Small Donors Gave 48% of Obama's 2011 Donations

President Obama continues to be successful raising money through small donations—and this time around, he's outpacing his campaign from four years ago. Last year, almost half of the money raised by the president's re-election campaign came from donors who gave $200 or less in total, a new report from the Campaign Finance Institute shows. In 2007, by comparison, just 22% of the $96.7 million he raised came from donations of $200 or less. In total, Obama raised $56.7 million from small donors last year, compared to the $38.1 million small donors contributed to all of his Republican opponents combined.

Obama started out relying more heavily on wealthy donors in 2007, but the CFI notes that that changed in the fourth quarter, when small donations jumped up and remained at higher levels throughout 2008. Last year, the $56.7 million Obama raised from small donors was actually more than the total amount of $56.3 million that Mitt Romney raised, the Washington Post notes, and just 9% of Romney's funds raised came from small donors. Other GOP candidates did better, however: Nearly half of the money raised by Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul came from small donors. (More Obama 2012 stories.)