In September, we invited you to take part in our grassroots fundraising challenge—giving you the tools to make your own fundraising page and inspire others to own a piece of this campaign. Thousands of you took up the challenge, and we were impressed by the results.

Donna, an accounts manager in Maryland, was one of our challenge winners, leading in the category of most money raised.

She’s been a supporter of this movement since early 2007:

“After the President gave the speech saying he was going to run, I went to barackobama.com and made my first donation only a few days after," Donna recalls. "That was all it took.”

Since then, Donna has focused on online organizing.

“I got inspired by the folks working in Iowa in 2007. I decided I had to do something to expand participation, so I started building up politically like-minded friends on Facebook and community blogs, sharing information about the campaign and keeping people informed.”

For 2012, Donna reached out to her family and friends, both online and off, to support her first grassroots fundraising campaign. But her success in the challenge took her by surprise.

“I hadn’t really thought about trying to win the contest, but when I got on the leaderboard, people said, ‘Oh my gosh, let’s help her!’ and donations went up. All I had to do was tell people what I was doing.”

Donna thinks that the way to attract support is to lead by example:

“I work two jobs, but I think that if you just take the time to do what you can, others will see that and stay engaged as well. I believe this [is] a process, and we have to keep people moving and informed so we can win.”

What drives Donna most is her belief that the President knows what’s best for the country:

“He’s so much of an inspiration to us. He’s just trying to do what’s right for the average American."

Donna, Meri, and the people who donated through their pages are among the supporters who helped our movement reach the milestone of 1 million donors earlier today. You can help us keep going by pitching in today.