Fundly Political Index Shows Continued Online Fundraising Growth

Fundly is proud to announce that we have published the first ever index that measures the social fundraising activity across the social web during the 2012 campaign cycle. The candidates are consistently and creatively using social media to gain supporters and dollars and we are excited to be a part of this historical event concerning technology in partnership with the electoral process.

“Social fundraising” is a term that we use often, but for those who aren’t familiar, social fundraising is peer-to-peer fundraising leveraging Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media networks to share causes and create an opportunity to build engagement and increase donations through online communities. It’s connecting with donors through using the internet and accomplishing what time, energy and finances rarely allow.

With this in mind, many candidates are actively making social media part of their campaign strategy and Fundly is proud to be a part of this democratic process. Currently we have three presidential hopefuls as clients plus one thousand other political figures petitioning for various offices. Due to our political clientele on both party lines, we are able to accumulate facts and figures pertaining to online fundraising in a way that has not been possible in previous years. As such, we have found that by the end of January 2012 political online fundraising had increased 53 percent as compared to the previous year. Furthermore, we saw that the daily social fundraising volume in January exceeding December’s average volume by more than 350 percent.

“Social fundraising has become a driving force in political fundraising, as candidates ranging from President to town commissioner use social media in unprecedented ways to organize and activate their bases to help generate awareness, money and votes,” said Fundly CEO Dave Boyce.

As cliché as this may sound, the future of fundraising is now. From politicians to nonprofits, from school athletic departments to individuals helping terminal patients, online fundraising has incredible momentum that seems to be increasing with time and success rates.