Howard Dean may have missed his shot at the White House. But his campaign will be studied by fundraisers for a long time to come.

For one thing, the campaign raised $18 million online in nine months. For another, it drew 430,000 daily visits per day to its Web site for an average stay of 12 minutes, according to Vinay Bhagat, chairman of Convio Inc., the Austin, TX-based service provider employed by the Dean organization.

The campaign also did plenty of direct mail, but it was the online effort and “meet-ups” that made it unique, Bhagat said, speaking at the Direct Marketing Association's Nonprofit Conference in Washington.

Dean's people viewed the Internet as a strategic marketing tool from the start, Bhagat continued. By December, that meant a program of daily Web site updates and daily e-mails. That was no small thing; the e-mail file grew from 50,000 to 630,000 addresses during the same nine months.

“There was no acquisition of lists,” said David Salie, former director of house-party fundraising for the campaign. “They came from online registrations and events.” About 100,000 came from meet-ups or other forums.

Moreover, these supporters opted in for regular e-mail updates, Bhagat said. The campaign achieved a sustained open rate of 38% for its e-mails. Those messages featured a personal writing style and were often segmented by state or affinity group.

None of this came easy. “The pace is frenetic,” Bhagat said. “We'd get requests at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., and up in Vermont they'd work all weekend.”

Another secret is that Dean's people were “not shy about making the ‘ask,’” Bhagat said. “They made it often and through multiple channels.”

The populist thrust of the Dean campaign also made it a natural for house parties — fundraising events staged by volunteers in their homes. Almost 190,000 people attended these parties, vs. 66,112 for Wesley Clark and 34,570 for John Kerry.

If party hosts promised to raise a certain sum, the party would feature a conference call with Dean. On Dec. 30, the campaign held 1,400 house parties nationwide. Dean was conferenced in, and $500,000 was raised.

The campaign became skilled at quick turnarounds. “If Bush-Cheney was holding a dinner, and they made $250,00, we're say, ‘Let's beat that,” Bhagat said. “We'd hold one and get $450,000.”

Of course, there were other metrics of success. Almost 10,000 people signed up for sustainer giving, mostly monthly gifts of $25. In addition, $3 million was raised by volunteer fundraisers. Finally, these efforts also provoked action: More than 209,000 people responded to surveys and petitions, and 26,696 letters were written by supporters to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.

How did Dean end up doing so badly despite all this great work? “We built over a half-million supporters,” Salie answered. “We needed to get more in Iowa and New Hampshire and at the right time. We failed when it came to getting voters out.”

Salie was vague on whether Kerry or John Edwards' people had shown interest in these techniques. But one group seems fascinated and is already doing some of what the Dean campaign did: The Republicans.