I've never had a drink with a billionaire. Probably because I tend to hang out in bars short on billionaires and heavy on cheap beer, free hot dogs and political palaver.
I have, however, had plenty to drink with bloggers. From the Blogger Alley we hosted during the 2004 RNC at The Tank (encapsulated by The New York Times description of Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos and Duncan Black, aka Atrios, sharing a broken down dorm-reject couch with a paper plate of cold crudite between them) to the happy hours at the recent YearlyKos conference, social bonds are a core part of the emerging progressive movement.
Yesterday, Don Hazen at Alternet and Mike Lux at OpenLeft both reviewed Matt Bai's The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics (which I have not yet read), and both identified what they saw as Bai's insider, Beltway bias as the source of his dim view of certain netroots leaders. While Bai has his opinion, my gut says: while there are some very good billionaires (and even pretty good Beltwayers) and there are some very bad bloggers, overall it has been the activists more than the investors or insiders that have energized this this people-powered movement...and bloggers more than billionaires that have emerged as our movement's leaders as they have helped propel Drinking Liberally (and now Living Liberally) -- and dozens of other innovative organizations and initiatives -- to national scope and successful sustainability.
I've been looking forward to reading Matt Bai's book, The Argument, for months now. In the circles I run- which include Democracy Alliance donors, netroots activists, and Clinton administration folks, all of which are central characters in the book- everybody was buzzing about it, and more than a few people were more than a little nervous about what he would have to say.
I have to say, from a pure reading pleasure point of view, it was worth the wait. I feared that it would be one of those books that, since I already knew most of the stories told in it, that it would be pretty boring- one of those books that I had to read to know what nasty thing he said about whom, but not something I would enjoy slogging through. I turned out to be wrong, because Bai is an engaging writer who can be very funny in his writing a lot of the time.
I know a lot of my posts tend to be on the long side, so I promise to keep this short, but I have a few random thoughts based on the responses I've been getting (personally and on OpenLeft.com) to my first post on this topic:
1. I really do feel like I sounded too dismissive in my first post of NPC, and that wasn't my intent. I think what they are trying to do with the PROI idea is intriguing and has potential for changing the culture of giving patterns, and I failed to convey that. The challenge for them is that, in the spirit of their founders and their home in Silicon Valley, they have a true venture capitalist model, and the results of their efforts will take a while to prove themselves, so it is too early to judge what they will accomplish. They are trying to do something that is difficult- make the culture of giving in progressive politics more sane- and they deserve credit for that effort.
2. It's been pointed out to me that we should give credit where credit is due, and thank the donors who already have supported the blogosphere in different ways. I don't know them all, but here's some to note:
-Rob McKay mentioned in his post that he has done so.
-I've been reminded by multiple people, including some of the recipients of their generosity, that Andy and Deborah Rappaport, in addition to founding NPC, have given substantial grants to great netroots-y groups such as ActBlue and NOI.
-Rob Johnson and Gail Furman have both been stalwart friends of the blogosphere.
-The Arca Foundation (which I'm on the board of) has given two sizable grants to groups helping bloggers.
There are others as well, including a fair number I don't know about, who have helped out in different ways. Thanks to all who have done their part.
3. I've been told that my post was fine regarding the big picture, but lacked a real world "next steps" section, especially for frontline bloggers writing away on issues with no access to sources of money. Good point, and I think all of us need to spend some time working through the realities of all this.
New Progressive Coalition and Democracy Alliance have both sent very thoughtful and interesting responses to my recent post on bloggers and donors, and I encourage folks to read them and respond. I like both of the posts a lot, and I think their ideas about how to move forward are useful. I have also gotten a lot of other constructive feedback from individuals in the donor, and plan to do another post soon on this topic. -Mike
"I believe that bringing these donors into a mutually beneficial relationship with the progressive blogosphere will happen, but that it will take a different kind of strategy and some patience before things change."
We couldn't agree more that it will take a different kind of strategy and patience to see real political change. The New Progressive Coalition (NPC) exists to solve some of the challenges of this broken, political capital market by helping to cultivate a new generation of progressive donors that want to be more strategically engaged in politics.
"The movement needs to show its long-term, tangible value-added to donors. A pitch to donors needs to be more than `we're really good people, and we do lots of great things, and we don't have enough money.'"
So how does someone measure the impact of their donation to a think tank or a blog? The PROI™ methodology delivers a greater transparency so that donors feel more comfortable investing in innovative political organizations and are able to understand the impact of their political contributions. It also allows organizations to better articulate the value of their work and gain insight into the process of how investments decisions are made.
"This is the life of a big donor. They get hit up constantly by just about everybody they know, including big name politicians, other donors, celebrities and heads of well-known organizations on a very regular basis."
