A new campaign funding mechanism is about to be deployed, as a company based in Portland, Oregon, launched a platform Tuesday, which allows campaign donors to make contributions using their Twitter accounts.
About two dozen congressional campaigns have signed on to Chirpify’s social media service, according to Politico. Neither the campaign of President Barack Obama or the campaign of presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney has officially committed to the new way of fundraising. However, the new method is likely to be a part of their Internet arsenals.
“There’s no shopping cart, no check-out process. You can simply tweet money, which should be very attractive to campaigns,” Chris Teso, founder and chief executive of Chripify, told the website. Individual campaigns, political action committees, and super PACs will be able to use the service to bring in Internet cash.
Using their Twitter accounts, donors can forward money to a given campaign with a simple tweet. Receipts are subsequently received through Twitter by direct message. The money is thereby instantly accessible to the respective campaign.
Chirpify launched the platform following the recent Federal Election Commission ruling, which permits political donations to be made via text messages.
In order for political committees to be able to steer clear of having to collect information on donors or publicly disclose related information, the system will place a $200 ceiling on donations made to any single candidate or political committee.
Chirpify intends to take 5 percent of each donation made.
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