[{"id":107,"date":"2021-04-29T20:57:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T20:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/?page_id=107"},"modified":"2021-04-30T18:10:55","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T18:10:55","slug":"leadership-reflections","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/leadership-reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflection on the SPA Leadership Program<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

I joined the SPA Leadership Program my freshman year before I had even stepped foot on campus as a student. The decision to join SPA Leadership has permanently shaped my experience at AU and my trajectory moving forward. SPA Leadership was the first community to extend a welcoming hand to me as a nervous freshman, and it has been there throughout my three years as an undergraduate as I have grown into a leader.<\/p>\n

In SPA Leadership, the program\u2019s curriculum and experiences stayed with me throughout me time at AU. In freshman year, my peers and I were placed in a year-long introductory course to leadership theory and development. Additionally, we were placed in interest groups pertaining to a policy area that we were passionate about. We selected an issue that we cared about, researched it, and presented a solution in the spring colloquium. For me, I was in the Gender and Sexuality Interest group. My group researched LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education and developed a website with a comprehensive curriculum that students or schools could utilize. That curriculum can be found at this link: https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/lgbtqinclusivesexeducation\/<\/a> . In our second year, we were in another year-long seminar to further our understanding of leadership theory. We then got to complete the same style project, but this time independently. I studied my passion topic of women in political campaigns, which was incredibly rewarding. I planned on creating a candidate training for female-identifying students at AU in collaboration with the Women & Politics Institute, but unfortunately, it was cancelled due to COVID-19. Through this program, I completed a Leadership Internship with Sapphire Strategies. We were encouraged to apply for internships in areas that we were interested in, and then we analyzed our internship experience through the lens of leadership theory. This gave me a valuable new perspective at my internship and helped me learn about the practicality of leadership theory in a professional space. Lastly, I completed a Leadership Senior Capstone Course that really dived into the depths and intricacies of leadership theory and the many different styles and interpretations of leadership there are.<\/p>\n

This program increased my knowledge of leadership by exposing me to different theories of leadership theory that help break down a large idea into concrete and practical steps. One topic that always comes up is how leadership is notoriously difficult to define due to its ambiguous and amorphous nature. You know a leader when you see one, but it is hard to explain why exactly that person is a leader. This program gave me different perspectives and definitions to explain the different types of leadership I was seeing in my day to day life. These definitions and theories then helped me learn how to alter my own style of leadership to become more effective and stay more true to my values.<\/p>\n

SPA Leadership changed my view of leadership by showing me that leadership is not an inherent trait or something that comes with being in a position of power. Leaders can be anyone, anywhere, at any moment. This helped me realize that I did not need to be born with some inherent ability that helped me be a leader. My leadership was something I could grow and develop through my actions and my choices. I also learned that I didn\u2019t have to wait for a title to be considered a leader. A leader is someone who steps up to challenges to do the right thing, not automatically the person who is given an official title.<\/p>\n

One key item that I took away from the leadership program is how to effectively research and articulate policy concerns, ideas, and proposals. Starting int he freshman year class, we were taught how to find credible sources, write annotated bibliographies, write literature reviews, and create policy memos. We learned to create professional posters that presented our findings and final product and presented our projects at colloquiums. These learning experiences have helped me so much during my time at American University, and I know it will continue to help me beyond in my professional career. Knowing how to effectively communicate at a professional and practical level is incredibly important, and I really appreciate how SPA Leadership helped set me up for success in these realms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reflection on My Personal Leadership Style and Experiences<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

