Mediaboss Marketing

Republican presidential candidates have already been on the hunt for millionaire political patrons for months. But many are also making quieter, serious investments in pursuit of small online donorsa group that, for the first time, could play a major role in deciding the GOP's presidential primary.

With no clear Republican presidential front-runner, as well a bigger emphasis than ever on digital fundraising on the GOP side, candidates that can successfully harness that growing flow of dollars may end up better-placed to vault above the field. The new cash stream may enable some to survive without as many of the bundlers that traditionally power presidential campaigns, extend their efforts longer than in the past, and capitalize more effectively on the fleeting moments of stardom that strike in modern campaigns.

"This is going to be the first time in a Republican primary that there's been a significant role for grassroots giving," said Matt Lira, who was the deputy executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2014.

Republicans, led by Mitt Romney, raised millions online in 2011 and 2012, but Romney's financial advantage was so big that those donors mattered less to the outcome. They could have a bigger effect on the bigger GOP field this time, just as online giving did in the Democratic presidential primary in 2007 and 2008.

The GOP has put a new emphasis on improving its digital game, especially its email fundraising, and more of the party's donors are giving online than ever before. Republicans have traditionally done a good job collecting small donations via direct mail, but email is many times cheaper. On top of that, an early start building an email list may be critical for whoever actually wins the nomination.

None of this is lost on high-profile GOP hopefuls including Sen. Rand Paul and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walkerwho are already laying the groundwork to cash in on the growing pool of digital donations.

"It's vital, if you're running to win the presidency and not just the nomination, it's vital that any of these campaigns build a big list as soon as possible," Lira said. "Hillary [Clinton]'s obviously got Ready for Hillary and it'll be too late to build a competitive list by the summer of 2016" to be able to match the small-dollar donations that Clinton would likely be able to pull in from the donor list the super PAC is gift-wrapping for her.

Multiple Republicans cautioned that big donors will likely still be the most important parts of campaigns' early fundraisingnot just because of their ability to finance super PACs but because that's traditionally the easiest source of early money. Effective digital fundraising requires large email lists and typically ramps up toward the end of campaigns. But there is money to mine online if the right foundations are laid, and some candidates have already started building them.

"The right candidate is going to be able to raise tens and tens of millions online in their primary, and I think there's multiple candidates who have that potential," said Vincent Harris, a GOP digital consultant who worked with presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012 and is now working for Sen. Rand Paul. "That's a lot of money if you think it's going to cost $40 to $60 million to get through the beginning of the primary as some are speculating. So it's going to be a very important piece of this in terms of where campaigns are actually getting their resources from."

Another strategist working for a possible presidential contender put the estimate in terms of successful candidates' needs, not their capabilities. He said a viable campaign will need between $50 million and $75 million "by the time of the first couple of states"and that campaigns will need around 10 to 15 percent of that to come from digital, which works out to at least $7.5 million to $11 million online by around February 2016. Another person said the share could approach 20 percent.

Read more here:
GOP 2016 Hopefuls Race to Cash In on Small Online Donors