Senator Barack Obama’s online team continues to impress. I received a fundraising email from the campaign today with an interesting twist:

So I’m asking you to promise to match the donation of someone who hasn’t taken the leap yet.

Here’s how it works:

-You choose the amount you want to match.
-You write a message to a potential donor about why it’s important to own a piece of this campaign.
-You’ll be matched with a fellow supporter who’s making their first donation because of your promise.

Yet another brilliant strategy that is going to bring in more money and even more supporters. Anyone who works in the non-profit world is familiar with matching gift campaigns. Those usually work by getting a large donor to give a specific amount and then ask smaller donors to give and the large donor will match it. In this case, Obama is asking his small donors to make a small match. Donors who have recently given are going to be compelled to give again, and others who are thinking about giving, will probably make the move (As of this writing, over 2400 people have already pledged to give again in less than twelve hours). For a campaign that is depending on a large grassroots movement, this is another brilliant piece of marketing. It’s all about deepening engagement online, and the Obama campaign has it down to a science.