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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 Dean 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, DC. .

Dean's people viewed the Internet as a strategic marketing tool right 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, for the e-mail file had grown from 50,000 to 630,000 addresses during the same nine months. .

Where did they get the names?

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

Moreover, all of these supporters had opted in for regular e-mail updates, Bhagat said. And they proved that they couldn't be contacted too often, for the campaign achieved a sustained open rate of 38% with its e-mails.

Those messages featured a personal writing style and were often segmented by state or affinity group. The Dean people also tried blogs, viral marketing and micro campaigns.

What is going to happen to the e-mail names now? Salie answered that this would become apparent as the Dean campaign enters its "next incarnation."

But 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."

The key to online success, though, is that "you have to invest right level of resources, and put in a fair number of people," Bhagat continued. "There was executive level commitment by (former chairman) Joe Trippi."

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, versus 66,112 for Clark and 34,570 for 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-Chaney was holding a dinner, and they made $250,000, we're say, 'let's beat that," Bhagat said. "We'd hold one and get $450,000."

Even a candidate's birthday might be an excuse for an event. Another client of Bhagat's, the National Jewish Fund, has this philosophy: "When they don't have a holiday, they invent a holiday."

How did the campaign make sure that party hosts didn't hold on to the cash?

The normal mechanism was for contributors to send the money directly to the campaign, Salie said. In the beginning, two-thirds of it came in by mail and the other third online. "We got that up to 50-50 by the end of December, he said.

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: Over 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 and 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.