$533M small-donor bonanza

ActBlue sees $533M small-donor bonanza in first quarter

The Democratic online fundraising platform broke records for total raised, total donations and more in the first three months of 2020.

By SCOTT BLAND

Democrats’ digital money machine had its biggest quarter ever to start this year, as online donors poured cash into the presidential primary and helped congressional Democrats build a financial advantage in many of their biggest House and Senate races.

More than 4.3 million donors gave $533 million through ActBlue, the online donor platform used by thousands of Democratic candidates and organizations, in the first three months of 2020. The group announced Monday that the quarter set records across numerous other metrics, too, including sign-ups for ActBlue Express — the feature that saves users’ credit card information, allowing one-click donations to campaigns using the platform.

Democratic presidential candidates accounted for a large portion of the first-quarter fundraising through ActBlue, with Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg bringing in a combined $162 million in January and February alone, per their most recent campaign finance disclosures. Reports covering March are due to the FEC on Monday from the presidential campaigns and ActBlue.

But even taking the presidential candidates out of the equation, Democrats saw a big fundraising jump via ActBlue last quarter — a huge boon to Democratic Senate challengers and House incumbents, after predictions that the presidential campaign would siphon away the online money that powered so many Democratic victors in the 2018 midterm elections.

“Obviously the presidential primary was a huge factor in the first quarter, but we also saw an increase in House contributions of 50 percent over the same period in 2018 and a 100 percent increase for Senate races" over the first three months of 2018, said Erin Hill, ActBlue’s executive director, in an interview.

Donations through ActBlue accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total money raised by Democrats in House races, Hill said.

“What’s been really encouraging for us is the strength of the grassroots, small-dollar power on the left,” Hill continued. “It’s still growing, and the resiliency — donors are coming out and continuing to give. It’s not just the presidential race.”

Hill said that ActBlue didn’t see “an appreciable dropoff” in engagement with fundraising appeals when the coronavirus pandemic forced a large-scale economic shutdown in March. But she did see “candidates sending fewer emails, in particular incumbents — they were serving more as information distribution centers for their constituencies.”

Campaigns, including Sanders’ presidential effort, have also used ActBlue to raise money for charities working on coronavirus relief. The platform served as a conduit for nearly $13 million donated to such groups, ActBlue announced.

Hill said it’s unclear exactly how the coronavirus and the resulting economic chaos will affect small donors in the upcoming months, but she noted that small donors have long had to weigh their financial fortunes when giving to candidates and causes.

“With small-dollar donors, they’ve always been doing the calculus in their heads about whether to make the contribution, it’s always been a sacrifice,” Hill said. “Now it’s the same calculation, but some folks will not be in the same place. But some others are more active and more seeking change even than before.”