Starting today your campaign (any office, any party) can click here to sign up instantly for the Instant Online Fundraiser of PoliticsOnline.com. It is a secure, turn-key system by which your web site can immediately carry a Visa/Mastercard icon that invites contributions and processes them at no cost to the campaign (PoliticsOnline keeps 10%). Founder Phil Noble: "It can do for campaign fundraising what the machine gun did for bank robberies." 

Fundraising online is not new. See www.taft98.org (R) and www.boxer98.org (D). But GOP tech advisor Mike Connell says it may be the "final frontier," but so far it's only been a "trickle." 

PoliticsOnline.com today unveils its brand new "Instant Online Fundraiser," a bipartisan service by which any campaign can establish a secure online fundraising operation "in a matter of minutes" and at no cost. Campaigns can click on PoliticsOnline.com and sign up, with a Visa/MasterCard icon appearing on their own web pages. Founder Phil Noble: "There is no expensive hardware or software to buy, no merchant accounts, no start up or monthly fees." (PoliticsOnline release, Hotline interview) 
                 As Rebecca Raney reports in today's New York Times On The Web, this is not the first attempt at online fundraising for politics, although Noble tells Hotline that it may be the first simple turn-key operation at no expense to campaigns. Raney reports on a $495 system Tom Hockaday and Campaign Solutions markets to campaign clients as part of its direct marketing services, used by Gov. Pataki (R-NY) and Sen, McCain (R-AZ) among others. A survey by Harvard's Elaine Kamarck showed at least 18 Gov and Senate candidates soliciting e-donations on their web sites. Kamarck says campaigns will all do it if it raises money: "You don't have to offer a chicken dinner." (New York Times On The Web, 9/30). 
But it is not yet proven effective. Mike Connell, who established a widely acclaimed site for FL GOP Gov candidate Jeb Bush, calls online fundraising "the final frontier" and says so far his campaign sites show it's just "a trickle." Hockaday says 1998 is just an experiment for the 2000 presidential campaigns. (New York Times) 
                 Noble, himself, admits he has little idea of how much response his service will get from campaigns or how much money can be raised. His Instant Online Fundraiser service has been beta-tested in 6 separate campaigns and developed by people who understand the needs of campaigns. Noble himself 
has worked in over 275 US and international campaigns: "We've been there and know what they need." He described past online fundraising as being largely limited to email from prospective donors who tell the campaign they want to give and provide a credit card number, with campaign workers filling out a slip manually. The new service does it all automatically for the campaign (and keeps 10% as a processing fee). Noble: "It's going to do for campaign finance what the machine gun did for bank robberies" (release and interview).