Six months ago we launched Slatecard.com.
My co-founder, Sendhil Panchadsaram and I wanted to build a new kind of utility for activists on the Right. A platform built on pillars of innovation, fairness, openness, honesty, and transparency. A website platform that could finally counter the Left's ActBlue, and do even much more.
Today, we're pleased to announce that we've crossed the $300K milestone and have nearly 5,000 individual donors on our list.
* Total: $310,363.58
* Supporters: 4,942
To be sure, we've made great progress without any resources. Though some political operations have the luxury of being funded with millions of dollars from big donors or make a profit by charging ridiculous credit card processing fees, we've done things a little bit differently.
From day one, we have "charged" a flat 4.5% credit card processing fee -- and we've been honest with you and our candidates about that cost. We've never charged a monthly or set-up fee to candidates. And a majority of that processing fee goes to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and our merchant account fees. We've relied on the Slatecard community for donations to keep the operation up-and-running.
And remember, our goal is to get this processing fee even lower. We're working on it.
On the financial side of things, we're pretty deep in debt. As you may imagine, running a comprehensive, 100 percent volunteer operation like Slatecard is tremendously expensive.
If you want to ensure our continuity and help our effort succeed, I'm hopeful you'll consider making a generous donation of $250, $100 or even just $25 to Slatecard.com PAC today.
We value the early adopter candidates who use Slatecard. In fact, 39 federal candidates are using Slatecard exclusively to process their online donations. They are a huge part of contributing to our early success and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude for believing in us. We will not let them down and we hope to double this number before the election is over.
And you can see how the Slatecard utility has empowered candidates themselves to use the Internet smarter through our top Slatecard: Iraq Veterans For Congress, who have collectively raised more than $12,000 for each other by working together as a team. Their effort is even getting noticed by media hubs like the Wall Street Journal.
Which leads me to what's in store through this election and how you can help impact our vision for 2009.
Through 2008, you may notice a few upgrades particularly with regard to the candidate's secure donation page. They've asked for changes and we're going to make them. There will be some other changes that we'll let you know about on the blog.
As always, we need your help to spread the word on a continuing base. Please consider forwarding our emails around to your friends and ask them to join up at Slatecard.
We have a vision for what Slatecard will be in 2009, but we need your help today to make it even better.
Consider this an open invitation for you to send your ideas -- no matter how big or small -- regarding what you hope Slatecard will be in 2009. We're planning a strategy session in the near future and we promise to review every single idea that comes in.
Want to add your picture and website to your Slatecard? How about a directory for Slatecards and a featured list of Slatecards? State and local candidates? Want to be able to completely remove candidates from your Slatecard? More widgets?
Look, I promise, we are listening. Send me an email and let me know your wish list. If possible, please try and flesh out your request as much as possible and put them all in one email. Take some time and think about it. Make a solid argument.
Today is the first day of the next six months, and we're glad that you're a part of this effort. Thank you for your continued support.