The Billion Dollar Man: Obama Campaign Broke Fundraising Records

A new report from TIME shows that fundraising for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign exceeded that of 2008, realizing over a billion dollars in campaign donations. 

Online donations also surpassed levels from Obama’s first run, up from $500 million in 2008 to $690 million in 2012.

“The reason is simple: the campaign brought in more small-dollar fundraising through email, social media, mobile and its website during the final months of the race than initially projected,” says TIME.

TIME also reports that Obama’s digital solicitation was quite successful, especially as the race narrowed and drew to a close:

Much of that digital campaign cash came in the final months of the campaign. September 2012, for instance, was a better month than September 2008 online. And in October 2012, when there was significant voter excitement and anxiety generated by the presidential debates, digital fundraising increased on a month-over-month basis, instead of decreasing as it did in 2008.

Facebook “likes,” Twitter followers, and other social media efforts were similarly more successful than efforts in the 2008 campaign.

TIME claims that “small donors” gave Obama his biggest gain, but Obama made the same claim in 2008. We’ll have to wait and see if the final tabulation and analysis lives up to TIME‘s claim that it was small donors that did the trick this year. 

President Obama may want to avoid calling too much attention to these “small-dollar” donations anyway; Breitbart News reported earlier in 2012 that a GAI report showed his campaign website lacked security features necessary to prevent illegal foreign donations with these types of transactions.