Why Obama’s Campaign Fundraising Strategy Owes Thanks to the March of Dimes
31 March 2009
Pop Quiz time! Without Googling, can you tell me how the March of Dimes got started? The organization began in 1938 as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to defeat the epidemic disease polio. Remember this was during the Great Depression and the government had little/no funding for endeavors such as this. Basil O’Connor, the lawyer FDR asked to lead the Foundation, knew he had to get more money if the organization was to achieve its goal of ending polio. O’Connor had the idea of getting a little money from a lot of people – this was a first that changed fundraising history, since previous to this time, charities relied on the few big donations from wealthy contributors. But no fundraising campaign is complete without good spin, which is why O’Connor enlisted the help of entertainer Eddie Cantor. Cantor coined the term “The March of Dimes,” a play on the popular newsreel of the day, “The March of Times,” and the Foundation called upon all Americans to put a dime in an envelope and address it to FDR at the White House. Top Hollywood, Broadway, radio and TV entertainers like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney created ads in which they fulfilled their American duty and dropped a dime in an envelope before sending if via USPS. $1.8 million was raised – most of that in dimes.
Sounds a lot like Obama’s campaign fundraising strategy, eh?
Anybody game for a March of Dollars?
Footnote: In 1979, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis officially adopted the name “March of Dimes.” When Roosevelt died in office in 1945, he was commemorated by placing his portrait on the dime. And, in 2003, a peer-reviewed study found that it was more likely that Roosevelt’s paralytic illness was actually Guillain-Barré syndrome, not polio.
