A closer look at two of the biggest (and perhaps failing) donor platforms, those who donate to them, and exactly how close this system is to money laundering and potentially enabling voter fraud
When I first got information regarding the financial underpinnings of the Democratic Party financial system it was mostly centered around ActBlue, which is arguably the bigger of the two donor platforms that caters exclusively to the Democratic side of things. I started noticing that there were many 501(c)3 “non-profit” organizations such as Vote.Org and others who postured themselves as nonpartisan organizations but are clearly anything but. I always thought it was very illegal for 501(c)3s to contribute in any way to a political campaign or candidate, but apparently these organizations have found a way to make it so.
In any case, as of right now we have two financial systems that back the DNC in it’s mission to fund and staff the Democratic Party, EveryAction/NGP VAN and ActBlue.
EveryAction/NGP VAN was acquired by British equity firm Apax Global in 2021 and consolidated to form Bonterra. Since the acquisition, staffing cuts across the board to the tune of nearly 400 people in 2023 have dramatically reduced customer service and community outreach programs, as well as training programs that were aimed to support grass roots voter and policy initiatives across the country. Interestingly, challenges facing Democrats include lagging fundraising, low voter enthusiasm, and potential challengers to President Joe Biden. Neglect of long-standing issues with the party’s campaign tech infrastructure could further complicate those challenges, as could staff cuts at the firms Democratic campaigns rely on. Similar cuts have been seen in organizations such as EMILY’s List, where budget and program cuts are shifting focus and funds towards supporting Kamala Harris, since at least October of 2023. They pushed hard on it during the 2020 election, but now again in the lead-up to the 2024 election year there seems to be an unusual renewed interest. But that is a topic for another article altogether.
ActBlue is about as close to political money laundering for campaign financing as you can get. I originally stumbled across them through other “non-profit’ organizations that use them as their fundraising platform. It seems like you cannot find a progressive left leaning organization that doesn’t have some if not all of it’s staff donating through ActBlue at some point.