Before anyone says, "We need to focus on December 16th" I know there's been a lot of debate over how to do these money bombs and I've generally heard two things from the argument:
1. December 16th is an important date and focus and/or money can't be taken away from it or the effect will be reduced.
2. December 16th is too far away, the momentum needs to be maintained.
I agree with both of these statements. There are 35 days between now and December 16th, that's five weeks! Five weeks without a major donation success may give the media the chance to call Paul the "one-day wonder" and write him off again. There needs to be something soon I think.
However, I certainly think the Tea Party has to be a huge success, much bigger than November 5th and any proposal for a mas expense will only hurt it.
So my compromise idea is to have a one-hour money bomb that gets $1 million from ONLY $25 donations. This will not leave much strain on most donors and people can easily make up for donors who can't make the amount. It also will be very easy for anyone to replenish the amount they donate.
To get $1 million it would take 40,000 donors, which may seem like a hefty order but 37,000 people donated on November 5th and there are 68,380 meetup members. If those meetup members all got ONLY $25 each and donated it they'd reach $1.7 million.
While I saw this idea propose earlier today, I actually got this idea from the Ron Paul Money Bomb people. Here's their site:
http://www.ronpaulmoneybomb.com/
They've been helping with November 5th and even today as well as making mass donations since mid-October. They're also donate every week and plan to work with the Tea Party and even do a Christmas drive.
Their stated goal has actually been 40,000 donors for $1 million a week, but so far they've managed only $30,000. I'm not calling for anyone to donate every week, but the idea would be to have people figure out a good day and hour in the last two weeks of November to donate and coordinate it with this effort.
This would require mass organization and coordination. All of the meetups would pretty much have to get involved.
This idea would actually have a lot of advantages:
1. $1 million in an hour would get amazing coverage and build up hype for December 16th.
2. It makes it much easier for less well-off people to get involved in the effort.
3. It would show the media that not only is Ron Paul's support broad and strong, but it's also incredibly well-organized. Pulling off a massive effort like this has to take a lot of coordination and if it can be pulled off it would prove to the media that Paul's supporters are more than just deep-pocketed activists.
4. It will serve as the ultimate stress test before December 16th. It is unlikely, no matter how big the tea party gets, that it will have 40,000 people donating in an hour or see $1 million in an hour.
5. It's not something any campaign is likely to be able to imitate at the grassroots level. A lot of campaigns are working on money bombs now and even if they're not as successful, if they pull in just a million they'll still diminish the significance of November 5th by showing any body can do it. However, I don't think there's any chance they can manage $1 million in an hour.
6. It could bring up the Fourth Quarter to about $10 million before November ends.
7. It would also make for a big mass donation day, with possibly $2 million raised the entire day or more.
8. It would bring up the month's total to around $7 million or more.
This effort would take a lot of coordination though because people will not be giving as much there'll need to be a lot of them donating very quickly. There'd also need to be some discussion between all the meetups overseas and in the continential U.S. so there could be a comprehensive timetable to work from so that everyone gets it in during that hour. Here's a map of all the meetups:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/about/
An hour that works for all of these people would have to be reached in order to make this a success.
Using e-mail lists and organizing people from November 5th and 11th would be one important way to do it. One important idea would to circulate a paper early on, at least a week or more before the day showing the time for the money bomb in every Time Zone.
It wouldn't have to be a direct donation either. I'm not sure if everything bought in the store counts as a donation, but if it does then buying Christmas gifts or getting someone to buy Christmas gifts for any Ron Paul fans who might not have a shirt or hat in that hour would be a great way of doing it. It would also be useful to buy a lot of slim jims in that hour to hand out to Christmas shoppers leading up to December 16th. Ron Paul's book would be a good Christmas gift that can be given to more than just dedicated Paul fans as well.
People could also find ways to raise $25 like odd jobs, some light work around the house for friends or family, recycling some to get a bit of the money, scrounging for chance. Whatever can be done and if you know someone who would be willing to donate online but can't for not having a credit card you can make the donation for them.
