My roommate has a subscription to The Atlantic, a political issues magazine that covers everything from the American election to China’s environmental policies. In that magazine, I found a fantastic article about Barack Obama’s fund raising campaign, entitled ‘The Amazing Money Machine’.

Basically, according to the article, a couple of Silicon Valley executives loved Obama and what he stood for. They decided to pull their skills and resources together to create an innovative and effective fund raising model for Obama’s campaign. Traditionally, presidential nominees get the majority of their funds from key, and very large, single donations from individuals. The heads of the Obama campaign, however, decided to instead tap into the social networking phenomenon that has taken over the Internet.

My.Barack.Obama.com is essentially a social networking site that revolves entirely around the candidate. It gives you about a million options on how you can participate in his campaign, from registering to vote online to downloading an Obama news widget to ring tones. There is also a ‘Make Calls’ button that provides you with a list of phone numbers to which you can spread the good Obama news to from your home.

But here’s what got me, and what has clearly been the most successful part of this website – there is an application that is dedicated entirely to personal fund raising. You can simply make a donation by clicking a button, and there is a subscription model you can sign up for that lets you donate a little every month. You can even set up your own fundraising homepage, pick a target amount, email your friends with request for donations, and watch the status of your own personal ‘fund thermometer’.

What astounds me – as a journalism student with a politics minor and as a tech enthusiast – is just how well it works. In March alone, Obama had 1,276,000 donors, according to the article in The Alantic. And while they weren’t all giving massive amounts, everything added up. In February, Obama had raised $55 million through the website – meaning that nearly $2 million a day was being donated online.

Even if you can’t stand all the hype around Barack Obama, I think you really need to appreciate how he is not afraid to embrace technology and current trends. I think the United States has the potential to elect someone who isn’t afraid of change, and is, in fact, championing for it in more ways than one.