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.
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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