• by Nina Lentini , Staff Writer @Nina_Lentini, January 16, 2020

Here's something I bet a lot of people didn't know. The number one topic at any panel of Republicans talking about online grassroots fundraising is ActBlue, the nonprofit technology organization established in 2004.

That's according to Patrick Stevenson, Chief Mobilization Officer for the Democratic National Committee (right), who spoke with Events Editorial Director Steve Smith at MediaPost's Marketing Politics in Washington, D.C. "They are obsessed," he said, explaining that ActBlue raised over a billion dollars in 2019. It also has a list of 8.2 million Democrats who have saved their donation information online. The eventual Democratic nominee will benefit from that, Stevenson said, likening the graph line to a hockey stick. "Come September, October, it will explode."

That "plug and play" is of necessity since there is no clear front runner among the Democratic candidates. 

"This time last year we talked about having a year to get ready. We did a lot of structural things. We switched mass mailers, revamped our social analytics platform. I'm glad we did it in 2019 because there's no time now."

The DNC is developing easily transferrable assets. "One thing that we really can provide for them are volunteer and donator lists."

Stevenson pointed to the committee's improvement of its email program. "We're being smarter about not sending it to everyone on our list. We listened to user behavior." As for SMS, he said the open rate is vastly higher than it is with email so it is working on the same personalization on texts as on email.

Still, one imagines, it must be nice to know who your nominee is.