About 5 years ago, I remember sitting in a University of Iowa computer lab and getting an email from Howard Dean issuing the 'Cheney Challenge'.
Dick Cheney and his oil buddies were having a $2,000 per plate fundraiser that weekend, so Gov. Dean had a $5 sandwich online fundraiser and asked, "could supporters raise more money than Cheney by the time Cheney's luncheon took place?" The luncheon event raised $250K from a couple hundred people while the online campaign (an idea which originated from a post on the Blog for America)pulled in over $500K from nearly ten-thousand donors.
Since then, the internet has fundamentally changed politics as tens of thousands of house parties, phone banks, and door-to-door canvasses have been organized. Nationally and locally online organizing has built communities of activism throughout the country and will continue to do so for years to come.
Join DFA tonight at 8:30pm EDT as DFA Night School returns for an hour with one of the pioneers of the Netroots movement: Zack Exley.
www.democracyforamerica.com/onlineorganizing
DFA Night School: Online Organizing w/ Zack Exley
Wednesday, August 20th
8:30pm Eastern Daylight Time
www.democracyforamerica.com/onlineorganizing
Zack Exley was an early player in the Dean movement and later went on to work as Director of Online Organizing for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. After the 2004 election he worked with other online activists to found the New Organizing Institute.
We'll be talking about what works and what doesn't when it comes to organizing online as well as what are some of the new technologies poised to revolutionize campaigns of the future. We will also be taking your questions live on the program so be sure to sign up and listen in.
For those of you who've never participated in DFA Night School before, Night School is DFA's interactive online training program. Every month Night School brings top campaign experts right to your home at absolutely no cost to you. Simply visit www.democracyforamerica.com/onlineorganizing and sign up to learn how to listen to the call live on either your home computer or over the telephone. Then listen in live at 8:30pm EDT later tonight.
The training will last approximately one hour and will be accompanied by a slideshow you can view online or download and print out ahead of time.
The DFA Campaign Academy will be organizing these free online training sessions for progressives throughout the next several months. Check out our Night School home page to view previous Night School sessions and sign up for our upcoming trainings on Getting Out The Vote here.
How to Increase Voter Turnout w/ Donald Green
September 3rd
www.democracyforamerica.com/turnout
Building a Volunteer Base
September 10th
www.democracyforamerica.com/volunteers
Canvassing & Phonebanking
September 17th
www.democracyforamerica.com/votercontact
75 days and counting...it's time to get to work.
Diclaimer: I'm proud to be the Training Director at Democracy for America.