ActBlue Chief Praises Biden’s Fundraising Efforts with Small-Dollar Donors

ActBlue chief Erin Hill praised Joe Biden’s presidential campaign’s fundraising efforts, saying they’re an indication of Biden’s success at courting small-dollar donors. ActBlue is the leading online fundraising software for left-leaning nonprofits, Democrats, and progressive groups.

“I think if you’ve seen the numbers over the past few weeks, they’re doing really, really well in their digital work. And I think that that’s because they’re centering their grassroots,” Hill told host Anna Palmer, the host of POLITICO’s Women Rule podcast.

Hill said Biden’s announcement of Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate was revealed to grassroots groups first and foremost, an example of how the Biden campaign has turned grassroots groups into a key fundraising arm.

“They announced that to their grassroots, first and foremost. That message didn’t go out to the media at first. It went out to their list,” Hill said. “And I think that they’re doing a great job of making sure that they’re helping people feel involved in that campaign, and they’re letting grassroots donors know that they need them.”

Hill also pointed to the work the Biden campaign did during last month’s Democratic National Convention (DNC), which was forced to go entirely virtual as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The convention featured a “whole series of small-dollar events where they were making [Biden] and [Harris] and other luminaries in the party kind of available, talking directly to the grassroots with a really low price point,” Hill said. 

The Biden campaign raised nearly $365 million during the month of August alone, breaking records for the most money raised in a single month by a presidential candidate’s campaign. More than 50 percent of the money raised last month came from small donors.

“More than anything, these numbers humble me,” Biden said in the statement. “Even in a global recession, working families set aside some money to power this campaign, and a little bit added up in a big way.”

President Donald Trump’s campaign raised $210 million in August, their largest fundraising amount to date.

Alan Ryland

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.