Campaign reporters have blind spots. I can tell you, for instance, what happens when you go on BarackObama.com, or what happens when you sign up for the Barack Obama Facebook app, or what happens when you tell the campaign you want to donate money online. I cannot, however, tell you what happens after you donate the money online, since I am professionally obligated not to go there. But something important is happening there, and it could add tens of millions of dollars to the Obama bottom line between now and November. What is it? Barack Obama, like Amazon, is now a one-click organization. For those who have bought books or baby chairs from Amazon, you already know what one-click is. It’s a simple idea really, that makes buying things terrifyingly simple. Instead of reentering your credit card information and address each time you want a new product, Amazon prompts you to simply click a single button on a webpage to buy a product. Instantly, someone somewhere puts that something in the mail to your house, and you are that much poorer. The Obama campaign has created something similar for political fundraising. On Sunday, at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, I moderated a panel discussion about new media and the presidential campaign, where Teddy Goff, the digital director for the Obama campaign, described the campaign’s new fundraising tool as “new for politics and my understanding is it’s new for non-profits too.” It works like this. If you make one donation to the campaign of any amount of money, you have to enter your credit card information. Then you are prompted to sign up for the campaign’s “Quick Donate” program, which allows you to save all your payment information with the campaign in case you ever come back. The entire Chicago campaign operation is built to make you come back. In 2008, the average campaign donor to the Obama campaign gave more than two times. Now when you return, it will be easier than ever before. Once you are in … Continue reading Barack Obama’s New One-Click Fundraising Trick