Obama campaign breaks record with 10 million donations

President Obama’s campaign on Monday reported shattering its own record by taking in grassroots donations from more than 10 million people.

Last night, this campaign reached 10,000,000 donations in 2012—a huge milestone and a historic record for grassroots politics.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 1, 2012

The surge in donations stems in part from the presidential campaign’s use of major social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, where they posted messages over the weekend urging supporters to send in a few dollars to make the goal of 10 million individual donations. The campaign was pushing a new “quick donate” button on its website, which was advertised in a Web video by actors Rashida Jones (“The Office”) and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family”).

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina sent out an email on Sunday saying that the campaign had more than 9,725,074 donations as of Saturday night. He added that it would be “a historical milestone” for the campaign if that number reached 10 million.

The campaign often touts its vast grassroots fundraising list. Its last push for a specific number of donors happened during the Democratic National Convention, when the campaign reported earning donations form 700,000 supporters in one week.

Katie Hogan, a deputy press secretary to the Obama campaign, said in August that the large fundraising support from small contributors is an indicator “that the grassroots continue to be the backbone of this campaign.”

Obama bested Romney for the first time on fundraising in August, ending the month with almost twice as much money in the bank. Obama raised more than $88.8 million, compared to $50.4 million reported by Mitt Romney’s team.

The Republican National Committee still holds a major cash advantage over its Democratic opponents. The RNC had more than $76.6 million cash on hand, more than 10 times the DNC's $7.1 million, according to filings in August.

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