First, I have worked for Grassroots Campaigns, the organization hired by the DNC to do the door to door stuff. Over the summer, there were 50 offices in dozens of cities around the country. Nearly every office covered its own costs, and many netted significant money. In all, there was a gross of around 22 million.
1. Grassroots Campaigns grossed around 22 million for the DNC. Sorry, I do not know the net. That is from over 750,000 donors, with somewhere over half of them new donors.
2. All the names and contact information was given straight to the DNC. They all went into Demzilla.
3. Many of the people who donated were recontacted (by Grassroots Campaigns sister organization, Telefund, and by other telephone fundraisers). These telemarketing calls raised even more money, at better cost efficiency.
4. Every one of the thousands of canvassers Grassroots Campaigns hired recieved at least some training. Obviously, not all of them worked for very long, but many did. Most of them were young people who will NOT work in politics, but if they were given a good experience this summer and fall, they are much more likely to be useful volunteers ten or twenty years from now. Party building is good, mmkay?
5. Grassroots Campaigns also ran the No Voter Left Behind program MoveOn ran. Many office directors, as well as experienced canvassers, were moved to that project.
So, for 22 million, from an organization that was not even in existance 12 months ago:
* Millions raised, some decent amount of cash netted
* thousands of trained staff, for now and the future
* hundreds of thousands of new names for Demzilla
* an infrastructure built that was used by MoveOn to run their field work, and is continuing today canvassing for environmental projects... and is hiring for field work for congressional races.
Obviously, a lot could have been done better. The organizational planning should have started three years ago, not 12 months ago. Coordination could have been better. Staff hiring could have been a bit more stringent, based on what I am reading here, and stories I have heard. On the institutional side, the DNC did not provide Grassroots Campaigns with credentials until the Boston Convention, which definately hurt. There always seemed to be shortages of critical materials, like forms and reciepts and t-shirts.
But overall, considering that no one had done grassroots political fundraising on this scale, ever, it seems to me to be a success. Yes, I'm biased, because I really do believe that face to face canvassing is actually more effective then net-based work, and because I worked for them. But when you look at what was accomplished in 12 months, I think it is impressive.
www.grassrootscampaigns.com
ps: This is my first diary, please be kind. Been lurking for years, but decided to throw my two cents in after Kos's post on the main page brought up an organization that I actually know something about.