She always asks for way more than that from me, but maybe that's because I've been contributing on and off as I could.

Maybe it is because I have not yet donated to her this cycle (I did make a small donation to her debt relief effort in December 2008).

I am on the fence about whether to give to Hillary, because I don't have a lot to give now and it feels like the amount I could give her would be a drop in the bucket for her, and the fact that she is asking for $1 makes me feel like she wants the donation more for show than because she actually needs my money. If I had more to give I would be happy to give to her, but I feel like the $20-25 per month that I can give would be better used down-ballot where the total cost of the race is less expensive.

I did sign up to volunteer for Hillary as a voter protection lawyer though, and cut my vacation last week short so I could save 2 vacation days to do that.

It's great you can do that. Thanks for signing up!

It all counts. It all matters.

Hope you'll think about giving a little dinero, but a hale and hearty THANK YOU for volunteering for voter protection! That's extremely awesome!

... to choose from an array of donation sums that are, not surprisingly, greater than $1. You get pitched the message of the day as well. If all you can afford is $1 or $5 you don't feel embarrassed and you get to participate. It's all good.

I doubt "processing" costs them much.

After January, though, I recommend unsubscribing to 99% of the appeals that come in.

I hadn't thought of it that way. I kind of took it as she wants the donations mostly for show, to obfuscate the percentage she is getting from large contributors. But your explanation also makes sense. I do find it really annoying when campaigns set the minimum suggested donation at more than I can afford and I feel embarrassed writing in a smaller amount, so from that perspective I like it. Maybe I will give her $5 or $10 when I get home today.

It's funny you mention the appeals after January. One of the reasons I have hesitated to donate is because of how they share the information with everyone and even sell it to commercial marketers. I am going to call and ask if there is a way to give without agreeing to that. Although I ended up getting on her list anyway when I signed up for voter protection, so it may not matter.

...for any number of worthy causes and lived to regret it. And then there were the candidate sites that were to directly benefit the candidate's causes. All good stuff. But by the time I called a halt last year I was getting 50 emails a day I had not asked for!

So I unsubscribed to everything but 2 or 3 of them. I still want to know what Obama thinks is important, for instance. I had to keep unsubscribing for awhile to make sure they got the message, but in the end my inbox felt much better.

Something is better than nothing. Nothing to be ashamed of. I think it is ingenious, actually. I am guessing that a WHOLE LOT more people would donate $5 or $10 than waiting for someone to donate $50 or $100.

they know they have a "live" email address and someone who is at least interested in contributing. The next time they'll ask for more.

They can report every donor as an individual donor, it brings the average donation per donor down, and it gives them your contact info.

On the less cynical side, it sends the message that every little bit counts and that they care about every donation.

Mainly because I used to work for a political fundraising and advocacy organization so I know a lot of the tricks.

Politics is a very cynical business. Or, as I prefer, "realistic." I suspect that it is both. And why not? Winning matters, right?

I do like that she is asking for small amounts so that people who want to give less than $25 don't feel embarrassed about it. I could even understand asking for $5. But asking for $1 seems like it has some other purpose besides funding her campaign.

even on the same day. It helped keep his average down, too.

But Bernie did not actively seek out token contributions just to lower the average. I would bet that even if you looked at the total someone gave throughout the cycle, the average for Bernie would be under $100.

I'd also add that if they get X number of $1 dollar donors, they can claim X thousands of people donated to the campaign.

say Clinton raised $60 million for August from 1 million donors, but then another 1 million people give $1 each - you now have 2 million people giving $51 million, for an average of $25.5 per donation. A $25 donation is realistic for a lot more people than $60 or $100.

I have gotten at least 3 such e-mails in the past week.

But most will probably give at least $5 or 10. And next time even more.

Besides the little bit to reply to this thread.

She can ask for whatever she wants, I am cool with that.

I am also cool with folks who choose to give or not. It's their money.

Most of the fundraising solicitations I get are using the same template--$1 to start.

I got an e-mail tonight from President Obama asking me to give Hillary $1, but when I clicked the minimum amount you could select was $5 (although you could obviously write in $1). I ended up deciding to give a small donation (but more than $1) for now. I will probably give more later in the cycle, but I also want to donate to a couple down-ballot races and to Baton Rouge relief.