When I first started developing as a leader, I thought a leader was someone who tells other people what to do. As someone with perfectionist tendencies, I would create a clear vision in my mind and give very specific instructions on how I wanted that vision to come to life. This usually ended up with me micromanaging and carrying a lot of the workload in order for the end result to be what I envisioned. As I entered college, I quickly learned that this was not an effective way to build a team or execute my visions, as it led to burn out and a non-cohesive effort. At American University, I learned that not only was it okay for me to give autonomy and flexibility to those on my team, but that it yielded better results. When I trusted different members of a team to carry out their responsibilities, they would come back with solutions and ideas that I could never had imagined. Because of this change in my perspective, my definition of leadership changed from someone who was leading the way to someone who inspired and enabled others to act and reach their full potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learning about leadership theory has helped me more accurately understand and improve my personal leadership style. Prior to learning about leadership theory, my understanding of my own personal leadership was driven by instinct and my personal experiences of what did and did not work. And when I reached hurdles in my leadership, I often did not know what to attribute them to or how to get past those struggles. Once I began to understand leadership from a scholarly perspective, I was able to apply that to my own personal learning experiences and use it to help me become a better leader and overcome challenges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learning about leadership theory has helped me develop more skills to work collaboratively with others. As previously stated, while it is tempting to take total control and responsibility as a leader, so many benefits come from giving control and autonomy to different team members. Over the past few years, I have strengthened my ability to recognize the strengths that others carry (which are often strengths that I don\u2019t have), and I am able to use that to put them in positions where their strengths can be properly utilized and developed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have built my theoretical and practical knowledge about leadership by consistently trying to apply theory to the leadership that I view in my day to day life. While watching club leaders, professors, and internship supervisors, I find myself observing what tactics they use to motivate and mobilize those around them. In watching these tactics, I am able to find new ideas that I can use in my own leadership and also evaluate the effectiveness of these tactics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Watching other leaders in practice has also helped me see leadership as a process and not just as a position because I saw leadership everywhere, not just from those in positions of power. I have seen leadership in my friends who start petitions to make change at AU– from challenging unfair grading systems to calling for resignation of racist professors to demanding no school on election day. I have also seen leadership in students who stepped up to support friends and find solutions during the challenging times of the past few years, from pandemics to insurrections. I have also seen people in positions of power who did not behave as leaders. Once they had that position of leadership, they did not lead but rather rested on their laurels and did not strive to accomplish change or achieve goals. Observing all these have helped me really understand that leadership is not something granted to you, but something that you step up to and work towards everyday through actions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In my years at American University, I have sought opportunities to become a better leader myself. I am never someone who is going to half-commit myself to something. Once I am involved in something, I am going to do the best I can to have my voice heard and positive change made. I strived to be a leader even when it was not a title appointed to me– doing my best to inspire those around me and motivate them towards shared goals and aspirations.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reflection on the SPA Leadership Program I joined the SPA Leadership Program my freshman year before I had even stepped foot on campus as a student. The decision to join SPA Leadership has permanently shaped my experience at AU and my trajectory moving forward. SPA Leadership was the first community to extend a welcoming hand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2659,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-107","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":100,"date":"2021-03-09T21:54:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T21:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/?page_id=100"},"modified":"2021-03-09T22:12:30","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T22:12:30","slug":"writing-sample-digital-fundraising","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/writing-sample-digital-fundraising\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Sample: Digital Fundraising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Context<\/h3>\n

The following is a literature review from my undergraduate class “Elections and Voting Behavior.” For the assignment, we got to complete a literature review on any topic pertaining to American electoral politics, so I chose to research the development and impact of digital fundraising. Because I was currently interning in the field of digital fundraising at\u00a0Sapphire Strategies<\/em>, I was curious to look at it from an academic perspective to learn how the best practices and tactics we used in the workplace formed.<\/p>\n

Literature Review on the Development and Impacts of Digital Fundraising<\/span><\/p>\n

