Campaign Finance Laws

Is ActBlue a 527, or a PAC, or what?

All of the above. For federal elections, ActBlue is a registered with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) as a Political Action Committee (PAC) and is not connected with any candidate, party, or other entity. We can directly contribute to and coordinate with candidates, and can transmit earmarked contributions from individuals to candidates. We are also registered with the IRS as a 527 political organization for many of our non-federal political activities. For our state-level political activities, in more than 20 states we are registered as a political committee.

It gets awfully complex at times, but that’s part of what we do. We worry about the legal issues so that you can focus on fundraising for the candidates you support.

For the purposes of contribution limits, are contributions made via the ActBlue web site counted separately from other contributions?

For federal campaigns, No. Contributions made via the ActBlue website are just like contributions through other means (e.g. on a candidate’s web site, through the mail, at a fundraiser). ActBlue just helps deliver your contribution to the candidate.

For state-legislature and executive campaigns, it depends. We’re in the process of writing up pages about the rules in every state. Until then, please contact us if you have questions.

What are the limits on my campaign contributions?

Contribution limits for 2007-08 are as follows. (Note that some differ from the 2006 limits due to the FEC’s adjustments for inflation.)

• U.S. House and Senate candidates — $2300 per election to each candidate. (Primary and general elections are counted as separate elections, even if the primary is uncontested.)
• Federal PACs (e.g. ActBlue) — $5000 per year to each PAC.
• National Party Committees (e.g. the DNC, DSCC, DCCC) — $28,500 per year to each national party committee.
• Aggregated limits to Federal candidates — In 2007-08, you may give a combined total of up to $42,700 to Federal candidates (i.e. candidates for U.S. House and Senate).
• Aggregated limits to PACs and Party Committees — In 2007-08 you may give a combined total of up to $65,500 to Federal PACs and Party committees. No more than $42,700 of these funds may go to Federal PACs and state and local party committees.
• State and Local Party Committees — Combined $10,000 limit for party committees in each state.
• State and Local Candidates — Limits vary from state to state and there are just too many to list them all here. However, we have programmed our system to enforce the contribution limit for each office in each state. If you have questions about state limits, please contact us.

To learn more, see the FEC’s Guide for Citizens. In particular, see the section on Contribution Limits.

Why can I contribute to some candidates for state office but not others?

Each state has a different set of laws that govern its campaigns for state office, and we’re working on navigating each one. You can see a map of the states where we’re already active on the upper-right corner of our blog.

Are my contributions to candidates or to ActBlue tax-deductible?

No. Contributions to political candidates and committees are not tax-deductible.

Contributing through ActBlue

How do my contributions get to the candidates?

At least once a week we send checks to candidates aggregating all the donations they’ve received since the last time we sent them a check. We will send checks more rapidly if warranted — e.g., if a candidate has an urgent need for the cash, if a filing deadline is coming up, or if the candidate has received a sudden surge of support from the online community.

Are you taking a cut?

No! Your earmarked donations are sent to the candidates you designate. We do appreciate an extra “tip” on your candidate contributions to help fund our efforts, which you can make on the page where you enter your credit card information.

Remember, we’re a PAC, not a business. Our goal is to get as much money to Democrats as we can.

What about credit card fees?

The recipient candidates bear the cost of the credit card processing fees, just as if you gave on the candidate’s (or committee’s) own web site. The processing fee — 3.95% of the gross contribution amount — pays for our access to the credit card network and the operation and ongoing development of our fundraising infrastructure. These services are provided to ActBlue by Auburn Quad.

You’ll find more information on Auburn Quad in our July 2007 blog post.

How do I know that my contributions go where I intend them?

You can verify it yourself! Candidates and political committees (like ActBlue) must provide a complete report of contributions and disbursements to the FEC and state campaign finance agencies. FEC reports are available from the FEC website and if there is a state in which you are interested, just drop us a note and we’ll point you in the right direction.

If I donate to a campaign using ActBlue, will I get phone calls from the campaign?

No. As required by federal law, ActBlue reports your name, address, employer, and occupation to campaigns you support, but does not share your phone number and email address with the campaigns unless you request that we do so when you contribute.

Why is there a minimum donation per candidate?

When you donate to a campaign, the campaign spends money and labor processing your donation, sending you a Thank-You letter, and keeping you updated about the campaign’s progress. The $1 minimum ensures that a campaign doesn’t spend more money processing a donation than the donation is actually worth.

Special kinds of contributions

How do I make recurring contributions through ActBlue?

When you contribute through ActBlue, the payment page (just above where you enter your credit card information) gives you the option of making the contribution just once, or on a recurring monthly basis for as many months as you choose.

Your credit card will be charged on approximately the same day each month, and you will be e-mailed a receipt for each monthly transaction.

How can I modify or cancel recurring contributions once I have created them?

At any time you can modify or cancel recurring contributions by going to http://actblue.com/recurring and providing your credit card number and billing zip code.

How do “Democratic Nominee Funds” work?

Democratic Nominee Funds make it possible for you to contribute to and fundraise for the Democratic nominee of a U.S. House or Senate seat (and every four years the Presidency) — even before the nominee has been selected: contributions to these Funds are simply held in escrow and transferred to the Democratic nominee upon his/her formal selection. (In the unusual event that no nominee is selected, Senate general funds go to the DSCC and House general funds go to the DCCC. In the extremely unlikely event there is no Democratic Nominee for President or the more likely prospect that the Nominee accepts public financing, the funds will be forwarded to the DNC.) For the purposes of contribution limits, a contribution to one of these funds counts just like any other individual contribution to the candidate.

We operate our DNFs in accordance with FEC Advisory Opinions 1977-16 and 1982-23.

