Politics

The Association of Fundraising Professionals operates what it believes is the only political-action committee that makes campaign contributions to federal candidates based exclusively on whether they support — or are in a position to sway — government action to benefit philanthropy.

This election cycle, the PAC contributed $24,000 to 10 members of Congress who are (or were) up for re-election, six in the House and four in the Senate.

The Obama and Romney campaigns spent a combined $1 billion on advertising. Widen the scope to include congressional campaigns and other election-season spending and the total outlay ends up closer to $6 billion, by some estimates. More than a million television ads have been aired this election cycle.

As notable as the boom in TV ads is the lack of a corresponding boom online, where onlookers have been predicting big shifts in campaign spending since at least the 2004 cycle. But in 2012, like 2008, television remained king. The great digital migration just isn’t happening.

The ability for supporters to donate via cell phones is having a significant impact on the campaign finances of both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama during the final months of the presidential race. A recent study by the Pew Research Center finds that 10 percent of donors to these campaigns have contributed through a text message or cell phone app. The study found 15 percent of Democratic donors made donations with their mobile devices compared to 6 percent of Republicans.

President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney are employing increasingly sophisticated tools to get more people to donate to their campaigns. From text donations to sending e-mails encouraging supporters to buy T-shirts to using online video games to attract supporters to displaying actual Facebook friends who have "liked" the campaign — the candidates are counting on the "cool" factor to lure new donors, particularly Gen Xers and Gen Yers, experts say.

With the 2012 presidential election quickly approaching, it's always interesting to look back and see some of the techniques political fundraisers utilize for their respective campaigns. So to kick off our November Mission of the Month — Political Fundraising — here are a few stories from FundRaising Success Gold Awards judge Paul Bobnak, research director of FS sister brand DirectMarketingIQ.

Leaders of big nationwide nonprofits sent letters to President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on Thursday urging the presidential candidates to reconsider their proposals to cut the charitable tax deduction. (See the letter to Obama and the one to Romney.)

The leaders also announced that they have scheduled a gathering Dec. 4-5 to bring hundreds of members to Washington, D.C., to tell members of Congress that any tax changes that led to decline in private giving would devastate nonprofits and the people they serve.

The next round in the legal battle over an $11 million donation from an Arizona nonprofit will be fought Tuesday. A Superior Court judge in Sacramento set the date after a brief hearing Thursday. The Fair Political Practices Commission is seeking records that could be used to unmask the donors behind the nonprofit Americans for Responsible Leadership.

So far, the group has refused to hand over any documents, saying it has a 1st Amendment right to keep the identities of its donors secret.

Mitt Romney and the Republican Party raised nearly $112 million in the first half of October as the presidential candidates sprint to Election Day. Andrea Saul, Romney's spokeswoman, announced the fundraising haul Thursday via Twitter.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the Republican Party and a constellation of outside GOP groups entered the final campaign stretch with a nearly $46 million cash advantage for the last-minute advertising and get-out-the-vote push in this nail-biter election, a USA Today analysis of new campaign reports shows. The candidates and political parties collectively have raised close to $2 billion through the end of September, giving Romney and President Barack Obama ample cash to devote legions of staffers to swing states.

President Barack Obama on Oct. 17 had his single most lucrative day of campaign fundraising ever, an Obama campaign official confirmed to ABC News. The record-setting haul, which the official declined to specify, was attributed to a surge of online contributions from grassroots donors following Obama’s performance in the second 2012 presidential debate.

The campaign announced last week that it has amassed a base of 4 million unique donors — or 1 in 75 Americans — a new record.