Democratic Fundraising Powerhouse ActBlue Amassed Nearly $150 Million From Small Donors With Misleading Sales Pitch, Documents Show
https://dailycaller.com/2021/10/24/actblue-small-donors-fundraising-tips/ActBlue, the fundraising platform that commands a virtual monopoly over Democratic online fundraising, accumulated a cash hoard of at least $172.8 million by the end of 2020 while simultaneously claiming it needs “tips” from donors to keep its lights on.
ActBlue states on its website it asks for “tips” because it does not profit from processing contributions made through its platform, but ActBlue’s credit card processing arm has reported paying taxes on its business profits every year since 2013, IRS records show. From 2013 through 2020, ActBlue’s PAC collected $147.7 million in “tips” from small-dollar Democratic donors, FEC records show.
“If ActBlue’s claims of tips being essential to their operation are in fact false, and donors are making contributions based on those claims, this raises serious legal concerns,” Former National Republican Congressional Committee General Counsel Chris Winkelman told the DCNF.
“The Department of Justice has shown a willingness in recent years to charge 527 political committees with conspiracy to commit wire fraud through false and misleading representations,” Winkelman added, referring to recent prosecutions against scam PAC operators. “State deceptive practices laws also exist to protect donors from being duped.”
A fool and his money are soon parted.
But wait, there is more.
Despite ABTS reporting that it is paying taxes on its business profits, ActBlue states unequivocally on its website that it does not profit from processing donations.
“As a nonprofit, we use tips from donors to pay our bills,” ActBlue states on its website. “We do not profit from any of the contributions we process.”
“We’re a nonprofit, and we can only keep our tools up and running with the support of small-dollar donors like you,” ActBlue states on another page titled “What are ActBlue Tips for?”
“We pass along a 3.95% processing fee on contributions to the groups using our platform,” the page states. “ActBlue does not make money off of donations.”