What is the “Presumptive Democratic Nominee Fund”?

The “Presumptive Democratic Nominee Fund” is a special kind of DNF that applies only to Presidential elections. Because the nominating process occurs over a period of time, it is possible for a candidate for the Democratic Nomination to have won enough delegates to secure the nomination long before the Convention. To ensure that our nominee has the use of this money as soon as possible, ActBlue has set up a Presumptive DNF and will release the money raised into this fund as soon as a candidate secures the support required to win on the first ballot. The Presumptive DNF was authorized by the FEC in Advisory Opinion 2003-23.

How do “Draft Funds” work?

Draft Funds make it possible for you to contribute to and fundraise for a Prospective Candidate before the individual has formally declared for office and registered a presidential campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission. Contributions to Draft Funds are held in escrow and transferred to the campaign committee of the Prospective Candidate as soon as it is registered. If a Prospective Candidate does not register a campaign committee by the registration deadline for the primary (or, in the case of Presidential Draft Funds, one week before the Democratic National Convention), the funds go to a default beneficiary. (In general, this will be the DCCC for House races, the DSCC for Senate races and the DNC for the Presidency, and will be identified in the disclaimer text at the bottom of the contribution page.) For the purposes of contribution limits, a contribution to one of these funds counts just like any other individual contribution to the Prospective Candidate or the default recipient.

We created these funds after the FEC’s November 9, 2006, decision permitting fundraising for prospective candidates in response to our request. For details, see FEC Advisory Opinion 2006-30.

Listing candidates, committees, and independent groups

How do you choose who to include in your candidate directory?

• If we’re missing a candidate, please let us know and we will post them ASAP. We list all Democratic candidates for each U.S. House and Senate seat, and do our best to add new candidates as soon as they emerge and register with the FEC. (We may occasionally omit a candidate who is clearly “not serious” — e.g., if their website is a complete hideous mess.)
• As with candidates for President, U.S. House, and U.S. Senate, we list all candidates registered as Democrats. As you can imagine, keeping track of all of these candidates is a big job. If you’d like to help collect information and research candidates, please get in touch and let us know what state(s) you’d like to work on! ActBlue can only process contributions in about half of the states in the US. Go here for an explanation.
• Candidates for local officeWe’re going to focus on expanding to state elections before drilling down further to the local and municipal offices. We may make an exception for the occasional high-profile mayoral race if the campaign finance laws are favorable.

My favorite candidate isn’t listed. Why not?

See the previous question for our listing criteria—but it may just be an oversight on our part. Please help out and let us know. As long as they’re a serious Democratic candidate we’d be happy to post them.

You listed a candidate who clubs baby seals—shouldn’t you take them off the site?

We list all competitive Democratic candidates, and don’t impose our personal or ideological judgments on our decisions to include or exclude anyone. However, if our users share our anti-baby-seal-clubbing views, no one will promote them on their fundraising pages, and there won’t be any problem.

It’s important to note that views reflected on ActBlue fundraising pages do not represent the views of ActBlue.

For a more detailed explanation about why we don’t censor which Democratic candidates or committees fundraisers can list on their pages, see this blog post from our founder, Ben Rahn.

Which independent groups do you include in your directory?

We’ve included independent groups and organizations that we believe will be of interest to our user community. The organizations conduct different types of political activities, including issue advocacy, media campaigns, voter registration, get-out-the-vote, and more. Some conduct partisan activities, while others are strictly non-partisan.

Again, please let us know if there are other groups you’d like to see listed.

Fundraising Pages

Can I make my fundraising page look like my own website?

Yes — for an example, see the Stop the Roadblock Republicans page run by John Kerry’s campaign.

We request a $1000 contribution to ActBlue for each template you’d like to have us put in place; you can create as many pages with that template as you like.

To help things go smoothly:

• Be sure that your web site template’s main content area has whitespace at least 550px wide.
• Prepare your web site template by making a local copy of a web page (i.e., a page that you could load from your hard drive if you weren’t connected to the Internet — be sure you have all the background graphics referenced in your style sheets). Send us the page as a zip file containing all the necessary HTML, CSS, and images.
• Send us your web site template and contribution at least five business days in advance to guarantee deployment on your schedule. In fact, if you’re thinking about this, please contact us as soon as possible and we can walk you through the details.

Does my fundraising page have to appear in the public directory?

No. When creating or editing your fundraising page, just uncheck the box that reads “Include this fundraising page in the directory”. This will hide your page both from the page directory and from the “See who’s raising” page for each candidate (e.g., Sen. McCaskill’s “See who’s raising” page from 2006).

Can I hide the total donors and dollars raised on my page?

Yes. When editing your fundraising page, just uncheck the box that reads “Show total donors and dollars raised.” This will hide these totals from appearing on your fundraising page.

However, please note:

• If your fundraising page is listed in the public directory, the total donors and dollars raised will appear with its listing. You must remove your page from the directory to hide these numbers completely.
• Each candidate’s “Across ActBlue” total donors and dollars raised (e.g., Sen. McCaskill’s “See who’s raising” page from 2006) reflects all contributions made through ActBlue, and your fundraising effort will be included in this total regardless of whether you appear in the directory or show these numbers on your page.

Miscellaneous

I have a great idea about how to make this site better—who do I tell?

Spectacular! Please let us know. We’d love to hear your suggestion, and if it’s a good one we’ll try to make it happen.

What’s with this missing/broken link?

Whoops! Please let us know. To be really nice, try to find the correct link and include that in your message, too.

Who are you?

Here’s some background on the ActBlue Team.

Are you hiring?

Please see our jobs page.