ActBlue is an online clearinghouse where people can build their personal fundraising pages, select one or more candidates they support, and solicit donations from their friends, family and even complete strangers.

How does using ActBlue benefit the Progressive Movement?  As regrettable as it is, money makes the political world go round.  What ActBlue does is helps teach everyday people like myself-who never considered being a candidate fundraiser-to learn how to "bundle" contributions to our favored candidates.

Take for example my personal ActBlue page: http://www.actblue.com/page/voxpopuli

At this time, Edwards is my only chosen candidate.  In a matter of hours, I raised nearly $200.00 from friends and even total strangers who came across my page.  I know $200.00 isn't much, and the average donation is only about $30.00, but getting people involved is worth 10 times that.  Several of these people have never given to campaigns before, and few have ever been asked.  ActBlue helps you with fundraising tips (the "ask"), and provides a forum to follow through.  http://www.actblue.com/page/voxpopuli

How is ActBlue better than in-house fundraising?  Transparency.  I think the best of both worlds is using both, as the John Edwards campaign is doing, but fully in-house fundraising in the era of ActBlue is silly.  Why not grow more than your own campaign?  Plus, the transparency has an added edge.  In the past few days, Edwards has raised nearly $400k on ActBlue alone.  This is exceptional.  He went from 13,000 individual controbutions to over 18,000 in the same timeframe.

Even if you don't support John Edwards for President, you should consider supporting candidates who raise money through ActBlue.  And if you ARE an Edwards supporter who is considering giving something, drop by http://www.actblue.com/page/voxpopuli and give what you can.  The 1st Quarter numbers are huge, and will define the media narrative for the next three months.

Please, even if John isn't the nominee, his message is worth hearing.  He is offering the most progressive platform of all the major candidates and we want the nominee to realize that platform is important, regardless of whom it is.  http://www.actblue.com/page/voxpopuli