“Folks… need to be able to trust communications that we send them. By poisoning the well with some of the[se] texts and emails… people can’t trust the communications they’re receiving.”
What happens when the backbone of Democratic fundraising comes under scrutiny? I checked in with some of the organizers of that open letter to ActBlue.
In December 2024, a group of 142 consultants, campaign and nonprofit staff, technology vendors, and donors signed onto an open letter to ActBlue calling on the platform to do more to protect donors from spammers, scammers and exploitative digital fundraising tactics.
Collectively, the signers of this letter have raised over a billion dollars using ActBlue. For context, that’s nearly 7% of the total sum raised on ActBlue since they launched in 2004.
Those who signed on included MoveOn, SwingLeft, New Blue Interactive, the founders of Indivisible, senior digital folks who have worked with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, as well as the SMS director for Hillary for America.
That said, not everyone in the democratic digital world signed on.
There were prominent voices who publicly opted out.
Serious people in the space came forward with concerns about the letter.
I invited some of the organizers of this letter onto the pod today to discuss why they started this process, why now, what they say to those who think this was a mistake and more.
With me today is Josh Nelson, the CEO of Civic Shout, the digital ad platform for progressive causes. Josh previously served as vice president at CREDO Mobile, and led digital for Al Gore’s nonprofits.
I hosted Josh on episode 15 of this podcast for a conversation on how democratic fundraising got so problematic and where we can go from here. If you care about this topic, and haven’t already listened to that episode, I highly recommend it.
Haley Bash is a grassroots fundraiser, distributed organizer, and facilitator with 10+ years of experience in the social movement sector. They are Founder and Executive Director of Donor Organizer Hub and amongst many other notable projects, they previously built the largest volunteer-run texting program for down ballot candidates at Red2Blue Texting and serve on the Steering Committee of the Grassroots Fundraising Network.
Lloyd Cotler, an early adopter of conversational marketing, has worked with some of the biggest organizations in the country to develop engaging and successful SMS marketing strategies. He has crafted interactive text messages for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Random House, the American Cancer Society, the National Education Association and more.
In this conversation, we spoke about:
- Why now
- What led to this conversation going public
- How this letter is actually intended to help protect ActBlue
- Why it’s in our movement’s interest to solve this problem ourselves (as opposed to letting external parties making these decisions for us!)
- Who’s doing a good job raising money without using spammy tactics
- Why people are so down on Democrats at the moment
- And a whole lot more
Listen to our full conversation here or wherever you stream podcasts.
Find all episodes at HelloMergeTag.com or wherever you stream podcasts.
Full transparency (which I share right at the top of this episode): I’m not just hosting this conversation — I’m a part of it. I work with Democratic digital programs and I signed onto this letter. One of our guests, Josh Nelson of Civic Shout — a sponsor of this podcast — spearheaded this letter. We’re not hiding that.
This is about starting a conversation, and that conversation can’t happen if it’s not fully transparent. I also want to share that I reached out to ActBlue offering them a chance to join me on the pod to discuss their perspective. I’m hopeful that conversation will happen soon and I’ll keep y’all posted.
Links
Some relevant press: Here, here and here.
My episode with Josh Nelson about Democratic fundraising.
An article from Mike Nellis about why he opted not to sign the letter.
Josh Nelson
Haley Bash
LinkedIn | Donor Organizing Hub
Lloyd Cotler
Big thanks to our sponsor Civic Shout. Learn more about the great work they’re doing to help Democratic campaigns and progressive nonprofits build their lists ethically at civicshout.com/partners.
