What we need to is to RETIRE the money bomb..

[ForLiberty2012]

This is such an ironic thread to make. I believe this was the first Money Bomb where we actually met our goal, and many are calling it a failure lol.

People are social beings, sometimes to do something which goes against their nature, i.e. donating money to a politician, is only possible when others join in and then it becomes exciting and compelling to them. I say a good 50-75% of our donors wouldn't do so on their own, for whatever reason, unless they got that psychological group push.

Two other interesting dynamics occur during money bomb events.

1. Big money donors get caught up in the excitement and usually double what they originally intend to give, or they double dip and give a second time later in the day.

2. Small money donors get off the fence and actually donate. They see their smaller contribution actually having impact.

^ Thread Killer. Close it down, lol

 

[No Free Beer]

I disagree. Look at it this way, you had 1 or 2 major money bombs in 07 08, but look how many weve had now...and look at how much weve raised. If we can consistently give Ron 500k or more...why would you stop?

 

[KingRobbStark]

I think we should have a contest between each state. It should last for a month, and the winning state will receive some sort of prize, or some type of regonition (like a visit from Ron Paul?). Or it could be a group of states vs another group of states. In my opinion competition is a great motivation.

 

[Indiana4Paul]

I think we should have a contest between each state. It should last for a month, and the winning state will receive some sort of prize, or some type of regonition (like a visit from Ron Paul?). Or it could be a group of states vs another group of states. In my opinion competition is a great motivation.

I like. How about a Blue State vs. Red State money bomb to highlight his crossover appeal? Or maybe its Blue State vs. Red State vs. Purple State?

 

[angrydragon]

Why not have the campaign do the traditional fundraising and also have the moneybombs from the grassroots' efforts?

 

[TomtheTinker]

The Campaign/ron paul could make a personal appeal to media figures and semi famous internet/t.v./radio personalities who support the message to help advertise a money bomb. imo these money bombs are huge successes being so early In the contest. To do away with with are main source of income..don't scratch it evolve the money bomb

 

[mconder]

Thread recap = Keep money bombs and think of some other creative ways to raise large sums of money. Hopefully we can have some new constructive fundraising threads now.

 

[newbitech]

People are irrationally obsessed with these money bombs because the first 2 were a real major success but they forget to ask why that happened and so they falsely, clearly, still have hope for a repeat.

There are a bunch of small reasons why that is but here are what I think were the 4 most important ones:
First and foremost back in 2007 it was something completely new, something no one else ever did so people had an immediate feel good factor about being part of something special giving them a lot of motivation to participate.
Second both the nov 5. and dec 16. had an emotionally strong underlying story of Guy Fawkes day and the Boston tea party which again a lot of the people identified with and were really strongly motivated to participate.
Third we had some awesome emotionally powerful promotional videos spread wide and far with hundred of thousands of views on youtube that spread the awareness.
And fourth there was this huge desire by the grassroots facing all the smearing and marginalizing and ignoring by the media to be heard and everyone felt like raising big money would be something they couldn't ignore anymore.

So when you objectively look at those reasons and you compare them to today, you can quickly discover that we will probably never repeat the same success we had with those first major two..

What about now?

IMO the money bombs are held way too often, the themes aren't inspiring enough, there are no excellent promotional videos on youtube viewed my hundred of thousands, and the grassroots still very much remembers the pain of the defeat in 08 and to top it off the media doesn't ignore us anymore.


Obviously anyone with some sense of rationality can deduce that the recipe for a majorly successful money bomb is clearly laking it's key components and we should either work on acquiring these components or if that isn't possible we should abandon the concept for a better and more successful one.

I'm personally of the opinion it's impossible to have all the needed ingredients ever again so I suggest we come up with a new scheme to replace the "money bomb", find a very emotionally inspiring reason to hold the fundraising event and have all the promotional aspects figured out.

I seriously hope that we the grassroots have enough rational people that can clearly see the evidence that the last few money bombs have shown us and we're capable of taking this evidence and doing the right thing. Otherwise we are no better than anyone else with an obsession and we will certainly fail in our endeavor.

The circumstances you lay out for the success of the 07 money bombs may never happen again, but who is to say a new set of circumstances won't trigger another record breaking day?

Speaking for myself, I have a lot less discretionary money now to contribute than I did in 07.

While I don't necessarily disagree that the grassroots should find something new and exciting, I think retiring the money bomb without that successor would be harmful.

I'd like to see a PM bomb. More symbolism, less fiat

 

[dspectre]

Hazek,

I don't think the Money bombs are a failure, but I do agree that it seems like we could take this thing up a notch. I think someone posted how there are tons of likes on facebook, and if those "likes" could be translated even into small donations we could have raised a huge amount of money.

I think one thing powerful about the money bombs is the ticker feedback. It's an emotional way of letting people know they are part of the success of a money bomb.

Money bomb or not, the question is how do you create something as comparable to it?

 

[davidt!]

I think the money bombs will once again become very big when the political season kicks into full gear and more people start getting involved. Especially if Ron Paul does very well in Ames and NH. It's still very early on and most people haven't even had the 2012 elections on their minds. Even still we have raised a significant amount of money for the campaign.

