If you're sick and tired of high gas prices and our nation's growing dependence on foreign oil, you should check out Newt Gingrich's "Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less." online petition at AmericanSolutions.com.
 
This petition is a great way to send a loud and clear signal to Congress that we should not only aggressively look for alternative solutions to oil and invest in green technology, but that we also need to explore domestically. The time to do so is now.
 
At Slatecard, we've always had an "Energy Independence" issue badge because we know you support this issue; but today, we added the "Drill Here. Drill Now." issue badge.
 
And boy is it popular.
 
A quick look at the Ticker on the homepage of Slatecard tells us that Anonymous gave the badge to New York candidate Lee Zeldin through the Iraq Veterans for Congress Slatecard.
 
And Ralph gave the badge to the Senate Conservative Fund (Political Action Committee headed up by U.S. Senator Jim DeMint) with the note, "So much at risk, so little time, so many wimps!"
 
An issue badge is a great way to tell the candidates you support that this is an issue you care about RIGHT NOW.
 
Today, Senator John McCain laid out a comprehensive plan to address America's energy crisis which includes among many other commonsense solutions, lifting the federal moratorium on exploring for oil reserves on the Outer Continental Shelf. It's about time!
 
If you support this initiative, I hope you will consider making a $25 contribution to John McCain right now and assign the Drill Here. Drill Now. issue badge with your donation.
 
Solving America's energy crisis won't happen due to an online petition or a donation to a candidate, but it's just a few of the ways to help bring more attention to this important issue. And that's a step in the right direction.

Last week we asked our community to help us select the issue badge that best represents Barack Obama.

You can see the final results here. 

The Slatecard community has voted and we have listened. Here is the latest issue badge to enter our system:

There's only one appropriate way to welcome Barack to Slatecard.

Will you help us check out this new badge by making a $25 donation to John McCain right now?

He could use the help.

Will you help us select the issue badge which will best represent Barack Obama by choosing both the badge and slogan in our online poll? 

 

 

And while you're here, don't forget to make an immediate contribution of at least $25 to John McCain right now!

We are pleased to announce the release of our latest Issue Badge: Support Our Veterans. 

This brings our total to 31: 

Last week at CPAC we asked conservatives walking by our exhibit booth to take the CPAC Slatecard.com Pulse. The Pulse was a quick poll where conservatives selected their choice for the Republican nominee for president and then assign an "Issue Badge" to describe why they were supporting that candidate.

Well the results are in and with 289 votes cast, conservatives at CPAC have spoken.

With 151 votes, John McCain came away the clear winner of our CPAC Pulse, followed by Mike Huckabee with 92 votes and Ron Paul with 46 votes. 

But what's most interesting are the top issues driving support to the candidates.

 

For those backing John McCain the top issue by far was "Protect & Defend America":

 

But for Mike Huckabee his supporters top issue was "Faith & Values":

And for Ron Paul's backers, it was "Cut the Pork":  

 

Of course, the cool thing about Slatecard is that when you donate to a candidate, we ask donors to tag your donation with an issue badge that explains why you're supporting them. It works the same way as the poll folks took at CPAC. For more information about issue badges, read this blog post.

Here's a short video explaining how Slatecard works:

Campaign Managers and Candidates:  Imagine logging in to a web-based dashboard every morning to see which issues have been driving donations to your campaigns. You could use that information for smarter, more effective online and offline donor prospecting.
 
Slatecard Community:  Imagine being provided opportunities to support the candidates who best represent the issues that you support -- similar to how Amazon.com is able to recommend books that you might like based on previous history and similar users. Regardless of geography, you would find the candidates that are your kind of candidates who stand up for the issues that matter most to you.
 
These visions are about to become reality through Slatecard's Donor Analytics™

 

 

The following is a memorandum previewing the revolutionary innovation and value of Slatecard Donor Analytics^TM. And remember, Slatecard is the most cost-effective solution on the market for Federal candidates, committees and Causes. Republican candidates, committees and conservative Causes interested in getting started with Slatecard.com, the most cost-effective solution for processing online donations, should email Team@Slatecard.com.

Download and Take It With You: SlatecardDOTcom_Memo-DonorAnalyticsReport-01292008.pdf (505.96 kb)

Memorandum
To: Interested Parties
From: David All, Executive Director, Slatecard.com PAC
Date: January 29, 2008
Re: Previewing Donor Analytics™

Since its launch on October 8, 2007, the Slatecard.com community raised $151,318.52 through January 23, 2008 for Republican candidates, committees and conservative Causes from 1,845 grassroots activists throughout the nation. The average donation has been $82.01.

