Biden waits for the liberal energy to increase with slow, meagre donations.

The president's reelection campaign has received financial support from wealthy Democrats, but for various reasons, the party's small contributors haven't yet increased their donations.

President Biden raised over $10 million from wealthy Democrats in only 36 hours when he visited San Francisco last month. Millions more were raised through trips to Chicago and New York and fundraising activities held in and around Washington, showing that the party's major donors are entirely committed to Mr Biden's reelection campaign. 

But the small-dollar internet money faucet that allowed Mr Biden to break fundraising records during his 2020 presidential campaign has yet to come on, and there are plenty of indications that it may take months.

According to a Federal Election Commission report submitted on Saturday, the Biden campaign and the Biden Victory Fund, its joint fundraising entity, received $10.2 million from small contributors — those who contributed $200 or less — during the three-month fundraising period that ended June 30. This sum is almost half of the $21 million raised by President Barack Obama's campaign for his 2012 reelection during the same period.

Democrats active in Mr Biden's campaign and the Internet fundraising community provided a wide range of explanations for the comparatively modest amount of money raised by Mr Biden.

Thanks to Google and Apple, email senders now have a more challenging time seeing information about who has opened solicitations. Political donations generally decreased as a result of inflation. The constant barrage of emails begging for donations has donors tired, and recipients are answering considerably fewer of them.

Currently, Democrats aren't quite as motivated to raise money as they were in 2018 and 2020 when liberal donations flooded in thanks to Donald J. Trump's presidency, or before the 2022 midterm elections when the Capitol riot, the growth of the election-denial movement, and the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade all motivated donors.

Additionally, Mr Biden is not a rebel candidate like Mr Obama or Senator Bernie Sanders, who inspired college students to display his posters on the walls of their residence halls throughout their campaigns. His unassuming White House and sparse campaign haven't yet inspired people to give angry donations to his cause.

The Hollywood tycoon Jeffrey Katzenberg, who Mr Biden nominated as a co-chairman of his campaign, stated, "Right now there is there is no daily competition combat going on." These are, thus, the most devoted, devoted, and faithful believers and fans. It will develop over time.

The Biden campaign used various data to demonstrate its network of small donors. According to the campaign, about a third of its 394,000 contributors did not support Mr Biden in 2020.

However, the president's financial disclosures reveal that he is much more reliant on the most affluent donors than Mr Trump was during his campaign for reelection or Mr Biden's rivals were during the 2020 Democratic primary.

Ten contributors, including Mr Katzenberg, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Maryland hotel tycoon Stewart W. Bainum Jr., contributed to the Biden Victory Fund $500,000 or more. There were another 82 people who gave $100,000 or more.

Four years ago, contributors who donated $200 or less made up 35% of the funds generated by Mr Trump and the two joint committees he created with the national committee, Trump Victory and Trump Make America Great Again Committee. Small contributors provided 21% of the money for Mr Biden's campaign and joint finance committee.

Across all political parties, small donations are declining. Small contributors gave less money during the first fundraising season of 2023 than they had in nearly four years — since early 2019 — according to research done by Middle Seat, a digital fundraising company with various Democratic customers.

"If I were on the Biden team right now, I'd be really happy with the numbers," said Kenneth Pennington, a Middle Seat partner. "He's not starting a new campaign, and the fundraising climate is terrible."

Although Mr Biden raised almost as much money overall as the Republican contenders, he outperformed them with small donations. To his $10.2 million, the G.O.P. candidates raised $7.5 million from small donations. 

Because a federal disclosure obligation is triggered when an individual donor's contribution surpasses $200, the percentage of donations of less than $200 usually is highest at the start of a campaign and declines during the campaign.

Thirty-eight per cent of the funds raised by Mr Biden's campaign for president in 2020 over the same reporting period came from small donors. 

Once Americans start paying more attention to the Republican primary contest and the person to challenge Mr Biden emerges, Democratic internet fundraising experts predicted that the pace of online giving to the Biden campaign would ramp up in the first few months of 2019.

According to Lauren Miller, who worked as the digital director for Elizabeth Warren's Senate campaigns, the Biden campaign will be fine raising record sums of money online. "Democratic donors will become focused on the Republican primary and what's at stake in the 2024 election once," she said.

Only when his joint fundraising committees, into which the majority of his internet fundraising appeals pour money, submit financial information is it possible to determine Mr Trump's small-dollar proportion? They have until July 31 to comply with this requirement.

The other Republican contenders' financial disclosures show that their party is much more dependent on significant donations than Mr Biden.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, one of the other Republican contenders, reported receiving $2.9 million from small donations. Still, that sum represents just 14% of the money his campaign received. The small-dollar percentages for the other contenders varied from 34% for former New Jersey governor Chris Christie to 2% for North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, who is mainly financing his campaign. 

The Biden campaign started less strongly with a crew of digital fund-raisers than the Obama and Trump campaigns did. For its internet fundraising, it has gotten help from the Democratic National Committee. Last week, the campaign announced that it was looking for a "director of email and SMS" to oversee a section that generally has more than a dozen employees. A campaign official was just hired, an official announced on Saturday. 

According to information from Bully Pulpit Interactive, a marketing and communications firm, Mr Biden's campaign has invested at least $3.3 million in Facebook and Google advertisements. This sum indicates that the movement supports its quest for small donors because it is far higher than any Republican contender has spent on platforms. 

Anita Dunn and Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, Mr Biden's senior aides managing his reelection campaign from the White House, officially approved Future Forward this week as the primary recipient of massive donations from benevolent billionaires and multimillionaires.