ActBlue collected nearly $1 billion for Harris and Biden in 2024 election cycle
$3.3 billion raised from 106 million contributions from 9.6 million people for 3400 progressive causes through mid-October
ActBlue is a fundraising platform for left-of-center organizations and candidates. ActBlue serves as a conduit to steer donations to many progressive causes.
The ActBlue PAC received $3.3 billion in the 2023-2024 election cycle from 106 million contributions made by 9.6 million people, which was passed through as “earmarks” to over 3,400 progressive organizations and candidates.
Harris for President and the Harris Victory Fund received a total of $748 million in 13 million contributions from 6.5 million people over 108 days (July 1 - Oct. 16).
By comparison, Biden for President and the Biden Victory Fund received a total of $229 million in 4.6 million contributions from 2.2 million people over 433 days (April 25, 2023 - June 30, 2024).
In addition to their processing fees ActBlue collected $88 million in tips from their fundraising platform.
About half of the contributions to ActBlue are from from donors who identify as unemployed.
In 2024 the average ActBlue contributor gave about 11 donations, which is down from the 13 made in the 2022 cycle.
Single contribution amounts ranged from $0.01 to $500,000.
Some ActBlue donors make several large donations, while others give a large number of small donations using ActBlue’s “tandem fundraising.”
Daily Contributions
With steady daily contributions ActBlue raised $1 billion from late Dec. 2022 through March 7, 2024, before many paid much attention to the 2024 election.
Daily Amounts
Cumulative Contributions
A running total of daily contributions during the election cycle shows a smoother curve. The cumulative curve below shows ActBlue contributions accelerated after Biden dropped his presidential bid and Harris became the Democratic candidate.
Over two-thirds of the ActBlue money in the 2024 cycle was spread out among over 3400 progressive organizations.
Amounts Per Contribution
The plot of amount per contribution by day is a bit curious. This plot suggests a quarterly component, and perhaps a weekly component.
Recipients of ActBlue contributions
A donor makes a contribution to the ActBlue PAC and “earmarks” the donation for a particular progressive candidate or cause. ActBlue acts as a conduit and forwards the money to the intended recipient.
Here’s a summary of all ActBlue contributions with a list of recipients receiving $15 million or more.
At this point 3446 progressive organizations have received some funding from ActBlue in this election cycle, but on any given day only about 1000 receive contributions through ActBlue “earmarks.” See plot below showing number of recipients by day.
Largest ActBlue contributors
Largest by total amount contributed
In the 2022 cycle Dr. Karla Jurvetson was the largest ActBlue contributor with total contributions of nearly $2.4 million, but she dropped to #7 in 2024 with donations of $857,845.
The SEIU COPE union moved from #2 in the last cycle to #1 this cycle. This is a rare case of an organization donating to ActBlue instead of a person.
Here are the donors giving $500,000 or more to ActBlue in this election cycle.
See the “top 1000” list of large ActBlue donors each giving $85,800 or more in this election cycle.
The large total contributions to ActBlue in the table above are not typical.
This density plot shows total contribution amounts by person are typically $25, $50, or $100.
Largest by number of contributions
The table below shows the 15 ActBlue contributors giving 10,000 or more donations in this election cycle.
The top 1000 list shows ActBlue donors each giving 2156 or more contributions in this election cycle.
Some claim donors giving a large number of small donations have been smurfed, Several state attorneys general are investigating.
The following unusual plot shows ActBlue receives a huge number of donations from donors giving a few times. For example, 3,489,597 persons made a single donation, while 1,792,180 made only two. Only 134,004 gave exactly 10 times.
Some individuals gave an extremely large number of times. One individual made 22,839 ActBlue contributions in this election cycle. Another gave 15,487 times.
Employers of ActBlue contributors
ActBlue FEC reports identify the employers and occupations of contributors.
There is no standardization of employer names, so many variations could be collapsed (with lots of work).
Tech giants are the largest named employers of ActBlue contributors, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook/Meta, Apple, IBM.
Federal and state governments employ many ActBlue donors, including US Government and “Government,” US Postal Service, State of California, Department of Defense (DOD).
Many ActBlue donors are from universities: Stanford University, University of Michigan, Harvard University, University of California, UCSF, University of Washington, Columbia Universities.
Financial institutions with many ActBlue donors include Bain Capital, Wells Fargo, and Blackstone.
ActBlue reports show nearly 1.5 million employers. See list of the top 1000 employers:
Occupations of ActBlue contributors
Separately from employer, ActBlue contributors are required to identity their occupation. The occupations and ranks in 2024 are similar to a list from 2022.
ActBlue reports nearly 410,000 occupations. See list of the top 1000 occupations:
Limitations
FEC data is fairly “dirty.” For example, the same name can be reported multiple times with different spellings or addresses. There is not sufficient information to reconcile these differences and report more accurate aggregations.
ActBlue “Tandem” fundraising
Large numbers of individual contributions are possible with the ActBlue platform because of the “Tandem Fundraising” feature.
An individual can sign up for a single contribution, which can recur every month. These tandem contributions can be split into dozens or hundreds of small contributions reported in separate FEC records.
An individual can think only a few contributions were made, but those “few” can result in hundreds or thousands of FEC records.
It’s unclear whether large numbers of ActBlue contributions are from “smurfing” or if “tandem fundraising” is the explanation — or both.
Technical
This analysis was based on 13 FEC filings by ActBlue from Jan. 31, 2023 through Oct. 24, 2024.
These are the specific 13 FEC files, which can be downloaded here. Parsing FEC records is a bit of a pain.
There will be one more filing, the “Post-General” report, to close out this election cycle. In 2022 this was a huge file with nearly 20 million lines.
Related
ActBlue Bombshell: Dem money platform tells Congress it didn't block foreign gift cards until fall, John Solomon, Just the News, Dec. 10, 2024.
Probe into whether Democrats use ActBlue platform to cheat at fundraising expands to 19 states, Just the News, Oct. 8, 2024.