(or view as PDF: Writing Sample- Digital Fundraising<\/a>)<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s political climate, politicians and campaigns are in constant need of financial support and therefore perpetually fundraising. As internet usage has expanded, it only made sense for campaigns to start turning to the internet to fundraise. However, the reasons that motivated this expansion and the way in which digital fundraising developed are very complex and compelling. While still a new topic, scholars have started exploring the topic of digital fundraising and its impacts. This literature review examines that body of research by asking how and why digital fundraising developed and how it has impacted modern campaign strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scholars tend to point to Howard Dean\u2019s campaign for President in 2004 as the first successful digital fundraising campaign. Dean rose \u201c<\/span>from little known Vermont governor to serious contender for the Democratic nomination in 2004<\/span>\u201d (Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 105). He was considered a political outsider who was very unlikely to win the nomination, so his early rise as the Democratic frontrunner was unexpected and remarkable (Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 105; Hindman, 2005, p. 121). Dean was the first major campaign that was able to harness online donations into large fundraising numbers (Hindman, 2005, p. 124). Dean\u2019s interactive website provided an easy way for voters to learn about him, donate to his campaign, and sign up to volunteer (Hindman, 2005, p. 121). And by fundraising online, Dean became the \u201c<\/span>most successful primary fundraiser in the history of his party\u201d and <\/span>\u201cshattered previous fund-raising records\u201d (Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 105; Hindman, 2005, p. 121).<\/span> This successful fundraising allowed Dean to be taken seriously as a candidate, giving him momentum early in the campaign (Hindman, 2005, p. 124). The novelty of his online, small-donor fundraising also garnered him serious media attention,<\/span> \u201ca priceless publicity boon for a candidate who began as a dark horse,\u201d which in turn gave him more momentum and more donations (Hindman, 2005, p. 124). While Dean\u2019s campaign did not succeed, scholars agree that his campaign was a major turning point in how political fundraising was viewed academically (Hindman, 2005; Anstead & Chadwick, 2008; Carpenter, 2010). Dean was able to translate small donations into a campaign war chest; non-wealthy donors comprised a much greater percentage of his fundraising, and many of these donations were unsolicited (Hindman, 2005, p. 124-125). Ultimately, despite his loss, many of the digital fundraising techniques Dean pioneered would be used by the Obama campaign in 2008 (Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 105; <\/span>Borins, 2010, p. 183<\/span>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly to Dean, Barack Obama was a political outsider who excelled at digital fundraising, but unlike Dean, Obama was ultimately able to use digital fundraising to win his party\u2019s nomination and ultimately the Presidency. Through the primary and general, Obama\u2019s campaign utilized a \u201cmassive email list […] <\/span>to send out updates and fundraising appeals to supporters\u201d <\/span>(Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 104).<\/span> In the primary, scholars agree that this email list was able to help Obama instantly capitalize on his early victories in Iowa and South Carolina and turn that momentum into hundreds of thousands of small donations (Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 104; <\/span>Christenson & Smidt, 2011, p. 23-24). Obama was able to achieve \u201cfinancial parity with the Clinton fundraising machine\u201d and win the Democratic nomination (<\/span>Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 104). There is widespread agreement that \u201c<\/span>Obama’s online tools were decisive in his defeat of Hillary Clinton\u201d <\/span>(Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 103). Christenson & Smidt (2011) contrast the notion that digital fundraising is game-changing by pointing to a few unique attributes of the Obama campaign that likely led to his unprecedented success, such as his organizational strength and the \u201cphenomenon\u201d that his campaign became due to his widespread public appeal, his charismatic persona, and the favorable media narratives surrounding him <\/span>(Christenson & Smidt, 2011, p. 23-24). Obama\u2019s success in online fundraising continued into the general election, where ultimately, <\/span>Obama\u2019s campaign \u201c<\/span>raised nearly $750 million from 4 million donors, 550,000 of whom were contributing for the first time\u201d (Borins, 2010, p. 182). According to Carpenter (2010),<\/span> \u201cBarack Obama\u2019s record fundraising enabled him to outspend Republican rival John McCain\u2019s campaign through traditional television ads in key battleground states as well as to develop the offline physical infrastructure needed to organize volunteers\u201d (p. 224). Obama\u2019s fundraising also allowed him to decline public financing for his campaign, the first major-party candidate to ever do so (Carpenter, 2010, p. 224). So while scholars may disagree as to whether digital fundraising caused Obama\u2019s success, there is general agreement that digital fundraising greatly helped his presidential campaign in 2008 and laid the groundwork for future potential digital fundraising-oriented campaigns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that this literature