless, it's these young professional Republicans who should be utilizing tools like Slatecard to help change the game for John McCain and our party. I can only stand atop this apple crate screaming at the top of my lungs for so long.

[Cross-posted to TechRepublican.]