While seemingly similar websites have merely served as an “online shopping cart” for political candidates, Slatecard has always been much more. Slatecard is a utility to support and enhance Republican activism. Upon its launch, Wired.com labeled Slatecard a “Facebook for Republican campaign donors.”

One of the most important innovations leading to Slatecard’s early success has been the deployment of “Issue Badges.”

When someone makes a donation through Slatecard.com, the donor is asked to assign an “Issue Badge” after the donation has been authorized which represents the issue that drove the donation to that candidate. By doing so, the donor is helping qualify candidates based on the issues they represent. The innovation of Issue Badges is an intellectual property asset of Slatecard.

We currently have 30 issue badges loaded in the system:

 

DISCLAIMER: It is our hope that the following analysis merely provide a glimpse of what the Slatecard.com utility could provide to Republicans and conservative Causes. We recognize that the sample size of which this analysis is based is likely not statistically accurate.

What are Donor Analytics™?
Along with FEC-required contact information, through our Take Control Portal, candidates, committees and Causes can access the issues that are driving donations to them from grassroots activists. Eventually, these reports will be automated through Slatecard Donor Analytics™.

If used effectively, this free tool can help build a smarter, more effective donor prospecting strategy.

By analyzing data collected from the Slatecard.com community, we can identify the issues that are driving donations to Republican candidates, committees, and conservative Causes. It should be noted that not every donor assigns an issue badge to a candidate. The following analysis is based on 477 assigned Issue Badges for a total of $54,187.17 collected from October 8, 2007 – January 23, 2008.

As donor volume increases and donors better embrace the Issue Badges process, we expect the statistical sampling of these reports to improve in quality. Further, some issues, such as immigration in the broad sense, have several issue badges (Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Secure Our Borders, and No Amnesty) which could affect the outcome of this report.

Also, we plan to randomize the placement of issue badges in the very near future so that the default issue badge is not “Conservation of Resources.”

The Issues Driving Donations
One of the more interesting observations is the average donation size for individual issue badges assigned to recipients. One might label this average a “value” for a donation. 

When reviewing the chart below, the methodology should be noted (Issue Badge Total / Frequency = Avg. Donation).

 

 

Top Issue Badges By Frequency

1.    Cut The Pork: 54
2.    Pro-Life: 48
3.    Protect & Defend America: 46
4.    Jobs & Economy: 36
5.    Conservation Of Resources: 33

 

 

 

Top Issue Badges By Total Dollars

1.    Protect & Defend America: $9,435.99
2.    Cut The Pork: $6,593.00
3.    Available and Affordable Health Care: $4,825.00
4.    Jobs & Economy: $4,337.00
5.    Defeat Radical Islam: $3,525.00

 

We have added the "No Amnesty" issue badge to the mix, bringing our total to 30.

This badge has been added to offer more choices to those interested in supporting candidates and causes with regard to illegal immigration.

We will be formally announcing the Slatecard Causes program later this week; however, the Minuteman PAC is the first cause and is operational. In short, we are pleased to announce that Slatecard will be helping raise funds and encourage grassroots activism for the Right kind of Federal Political Action Committees (PACs).

To be considered in the program early, email us at Team AT slatecard.com.

Here's all 30 issue badges:

 

On Monday, we asked the Slatecard community to vote in an online poll to help us choose an issue badge to represent "Freedom."

Here are the results of that poll:

 

Before Slatecard, when an online contributor donated to a candidate online using a commercial vendor or a site like ActBlue, the process ended for a user with submission of the credit card data. But by contributing to candidates through Slatecard, users are able to qualify candidates by assigning that candidate an issue badge. The badge does not have any monetary value but rather represents the issue the contributor feels the recipient candidate represents well.

Therefore, Slatecard users will effectively create a qualified Wiki of candidates that the community will later be able to use to find those candidates, regardless of geography, that support the issues that they care about.

Ultimately, we expect this innovation to increase overall support for candidates by leveraging the collective knowledge of the community. Therefore, we're not only supporting activism, we're enhancing it.  

 

UPDATE Jan. 9, Noon: Voting is now closed. The winner will be announced shortly. 

Issue badges are the revolutionary way we help qualify candidates on the issues that matter most to us. To find out more about issue badges, read this post.

At the request of the community, we are adding a "Freedom" issue badge to the mix which will bring the total up to 29.

Please help us choose which badge best represents "Freedom" by voting in the online poll below. The badge which receives the most votes by Tuesday, January 8 at Midnight (EST) will be the badge we add to the system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a heads up that we've revised the "Immigration Reform" badge to literally say, "Comprehensive Immigration Reform."

After tracking how the "Immigration Reform" badge was being used by donors, it was clearly not being assigned for its intended purpose.

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