 

[newbitech]

...(snip) I think one thing powerful about the money bombs is the ticker feedback. It's an emotional way of letting people know they are part of the success of a money bomb.(snip)...

agree. One thing I miss about the old school money bombs was the part of the ticker that actually tracked how many individual donations there were. That was sweet.

 

[FreeMind&Market]

For those of us that have maxed out, can one of you wiz kids figure-out how to tie-in donations to Revolution PAC to appear in the "ticker"?

 

[newbitech]

For those of us that have maxed out, can one of you wiz kids figure-out how to tie-in donations to Revolution PAC to appear in the "ticker"?

who ever runs the site will need to do that. Donations to the Super Pac won't go through the same payment gateway, and probably won't land in the same account. So unless the campaign tracks it, it will be up to the Super Pac to coordinate internet donations on ticker days and provide a data stream. Then the two streams can be combined.

Super Pac needs to get with the campaign at the very least.

 

[MelissaWV]

I disagree. Look at it this way, you had 1 or 2 major money bombs in 07 08, but look how many weve had now...and look at how much weve raised. If we can consistently give Ron 500k or more...why would you stop?

The same people are donating repeatedly. Some of us are already maxed out and it's JULY. Given that it doesn't seem like the campaign wants to come up with any limit-busters, that leaves us funding random Chip-Ins and watching as more people either max out as well, or just run out of money to give.

There need to be new donors. There need to be limit-buster ideas so those who've maxed out can still contribute to the campaign instead of some road trip's beer money. There need to be good, new ideas in general.

The MB's can stick around, obviously, but they are stale and too close together. Save them for the ends of quarters. Save them for major events.

And for what it's worth? I would pay very good money to have Thanksgiving with the Pauls I wonder if anyone else would? Now THAT is a $1,000/plate dinner.

Thread recap = Keep money bombs and think of some other creative ways to raise large sums of money. Hopefully we can have some new constructive fundraising threads now.

QFT

 

[dspectre]

Just thinking about differences between now and 07....

One of the things that is a little lacking from 07 is the "newness frustration" factor. I think that combination was easy to draw inspiration....

The movement is a little more "grown-up", which is not a bad thing, but we need to be creative again.

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

Moneybombs are vital. These short fundraising events rally the troops. It's much more than just money, it's energy for the people. Do you think we'd have people sitting in front of their computers all day, aggressively pushing Paul's message, on any given day? Scattered, yes. But when we all combine in an effort, it makes a bigger impact.

Furthermore, it keeps Ron relevant. The media didn't really do much to emphasize Paul being the second highest GOP fundraiser, yet, his moneybombs generally got coverage because you don't find any candidate (outside of maybe Romney) who can come close to raising so much money in such a short period of time.

This is a spark for the fire, it's a spike of energy. We NEED the moneybombs.

I agree with this. I was on Twitter from wake to rest because there was so much clamor about the moneybomb. There was a decent amount of Facebook action too, and I don't think that level of excitement could have been matched otherwise. When people get tired of the grind of campaigning, another moneybomb is there to rally the troops and get some much-needed cash for Dr. Paul.

 

[johnald]

I'm not sure how possible the idea is but, We should combine the money bomb with an all day webcasted music event just like they did for ames but find more celibrities that share our views to attract a huge, diverse group of people who would otherwise never hear President Paul's message.
Maybe if we all send letters to our favorite bands or take a vote on a particular few and concentrate efforts on them we could get some Big names on board.
It seems like all of the previous points are good and just need to be combined into a one-time-never-to be-repeated-super-event like woodstock was.

A few ideas
Mumford and Sons
Dave Matthews Band
Coldplay
Thomas Woods
Peter Schiff
G Edward griffin
Joe Rogan to host
I'm admittedly out of the loop of who's popular right now so please throw your ideas out there!

 

[MarcNY]

Many people have also lost their jobs and homes.

 

[pacelli]

Like MelissaWV, I'm also maxed out and its July. So I won't be donating to any more RP2012 moneybombs. This is a phenomenon called "Donor Saturation". You've just simply run out of donors. The campaign is going to need more donors, plain and simple.

Perhaps our efforts as a grassroots should be in ATTRACTING NEW DONORS rather than having 20 page arguments coming up with another significant date? As far as retiring the money bomb... I agree that we should continue to be creative. I disagree about retiring it completely.


Another thing that's been under my skin regarding people saying that this money bomb is a failure (or implying that since it didn't make 6 million, it isn't worth having them any more):

It seems a little silly to me to use the ploy, "$1 now is like $5 later, DONATE NOW", and then give absolutely no recognition for the significance of it. If $1 now is like $5 later, then this $620,000 moneybomb actually raised $3,100,000 in the future.



Anyways, I digress. My point is-- when donors are saturated, the campaign stops. WE need to figure out how to get more donors. Stop thinking about the next money bomb ploy, or the totals, and start getting creative about how to attract fresh donors. And space out the moneybombs from now on-- quarterly at most.

 

[anaconda]

This is why I have checked out of money bombs. There was also too much decentralized difference of opinions. I found it monumentally frustrating. I decided to donate on my own schedule after the Revolution vs. Romneycare money bomb. I did decide to donate yesterday, however. OP is right. 2007 was the time for 2 big money bombs. That was then, this is now.