Why donating to campaigns is not the best use of your limited resources
UPDATE: A friend and fellow activist asked "well, could you give advice as to how to direct campaign funds well, assuming you are going to give to campaigns?" I give some thoughts on that at the end.
This is addressed to people, like myself, who care deeply about the outcome of our coming elections. I hope to convince you that, despite that fact, your donations are much better spent elsewhere. Where? I cover that in this post.
I do recognize, of course, that candidates need money, but campaigns take in more than they can spend productively. And there are essential supports to our democracy that are underfunded. One House race in 2024 (NY-17, $18 million in candidate expenditures, PLUS $26 million in PACs) consumed nearly twice the entire budget of the Internet Archive / Wayback Machine ($23 million). The Internet Archive is an enormously valuable repository, not just for Americans but globally. OpenSecrets ($4.5 million), the source of the campaign data, runs on an even smaller shoestring. Signal, the texting app many of us use because it has better security (and functionality) than texting and doesn't expose us to big tech surveillance as Meta's (Facebook) Whatsapp does, had less than $30 million in revenue in 2024 which didn't cover their expenses. You support for these organizations will do more to preserve our democracy than the incremental value to federal campaigns.
Even worse, campaign spending is hugely inefficient – concentrated in a short period of time and largely by outsiders rather than steadily building community infrastructure. So, if you want to give money to efforts that can affect elections directly, give to my priority 2 orgs (below). Among other things, they engage marginalized communities in voting, get people to the polls, and other activities that are essential to elect the people I would like to see elected. My priority ones, are necessary for a functioning democracy, too, and generally most need the funds.
One exception for NYers is municipal (in NYC) and state elections where there is an 8x matching program. So, if the candidate qualifies, your $25 turns into $225. Caveat to the caveat, for NYS, it only applies if you are a constituent, so state senators or assembly members that are not yours will not get the match.
So, I my priorities for giving to protect our democracy are:
1) Civil society organizations like OpenSecrets, ACLU, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Internet Archive, Democracy Docket
2) Grassroots organizations working on voting rights, citizen engagement, empowering people (see list here).
3) State and local elections (particularly, where there are programs like NY's that magnify small-ish donations).
4) Congressional and Senate races
5) Even worse is donations in the last month of the campaign.
Desperate as we will feel in October to do one more thing to push someone over the top, and as many emails, calls, texts, and other appeals to give one more dollar to get so-and-so the votes they need, it is unclear that the last dollar will even have ANY positive impact. It is possible for campaigns to have TOO MUCH money so they spend their resources alienating voters. There may be an election that is on a knife-edge, but it probably won't be the one you give your money to.
P.S. The organizations on this list are much LESS LIKELY to be filling your email and text streams with fundraising appeals. They generally spend much less of their limited resources bugging potential donors.
P.P.S. Maybe some day I will learn how to format in Ghost. Today is not that day.
HOW TO DIRECT POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS if you are going to give them.
Apparently, I haven't convinced everyone not to contribute to campaigns at all. To be honest, I make political contributions myself – though I would say it is more for impure motives – not because I believe it will be valuable to help elect people "buying influence" [for the orgs I give through, like JStreet] or to get access (attend fundraisers, etc.).
In terms of having an impact, I would say go with state or local – especially, NYers and some others can take advantage of an 8:1 match and multiplied by 9 times DOES make it worthwhile.
Avoid the high profile races. OH senate race matters and I love Sherrod Brown, but there are going to be a gazzillion dollars spent until Ohioans are afraid to turn on their TV and will be throwing out their mail. Sherrod will have enough money to spend. Actually, I was spurred finally to write this because a letter-writing effort wrote "Over the last year, we’ve run detailed analysis of past adopted campaigns and what we’ve found is that letter-writing works best to increase voter turnout in less noisy state and local elections." Less noisy, I like that. As with letters, so with dollars.
My friend asked about Swing Left. They seem to do good work but I don't know enough to endorse them. I am a fan of the States Project.
Give early. Give to challengers.
Give to people in close races who are rejecting PACs. That's become a major point of mine. If they are taking the risk of turning away money, we should support that by making up for it. Another reason I am ignoring my own advice and making some contributions.
All of that said: do you use Signal? Wikipedia? Internet Archive/Wayback Machine? A local news site? All of them operate all less than what many federal campaigns will spend in September/October.
Political campaigns are rarely the best use of your funds.