Yes, the traditional major donors of the world are clearly overloaded with requests for donations and many are tired of being treated like ATM machines. The Democracy Alliance is doing an excellent job at engaging this group. NPC operates with a network philosophy and believes that it will take a variety of solutions to solve our complex political challenges. Our focus is not on these traditional major donors, but instead on growing and engaging a new generation of political donors.
"Another key thing to understand about the donor community is the typical demographic profile. They tend to be older, they tend to be extremely busy and they tend to have staff people (either for their work or for their philanthropies) hand-feeding them things to review: not exactly the profile of your average blog reader."
While the majority of the current funding comes from this small group of donors, there is a new generation who wants to become involved (or has tried to be involved in the past) but isn't being spoken to or engaged in a way that resonates with them. They are overwhelmed by too much information and don't have a strategic way to make decisions beyond getting recommendations from their friends.
By helping this demographic target their political and charitable time and money more effectively, we can engage and grow this new generation who can fund political organizations based on their merits and not just whether or not they have the right rolodexes.
New Progressive Coalition and Democracy Alliance have both sent very thoughtful and interesting responses to my recent post on bloggers and donors, and I encourage folks to read them and respond. I like both of the posts a lot, and I think their ideas about how to move forward are useful. I have also gotten a lot of other constructive feedback from individuals in the donor, and plan to do another post soon on this topic. -Mike
First of all, I would like to thank OpenLeft for the opportunity to respond to your post about connecting donors to the blogosphere, and offer some insight from one donor's perspective as well as some insight into the Democracy Alliance organization.
As a longtime donor to progressive causes and campaigns, I have witnessed the evolution of the progressive movement. As a Board member for a number of progressive organizations, including Mother Jones and the Ms. Foundation for Women, I've had valuable insight into the challenges facing organizations as they seek out individual donors for the multi-year funding that is crucial for building capacity. Over the years that I have been involved in the progressive movement as a donor and activist, the environment has changed significantly. I believe there are powerful forces and constituencies that are replacing the old guard and bringing new voices and new ideas into the process. I have grown frustrated with the approach of "targeting" voters through expensive television ads that often miss the intended audience by a mile. I believe that blogs, and other new media tools, are a more efficient way to reach voters and we must find ways to support this work. As an individual donor I have supported and will continue to support bloggers, and the use of new technology and the online space to reach critical audiences who are often missed by more traditional media.
Political events in 2000, 2002, and 2004 galvanized the progressive movement at all levels. Progressives came together across the country, in a variety of ways, to unite around shared beliefs and a shared desire for change. As a Democracy Alliance Partner since its founding in 2005, and Board chair for the past year, I've seen firsthand exactly how much we've accomplished in the two years since our inception and I'm heartened to see the movement expanding on all fronts.
The netroots community and blogosphere have grown in the last several years into a powerful force that was almost unimaginable just a few years ago. In the last two years the Democracy Alliance has begun to form a first of its kind community of donors committed to strengthening democracy by partnering with, making human and financial investments in, and fostering collaboration among leaders and institutions committed to building a sustainable progressive infrastructure.
In his post Mike correctly enumerated some crucial barriers to funding the blogosphere, and the near impossibility of realizing a significant impact by giving to individuals. However, those barriers are neither permanent nor insurmountable. As an individual progressive funder I, and others like me, will continue to fund bloggers and those who are making progressive change happen. As a Partner in the Democracy Alliance the goal is to fund collaboratively, and as the Chairman of the Democracy Alliance, we look forward to finding opportunities to support the entire netroots community through organizations and institutions that are enabling the long-term health and sustainability of the community.
I hope this marks the beginning of an honest and productive conversation between donors and the netroots, about how to leverage the power of both groups to move forward in a strategic and effective partnership.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, and the Democracy Alliance staff, I want to thank you again for the opportunity to share my thoughts.
There is a great deal of conversation in the blogosphere about why Democratic and progressive donors don't do more to support this movement. Bloggers are justifiably proud of the incredible added value they've brought to Democratic/progressive politics in the form of breaking important news stories that the media has ignored, shaping the debate on major issues that nobody else has done, identifying candidates early on that the Democratic establishment was ignoring and helping them go on to victory, recruiting tens of thousands of new volunteers for Democratic candidates and raising millions of dollars for the Democratic Party and progressive candidates. Bloggers have revitalized the Democratic Party and progressive politics, and yet for the most part, they are ignored by its major donors.
I wanted to share my perspective on this, as someone who knows and has worked for many years with people in the donor community. I believe that bringing these donors into a mutually beneficial relationship with the progressive blogosphere will happen, but that it will take a different kind of strategy and some patience before things change. I am optimistic over the long term, because for all their differences, the big donor community and the blogger community have one big thing in common: candidates and groups all too often look at them as ATM machines, rather than valuing their ideas and strategic thinking.
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