review has explored the first campaigns to successfully utilize digital fundraising, it is important to examine why digital fundraising developed. There are several theories among academics as to what motivated turning to the internet for fundraising; many academics support multiple of the following theories. There is not necessarily one correct theory, but rather multiple variables that pushed campaigns towards digital fundraising. One prevailing theory is that digital fundraising was predominantly developed by candidates due to the unique nature of primary campaigns. Anstead & Chadwick (2008) point to how many internet innovations were developed by candidates during the primaries, such as John McCain, Howard Dean, and Barack Obama. Primaries can often be uncertain in their outcomes, which \u201c<\/span>forces candidates to experiment with new technologies and cast around for opportunities to build what are often fragile and fleeting coalitions of support\u201d <\/span>(Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 107-108). This theory of the development of digital fundraising during primaries goes along with the theory that it is outsider or dark horse candidates that have turned to the internet to garner support. Because primaries cannot be controlled by the political party, outsider candidates without establishment support are free to run for the nomination, and they frequently have turned to the internet to gain support outside the party establishment (Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 107-108). Internet donations allowed dark horse candidates to show their viability and translate that success into real-life volunteers and voters (Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 107-108; Hindman, 2005, p. 121-124; <\/span>Christenson & Smidt, 2011, p. 23-24<\/span>). Examples of these political candidates are Howard Dean, Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders,<\/span> and even Donald Trump<\/span> (Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 107-108; Magleby, 2019, p. 3-15). Another theory is that candidates turned to digital fundraising as a new way to generate donations after stricter campaign finance regulations were passed. In 2002, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act was passed to regulate campaign finance, including limiting soft money donations. This heavily impacted Democrats\u2019 fundraising strategies, which had been very reliant on soft money from large donors (Carpenter, 2010, p. 223; <\/span>Panagopoulos & Bergan, 2009, p. 128)<\/span>. Therefore, Democrats then had to learn how to successfully fundraise from small donors. The internet made sense to carry out this objective because it was cheap and easy to reach many possible donors (Carpenter, 2010, p. 223; Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 108). For example, the Obama campaign was able to use his website to lower the barriers of entry to political donating by making a website that was easy to access and use to donate small amounts (Carpenter, 2010, p. 223). Another factor that motivated campaigns to engage in digital fundraising was the increasing need to raise large amounts of money to run a successful campaign and show viability. Raising vast sums of money allows candidates to appear viable and run successful campaigns, especially during early states in presidential primaries (<\/span>Christenson & Smidt, 2011, p. 6-8<\/span>).<\/span> Because of this need for vast sums of money, \u201cnew sources of revenue, such as online donations, have an obvious attraction, especially since Americans have a long established tradition of seeing voluntary political donations as a civically virtuous activity\u201d <\/span>(Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 108). The last prominent theory is that Democrats developed digital fundraising out of necessity because they were the party out of power. <\/span>Karpf (2013) argues that Democrats had to develop these technologies in \u201ca period of counter-mobilization against George W. Bush that DailyKos and ActBlue were launched\u201d (p. 420). Karpf believes that there is only an incentive to innovate when the party is losing, which resulted in Democrats developing digital fundraising technology in order to oust the Republicans while Republicans did not have the same pressure to innovate (Karpf, 2013, p. 420). In closing, academics do not agree on one single reason as to why digital fundraising developed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the growth in digital fundraising, there is a clear partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to digital fundraising. The most obvious distinction observed by scholars is the <\/span>\u201csurprising absence of conservative equivalents to well-known progressive online successes such as MoveOn.org, ActBlue.com, and DailyKos.com, dating back through much of the past decade\u201d (Karpf, 2013, p. 420). While some versions of these technologies have been attempted by Republicans, there has not been as much success with those platforms (Karpf, 2013, p. 420). Karpf (2013) argues that since Democrats developed these strategies in a period of counter-mobilization against Republicans, that there has not been that same motivation among Republicans to develop digital fundraising tools, which resulted in Democrats developing this technology while Republicans did not. (Karpf, 2013, p. 420). Republicans were also less impacted by campaign finance regulations from the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act because they were not as reliant on soft money <\/span>(Carpenter, 2010, p. 223; <\/span>Panagopoulos & Bergan, 2009, p. 128). Therefore, they did not need to turn to the internet for new sources of