The Obama campaign, which has prided itself on robust engagement of its grassroots supporters, appears to have stumbled in an effort meant to enlist at least 20,000 small donors by the end of September.

A campaign website set up to track the grassroots fundraising competition reported just 11,518 donations through 12:47 p.m. on Sept. 30 — a surprising result given the intensive focus on the program by Obama’s campaign team.

The president himself had offered a phone call to the two individuals who gathered the most contributions as a top prize.