President Barack Obama always believed in winning this election by grassroots efforts–by ordinary people taking ownership of the campaign. Thanks to a dedicated, tireless digital team, these supporters showed up online and in staggering numbers. In an exclusive report, TIME writes:
“…the Obama team raised about $690 million digitally in 2012, up from about $500 million in 2008, according to a senior campaign adviser. That number includes all contributions that were given electronically, including some donations that were generated by high-dollar fundraisers but logged through the website…In all, 4.4 million individuals gave to the Obama re-election bid, up from 3.95 million in 2008.
This success runs counter to the conventional wisdom, which held that Obama’s re-election campaign would struggle mightily to approach the enormous grassroots enthusiasm of his first presidential run. It is also a testament to the campaign’s leadership, including Messina, who invested heavily in digital efforts early, and the campaign’s digital team, run by Teddy Goff, Marie Ewald and Blue State Digital’s Joe Rospars, who were able to fine-tune their tactics and techniques for raising money electronically. It may also suggest that American voters over the last four years have become more comfortable with the idea of giving small amounts of money to a presidential campaign online.”
And if you add offline contributions into the count, the campaign expects to have raised more than $1 billion. Yes, that’s $1 BILLION! But it wasn’t only about reaching fundraising milestones, the digital team engaged users on social media–breaking records on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Dashboard–the campaign’s social network for supporters. Read here for the full story and the rundown of the numbers.