revenue. <\/span>Another factor is that liberals tend to be more active in politics online, so it may just be easier for Democrats to find potential donors online than Republicans (Hindman, 2005, p. 122-123). However, that is not to say that no Republican candidates have benefitted from digital fundraising. For example, in the 2000 Republican presidential primaries, Senator John McCain was able to use his surprise victory in the New Hampshire primary to raise over $4 million on the Internet (Carpenter, 2010, p. 219). Overall, McCain was able to raise $6 million on the Internet during that campaign, which was nearly one-quarter of his individual contributions <\/span>(Panagopoulos & Bergan, 2009, p. 127). Another Republican candidate that effectively used online fundraising was President Donald Trump in 2016. Trump\u2019s fundraising was highly reliant on small donors in both the primary and general election (Magleby, 2019, p. 3). It is possible that despite the digital fundraising technology divide between Democrats and Republicans, as non-establishment candidates, both McCain and Trump had to turn to more innovative fundraising methods to fund their campaign (<\/span>Anstead & Chadwick, 2008, p. 107-108). So while academics agree that Republicans as a whole have currently not been as effective as Democrats at digital fundraising, there is still the potential for Republicans to further expand their digital fundraising efforts in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scholars believe that the proliferation of digital campaign fundraising has significantly altered the strategies of modern campaigns. Scholars agree that digital fundraising has proven its success as an effective way to fundraise for political campaigns.<\/span> Digital fundraising is also incredibly cheap, especially compared to direct mail costs. When sending emails to donors, a campaign can scale up \u201cnear-costlessly from 500 recipients to 5 million recipients\u201d (Karpf, 2009, p. 162-167). This highly alters the strategies campaigns use to reach voters by switching over to contacting voters and donors online, rather than more expensive direct mail options\u201d (Nickerson, 2009, p. 141). It also allows campaigns to reach \u201cthe broadest possible audience rather than confining itself to those members with a high propensity to give\u201d (Karpf, 2009, p. 167). The increased shift towards digital fundraising has also led to an increased emphasis in campaigns on data and analytics. This focus on analytics started in the Obama campaign, which utilized \u201crandomized A\/B testing to optimize every element of their online communication strategy\u201d (Karpf, 2013, p. 418). Campaigns focus on aggregating large amounts of data to optimize their campaign choices, rhetoric, and voter outreach to be most effective and precise (<\/span>Carpenter, 2010, p. 217-218; <\/span>Karpf, 2013, p. 414). The immediate nature of the internet also allows campaigns to target \u201cfundraising appeals to whatever issue dominates the current media cycle\u201d (Karpf, 2009, p. 168). This increased focus on data analytics is not just a tiny change, but something that \u201cis substantially changing resource expenditures and work routines\u201d (Karpf, 2013, p. 413). Another one of the impacts of digital fundraising is a tilt towards polarizing candidates and fundraising pitches. According to Karpf (2013), \u201cfundraising from small donors is about partisan taunting and ideological appeals\u201d (p. 417). Polarizing candidates get more attention, more internet interactions, and more donations because polarization energizes the public and keeps them engaged in politics (Karpf, 2013, p. 417). Therefore, candidates are incentivized to be polarizing to optimize online fundraising. Academics agree that digital fundraising has significantly impacted campaign strategy, but more research needs to be done as to what other impacts there are and how they vary from campaign to campaign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are still significant gaps in the research surrounding digital fundraising in political campaigns. A lot of the academic research that is available regarding online campaigning focuses more on how campaigns communicate over the internet and engage supporters rather than how they fundraise. And much of the information that is available is outdated and does not apply to modern digital fundraising practices and technology. David Karpf (2013), one of the predominant scholars on digital fundraising, attributes this gap in research to the constant flux and growth of the internet. He describes how the internet is <\/span>difficult to research due to the internet being \u201ca medium that is in continuous, rapid, disruptive change,\u201d which can result in more questions than answers (Karpf, 2013, p. 414). This constant change also undermines the validity of research because how digital fundraising worked five years ago is completely different than how digital fundraising works today, resulting in incomparable data that is difficult to analyze. It then takes years to complete and publish any scholarly research, meaning that any research released is out of date and no longer applicable to the present state of digital fundraising (Karpf, 2013, p. 422). However, despite these challenges in research, scholars need to do more to explore the impacts of digital fundraising and the different strategies and technologies utilized. As more campaigns and candidates continue to raise large amounts of money online, it is crucial for scholars to take a more in-depth look at the intricacies of digital fundraising and how it impacts the strategy and operations of those campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n

