NO on 1 Announces 12,000 Donors, $2.7 Million Raised - 2000 Mainers Volunteer to Protect Maine Equality

No on 1/Protect Maine Equality
October 13, 2009

NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality announced today that nearly 12,000 donors have contributed nearly $2.7 million to its campaign to defeat Question 1 and allow all committed Maine couples to marry and be treated equally under the law. NO on 1 also announced that since July 1, nearly 2,000 Mainers have actively volunteered on the campaign, engaging in activities ranging from phone banking, to leaflet drops, to door-to-door canvassing.

In addition, more than 8,000 Mainers have signed up to volunteer with the campaign. An additional 120 people from out of state, or less than one percent of the total volunteer base, have committed to come to Maine for the final days of the campaign. To date, NO on 1 volunteers have made more than 270,000 phone calls and knocked on more than 13,500 doors throughout the state. And in the last 10 days, over 1,600 Mainers signed up for more than 2,100 volunteer shifts on the campaign.

In terms of financial contributions, nearly half of the money raised came from supporters in Maine , with most donors, both in state and out of state, contributing during the Third Quarter (Q3) which began July 6th and ended September 30th.

“This level of support is gratifying and it’s from every corner of Maine and from people across the country who care deeply about treating all families equally,” said Jesse Connolly, NO on 1 campaign manager. “Although ours is primarily a grassroots campaign, with Mainers talking to Mainers about equality, it costs money to run a field program and it’s costly to rebut the distortions in the Question 1 campaign’s ads.

“What we've seen is that as more and more people have focused on Maine, more and more people have wanted to participate, whether that’s writing a check or staffing a phone bank,” added Connolly.

The NO on 1 campaign, which released its campaign revenues and expenditures in accordance with Maine campaign finance laws, offered these highlights from Q3, the latest reporting period:

-- Nearly 50 percent of the money raised in the Q3 came from Maine donors and, in fact, 80 percent of the contributions raised off line, through fundraising events and individual contributions, came directly from Mainers.

-- 97 percent of the individual donors made their contributions in the third quarter. (11,723 donors contributed in Q3, with 11,976 total donors since the campaign began). In fact, 94 percent of the nearly $2.7 million YTD was raised during Q3.

-- 29 donors gave more than $10,000 for $875,000 in Q3. Of those 29 individuals, 18 donors -- or 62 percent -- are Maine residents who collectively contributed $515,000 of that total.

-- While the NO on 1 average online donation is $95.45, the campaign's volunteer field team has collected more than 1,200 contributions with an average donation of $17.25.

-- The NO on 1 Finance Committee, a group of 38 Maine residents, is responsible for raising more than $470,000 of the total.

-- There were 29 NO on 1 fundraising events in the Q3, with only three of those conducted out-of-state in Washington D.C. , Los Angeles and Miami.

-- The NO on 1 campaign only solicited funds during the last two months of the Second Quarter, raising $143,290 from 373 donors.

-- $537,393 in both in-kind and cash donations was contributed by 13 state and national organizations which support marriage equality.

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