At the request of one of our candidates, we've added an "Event Code" field to the secure donation page.

This field can be used by donors to earmark their donations for specific fundraising events established by the campaigns. The data in this field can be accessed by campaigns through the Slatecard Take Control Portal. If you're a campaign and need access to your Take Control account, email us at TEAM at Slatecard.com.

 

Slatecard has just made two big announcements (more information below):

1. Slatecard's credit card processing fees have been reduced to 3.95%. 
2. Beginning August 15, all donations will be transferred via direct deposit to candidates and organizations.

To utilize the new direct deposit feature, candidates and organizations should immediately download, complete, and return this application.

1. Processing Fee Reduced to 3.95%

As you know, our goal at Slatecard has always been to provide the most cost-effective online processing solution for Republican candidates and causes. To that end, we are pleased to announce that effective today, we have reduced our flat, online credit card processing fee to 3.95%.

As always, using Slatecard to exclusively process your online donations means:

• The lowest processing fee in the industry (in some cases by as much as 6-8%).
• No Set-up, monthly, or per transaction fees.
• Accept Visa/MasterCard/Discover/American Express.
• Accept monthly recurring donations.
• Safe, secure and reliable.
• Free tools to help empower your community to fundraise on your behalf.
  

2. Direct Deposit Available: Sign-Up Today

Beginning August 15, all donations to a campaign or cause will be transferred electronically to their respective checking account on a weekly basis. Download, complete and return this form to sign-up.

By eliminating paper checks, we’re reducing processing and mailing costs, ensuring 100% reliability of transferred funds (no lost checks), reducing our impact on the environment, and increasing our ability to ensure that organizations have their money as quickly as possible.

In order to make this a viable, long-term service for all candidates and causes, the organization will be charged a fee of $0.50 per electronic funds transfer. If the organization receives regular donations, it should expect to pay $2.00 total each month (four electronic funds transfers).

After August 15, we will no longer be issuing paper checks.

All Slatecard users are responsible for downloading their donor information for any relevant reporting requirements via the Slatecard TakeControl Portal. If you do not have access to this portal, please email us (team AT slatecard.com) immediately.

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've just announced the deployment of the Take Control candidate portal which verified contacts for candidates and committees will be able to login at takecontrol.slatecard.com.

Take Control (Version 1.0) is software which provides candidates a secure interface to the Slatecard system. Once logged in:

• Candidates will be able to update their unique profile page that includes their picture, a short 120-word biography, and links to their campaign website and several social networking profiles like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn, Eventful, Meetup, and Wikipedia.
• Candidates will be able to access their donor information in a text or excel file in real-time and access donor analytics, showing the candidate the issues driving donations to their candidacy.
  

Here's the full press release (PDF): 
Slatecard_PressRelease_11202007.pdf (192.11 kb)

Candidates who woud like to get started with Take Control should email TEAM at Slatecard.com to get started.