References (APA)<\/span><\/p>\n

Anstead, N., & Chadwick, A. (2008). Lessons of the US digital campaign. <\/span>Renewal\u202f: a Journal\u00a0<\/span><\/i>of Labour Politics, 16<\/span><\/i>(3\/4), 103\u2013110. Retrieved from http:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/211504892\/<\/span><\/p>\n

Borins, S. (2010). Digital state 2.0. In <\/span>Policy: From ideas to implementation, in honour of\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Professor G. Bruce Doern<\/span><\/i> (pp. 177-206). McGill-Queen’s University Press. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctt80wh5.12<\/span><\/p>\n

Carpenter, C. (2010). The Obamachine: Technopolitics 2.0. <\/span>Journal of Information Technology\u00a0<\/span><\/i>& Politics: YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States, 7<\/span><\/i>(2-3), 216\u2013225. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/19331681003765887<\/span><\/p>\n

Christenson, D., & Smidt, C. (2011). Riding the waves of money: Contribution dynamics in the\u00a0<\/span>2008 presidential nomination campaign. <\/span>Journal of Political Marketing, 10<\/span><\/i>(1-2), 4\u201326. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/15377857.2011.540189<\/span><\/p>\n

Hindman, M. (2005). The real lessons of Howard Dean: Reflections on the first digital\u00a0<\/span>campaign. <\/span>Perspectives on Politics,<\/span><\/i> 3<\/span><\/i>(1), 121-128. Retrieved April 18, 2020, from www.jstor.org\/stable\/3688116<\/span><\/p>\n

Karpf, D. A. (2009). <\/span>Unexpected transformations: The internet’s effect on political associations\u00a0<\/span><\/i>in american politics <\/span><\/i>(Order No. 3381630). Available from ProQuest Central; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global; Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. (304980816). Retrieved from http:\/\/proxyau.wrlc.org\/login?url=https:\/\/search-proquest-com.proxyau.wrlc.org\/docview\/304980816?accountid=8285<\/span><\/p>\n

Karpf, D. (2013). The internet and American political campaigns. <\/span>The Forum, 11<\/span><\/i>(3), 413\u2013428.\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1515\/for-2013-0051<\/span><\/p>\n

Magleby, D. (2019). Change and continuity in the financing of the 2016 U.S. federal\u00a0<\/span>election. In <\/span>Financing the 2016 election<\/span><\/i> (pp. 1-54). Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from www.jstor.org\/stable\/10.7864\/j.ctt20d878p.4<\/span><\/p>\n

Nickerson, D. (2009). The impact of e-mail campaigns on voter mobilization. In <\/span>Politicking\u00a0<\/span><\/i>online : The transformation of election campaign communications<\/span><\/i>. Retrieved from https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com<\/span><\/p>\n

Panagopoulos, C., & Bergan, D. (2009). Clicking for cash: Campaigns, donors, and the\u00a0<\/span>emergence of online fund-raising. In <\/span>Politicking online : The transformation of election campaign communications<\/span><\/i>. Retrieved from https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Context The following is a literature review from my undergraduate class “Elections and Voting Behavior.” For the assignment, we got to complete a literature review on any topic pertaining to American electoral politics, so I chose to research the development and impact of digital fundraising. Because I was currently interning in the field of digital […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2659,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-100","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":96,"date":"2021-03-09T03:55:24","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T03:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/?page_id=96"},"modified":"2021-03-09T03:55:24","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T03:55:24","slug":"gallery","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking to see more about Robin besides words on a page? Look through some of the photos of moments and experiences that have made her who she is.<\/p>\n

\"A

Robin’s final day at Sapphire Strategies after 11 months!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Robin

Robin casting her vote via absentee ballot in November 2020!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Robin

Robin filling out\/distributing packets with other Winter for Warren Fellows right before the New Hampshire Primary!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Elizabeth

Robin with one of her icons, Senator Elizabeth Warren, on the infamous Selfie Line!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Robin

…and of course, the most important Warren: Bailey Warren!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Robin

Robin sign holding at the polls for Gloria Miller for Westford School Committee! Gloria won re-election with the most votes out of six candidates and is now the Chair of WSC.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cinda

Robin (right) with Cinda Danh (left), former candidate for Ward 6 City Council in Lynn, MA. Robin volunteered for Danh’s campaign during her internship with the MWPC and still stays in touch!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Robin

Robin knocking doors in Quincy, MA for Danielle Kempe for Quincy City Council. Robin met Kempe through training at Emerge Massachusetts and volunteered with her through her internship with the MWPC.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Robin

Robin at a protest against confirming Brett Kavanaugh her freshman year of college.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Robin

Robin first became involved with campaigns as part of the Dan Koh for Congress campaign in her home district of MA-3. She took this photo when she first came to college in DC and has continued to support Dan throughout the years. She is proud to call Dan a good friend and is very proud of his recent appointment as Chief of Staff in the Department of Labor!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking to see more about Robin besides words on a page? Look through some of the photos of moments and experiences that have made her who she is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2659,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-96","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":16,"date":"2018-06-26T16:02:10","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T16:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2021-03-09T03:59:10","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T03:59:10","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Robin Miller is a student in the Combined BA\/MPA Program at American University. She is completing her major in Political Science (May 2021) and working on her Master’s of Public Administration (May 2022).\u00a0<\/span>She is a member of the AU Honors Program, a rigorous four year program focused on interdisciplinary learning and academic excellence. Through the School of Public Affairs, she is also pursuing a Certificate in Advanced Leadership Studies, a program that cultivates leadership skills to prepare students for a future in leadership roles in public service.<\/p>\n

