New Political Fundraising Totals Reported

I am in the silent majority: I am part of a two income family, I have an upside down mortgage and we are putting off buying that new car for yet another year. As I watch the progression of the 2012 presidential election and the financial reports that are being gathered, my mind is blown away at the magnitude of dollars being raised.

As I read articles commenting on President Obama’s $35,000 per ticket fundraisers (yikes, that could buy me a nice new car) to the donations raised for the candidates who have dropped out of the election, it seems there is plenty of money out there for political fundraising.

Midnight on Tuesday marked the filing deadline for campaign reports and here are the current statistics according to USA Today: Barack Obama has currently raised $139,526,311 (which includes contributions from individuals, loans, political action committee (PAC) contributions and other income). 41.9% of his donations are from small contributions under $200. Mitt Romney is in second place with $57,112,767 and 9.2% of that amount has come from small contributions. Ron Paul is next in line with $26,104,721 coming in from donor support (52% from small contributions). Newt Gingrich follows with $12,733,254 raised (49.2% from small contributions) and finally Rick Santorum brings up the rear with $2,184,953 (32.3% from small contributions).It is also interesting to note that the total amount raised for Republican candidates equals almost $157 million which exceeds Obama’s numbers (even if it took nine candidates to do it).

I am really impressed with the percentage of small contributions that make up almost half of many of the candidates’ fundraising bank accounts. With this being the first presidential election fully using the power of social media, I must say that I believe much of this financial support is due to this surge in technology. While the PACs are flexing their financial power, the individual small contributors seem to be holding their own.

Social media fundraising has never been easier, and Fundly is making strides in bridging the gap between casual internet use and donor involvement. Between Facebook posts, live Tweets being shared during debates and the State of the Union Address and ads on the internet, candidates are reaching their supporters en masse and it seems to be paying off.