RIO RANCHO — Though you might not know it from the tens of millions of dollars Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton rake in every month, fundraising for political campaigns is difficult.

The donations are not tax-deductible like donations to charities, and with campaign donation limits of $2,300 per individual, campaigns must reach out to a large number of small-dollar donors to raise enough money to be viable in elections. But with high gas prices and an economic recession squeezing workers, getting money is becoming increasingly harder. And so campaigns have had to become clever in their fundraising pleas.

Democrat Martin Heinrich’s campaign for U.S. Congress has used the Internet to spread a number of fundraising contests. The first was a “pie contest,” which netted the campaign roughly $1,500 online in less than 48 hours with an average donation of about $60, according to Matthew McMillan, Heinrich’s Internet strategist.

The contest was simple: “Everyone that makes an online contribution to my campaign between now and 6 p.m. on Wednesday will get entered into a drawing,” Heinrich announced on his Web site less than 48 hours before the deadline. The winner received a free pie from the Heinrich campaign delivered by Heinrich himself on Thanksgiving.

The contest not only generated activity in a week that is normally tough to raise money, but it also attracted attention. McMillan said the contest drove traffic to the campaign’s Web site in addition to raising money.

Sometimes the fundraising itself can be traditional, or as traditional as the Internet allows, but the hook used by campaigns is different. Such was the case in the end-of-the quarter fundraising challenge set by Democrat Bill McCamley’s campaign in the 2nd Congressional District. The campaign sent out an e-mail to supporters asking them to help the campaign raise “30K for Bill’s 30th.” McCamley’s 30th birthday fell on April 1, the day after the end of the first fundraising quarter. The campaign set an ambitious goal of raising $30,000 in the two weeks before the end of the quarter — a “birthday present” for McCamley that served, McCamley campaign manager Michael Ward said, to energize fundraisers.

“A lot of new small donors over the Internet” responded to the call to give donations of $30, Ward told the Independent. “On the other hand, we reached a lot of people Bill had tried to reach before but weren’t interested.”

One reason the high-dollar donors who previously had not given money to McCamley became more open-handed was that Bill McCamley won the pre-primary nominating convention contest over Harry Teague. When the idea for the fundraising campaign came, the campaign was hoping for a convention victory to start some momentum. “We recognized that Bill’s birthday was the day after the end of the quarter ended and that the convention was about halfway through the month, leaving a nice window to get everyone excited,” Ward said.

The campaign more than exceeded expectations. McCamley received more $55,000, almost twice the campaign’s original goal, according to Ward. “Another day or two and we would have got to double,” he said.

The most successful contest the Heinrich campaign has held is the “Lunch With Martin” contest. The contest has been so successful they are currently running the same contest, ending April 30.

The idea came from an even more high-profile contest: Barack Obama held a dinner with Obama fundraising challenge in the summer of 2007.

In the local contest, donors were entered in a drawing to win a lunch with Heinrich by giving as little as $5 to the campaign. Five winners were chosen to have lunch with Heinrich at the Italian restaurant Scalo in Albuquerque.

Such campaigns are about more than just raising money, according to McMillan. Heinrich got feedback from the five lucky donors as well as money through the contest. “It’s important to have a conversation with your supporters about a number of things — not only to contribute, but also opportunities to get involved,” McMillan said.

The money, however, did come in. The contest was designed to raised $15,000, but ended up raising more than $18,000 with an average donation of $125.

Contests like the pie contest or the $30K for Bill’s Birthday contest can come together more quickly and cheaply thanks to the Internet.

“Before the Internet, if you wanted to send a letter to your supporters, you’d have to spend money and time stuffing the envelopes and paying for the postage and paying for the printing,” McMillan explained. “Whereas now, it’s much cheaper to send an e-mail to your supporters or post something on a blog or post something on your Web site.”

Both Heinrich and McCamley, as well as many other Democrats around the state and nation, have taken advantage of ActBlue. Heinrich raised has $167,104 through the fundraising Web site so far. Only Democratic Senate candidate Tom Udall has raised more money on the site. McCamley, who has raised $60,216 through the site so far, currently ranks fourth behind Don Wiviott of the 3rd Congressional District and Michelle Lujan-Grisham of the 1st District.

The donors on ActBlue tend to give in small amounts, but they can also create their own fundraising pages for their favorite candidates and, in turn, become fundraisers. The Blue America ‘08 page has raised $2,790.09 for Heinrich to date on ActBlue. Steffo’s NM-02 Congressional Fundraising page has raised $1,050 for McCamley. ActBlue is, according to its Web site, “a Federal PAC that enables anyone — individuals, local groups, and national organizations — to fundraise for the Democratic candidates of their choice.”