Robin’s passions range include campaigns, feminism, women in politics, music, and so much more. No matter what, Robin is always sure to be doing ten things at once with a smile on her face.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Robin prides herself on following what she believes in and trying to create a more just world. She hopes to use her leadership skills to promote this worldview. She dreams of being a campaign manager one day to create a more diverse and representative government.<\/p>\n

Robin is heavily involved with political campaigning. Most recently, she interned at Sapphire Strategies, a digital campaign firm for progressive candidates, for nearly a year through the November 2020 elections. She drafted and produced content for fundraising emails and digital ads, using platforms such as Blue State Digital and NGP. She assisted in tracking and analyzing fundraising patterns using ActBlue. Ultimately, in addition to coding hundreds if not thousands of emails, Robin drafted emails that raised over $30,000 for progressive Congressional\/Senatorial candidates and PACs.<\/p>\n

Previously, Robin completed an internship with the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, where she was part of a team that coordinated the PAC\u2019s endorsement process for 67 female pro-choice candidates in Massachusetts. She really enjoyed seeing how the endorsement process worked firsthand as well as collaborating directly with female candidates to help their campaigns. She also completed a Campaign Management Training with Emerge Massachusetts, which equipped her with hard skills necessary to run a campaign, such as\u00a0in creating a field plan, budgeting, messaging, fundraising, GOTV, press, and social media.\u00a0<\/span>Two summers ago, Robin completed a fellowship with the Dan Koh for Congress campaign. Dan Koh was a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in MA-3. She spent the summer knocking on doors (around 2200 of them), phone banking (for over 60 hours), and recruiting a vast network of volunteers from the community.<\/p>\n

Robin is heavily involved on campus at American University– even though everything is remote currently! Robin is currently the President of Tau Chapter of Mu Beta Psi, National Honorary Musical Fraternity. Over 3 semesters, she has helped to create a thriving digital community through the pandemic that spreads the love of music through service and brotherhood. Robin also is virtually a part of AU Chamber Ensembles and AU Symphony Orchestra as principal violist. She looks forward to returning to making music in-person, including helping to teach violin\/viola to 4th and 5th graders at the nearby Janney Elementary School. Previously, Robin has held roles as the\u00a0Vice President and Head of Curriculum Development of AU Civics in the Capitol and Interclass and Community Coordinator through SPA Leadership.<\/p>\n

If you’re looking for Robin, you can contact her at rm4638a@american.edu. She’ll be sure to get back to you with an email with lots of exclamation points!!<\/p>\n

\"Robin

Robin casting her vote via absentee ballot in November 2020!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Robin

Robin filling out\/distributing packets with other Winter for Warren Fellows right before the New Hampshire Primary!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Elizabeth

Robin with one of her icons, Senator Elizabeth Warren, on the infamous Selfie Line!<\/p><\/div>\n

Check out more photos of Robin’s experiences on the Gallery<\/a> page!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robin Miller is a student in the Combined BA\/MPA Program at American University. She is completing her major in Political Science (May 2021) and working on her Master’s of Public Administration (May 2022).\u00a0She is a member of the AU Honors Program, a rigorous four year program focused on interdisciplinary learning and academic excellence. Through the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2659,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":13,"date":"2018-06-26T16:02:10","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T16:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2021-03-09T00:50:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T00:50:00","slug":"resume","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/rm4638a\/resume\/","title":{"rendered":"Resume"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROBIN MILLER<\/b><\/p>\n

3716 Windom Place NW, Washington D.C, 20016 \u00b7 rm4638a@student.american.edu or 18robinmiller@gmail.com \u00b7 (978) 846-0662 \u00b7 <\/span>Digital Portfolio<\/span><\/a> \u00b7 <\/span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

POLITICAL\/CAMPAIGN EXPERIENCE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Digital Fundraising and Strategy Intern, <\/span><\/i>Sapphire Strategies,<\/b> Washington, DC<\/span><\/p>\n

January 2020- November 2020<\/span><\/p>\n