THe advantage of $25 donations is that they'd be easy to raise, easy to replenish, and in large numbers could still be incredibly effective. Again for anyone who wants to get a basic idea of what I'm talking about check out this site:
http://www.ronpaulmoneybomb.com/
1. December 16th is an important date and focus and/or money can't be taken away from it or the effect will be reduced.
2. December 16th is too far away, the momentum needs to be maintained.
I agree with both of these statements. There are 35 days between now and December 16th, that's five weeks! Five weeks without a major donation success may give the media the chance to call Paul the "one-day wonder" and write him off again. There needs to be something soon I think.
However, I certainly think the Tea Party has to be a huge success, much bigger than November 5th and any proposal for a mas expense will only hurt it.
So my compromise idea is to have a one-hour money bomb that gets $1 million from ONLY $25 donations. This will not leave much strain on most donors and people can easily make up for donors who can't make the amount. It also will be very easy for anyone to replenish the amount they donate.
To get $1 million it would take 40,000 donors, which may seem like a hefty order but 37,000 people donated on November 5th and there are 68,380 meetup members. If those meetup members all got ONLY $25 each and donated it they'd reach $1.7 million.
While I saw this idea propose earlier today, I actually got this idea from the Ron Paul Money Bomb people. Here's their site:
http://www.ronpaulmoneybomb.com/
They've been helping with November 5th and even today as well as making mass donations since mid-October. They're also donate every week and plan to work with the Tea Party and even do a Christmas drive.
Their stated goal has actually been 40,000 donors for $1 million a week, but so far they've managed only $30,000. I'm not calling for anyone to donate every week, but the idea would be to have people figure out a good day and hour in the last two weeks of November to donate and coordinate it with this effort.
This would require mass organization and coordination. All of the meetups would pretty much have to get involved.
This idea would actually have a lot of advantages:
1. $1 million in an hour would get amazing coverage and build up hype for December 16th.
2. It makes it much easier for less well-off people to get involved in the effort.
3. It would show the media that not only is Ron Paul's support broad and strong, but it's also incredibly well-organized. Pulling off a massive effort like this has to take a lot of coordination and if it can be pulled off it would prove to the media that Paul's supporters are more than just deep-pocketed activists.
4. It will serve as the ultimate stress test before December 16th. It is unlikely, no matter how big the tea party gets, that it will have 40,000 people donating in an hour or see $1 million in an hour.
5. It's not something any campaign is likely to be able to imitate at the grassroots level. A lot of campaigns are working on money bombs now and even if they're not as successful, if they pull in just a million they'll still diminish the significance of November 5th by showing any body can do it. However, I don't think there's any chance they can manage $1 million in an hour.
6. It could bring up the Fourth Quarter to about $10 million before November ends.
7. It would also make for a big mass donation day, with possibly $2 million raised the entire day or more.
8. It would bring up the month's total to around $7 million or more.
This effort would take a lot of coordination though because people will not be giving as much there'll need to be a lot of them donating very quickly. There'd also need to be some discussion between all the meetups overseas and in the continential U.S. so there could be a comprehensive timetable to work from so that everyone gets it in during that hour. Here's a map of all the meetups:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/about/
An hour that works for all of these people would have to be reached in order to make this a success.
Using e-mail lists and organizing people from November 5th and 11th would be one important way to do it. One important idea would to circulate a paper early on, at least a week or more before the day showing the time for the money bomb in every Time Zone.
It wouldn't have to be a direct donation either. I'm not sure if everything bought in the store counts as a donation, but if it does then buying Christmas gifts or getting someone to buy Christmas gifts for any Ron Paul fans who might not have a shirt or hat in that hour would be a great way of doing it. It would also be useful to buy a lot of slim jims in that hour to hand out to Christmas shoppers leading up to December 16th. Ron Paul's book would be a good Christmas gift that can be given to more than just dedicated Paul fans as well.
People could also find ways to raise $25 like odd jobs, some light work around the house for friends or family, recycling some to get a bit of the money, scrounging for chance. Whatever can be done and if you know someone who would be willing to donate online but can't for not having a credit card you can make the donation for them.
THe advantage of $25 donations is that they'd be easy to raise, easy to replenish, and in large numbers could still be incredibly effective. Again for anyone who wants to get a basic idea of what I'm talking about check out this site:
http://www.ronpaulmoneybomb.com/
