How messages from political candidates encouraged donors to donate again and again

Sandra has always been an active participant in elections.

She worked as a poll worker when she lived in Texas and continued volunteering after moving to Orange County around 2016, but was too busy to complete her training this year. In the run-up to the election, she spent her days working what she called a full-time, unpaid job reading and responding to texts and emails from political candidates.

Sandra, 88, said that by around noon the other day, she had already received 125 text messages asking for donations to the campaign. Often she ends up transferring some money to this activity.

“I’ve been working on this since early this morning and I’m just trying to get it done now because there’s so much to do,” Sandra said. “Once they get you, this goes on non-stop. It started with a few people, but then it spread out. “So, can you please help this senator?” Please help this councilor?”

Since the election cycle began in January 2023, she has been given an average of 12 grants a day, typically around $20 each. This equates to at least 8,300 individual donations. Sandra donated a total of $166,000 during this campaign, 50% of which went to Donald Trump.

Prompted by an overwhelming number of text messages and emails, Sandra has become a new kind of political donor. These are people who donate fairly small amounts, sometimes as little as a dollar, over and over again. More than 13,500 Americans made frequent donations this cycle, according to a Times analysis of campaign finance records from WinRed and ActBlue, the fundraising platforms used by most Republican and Democratic campaigns. On average, they donate more than once a day.

Although the number of donors to ActBlue and WinRed decreased in 2024 compared to 2020, the two platforms both saw an increase in the number of frequent donors. WinRed’s frequent donor count increased by over 740%, outpacing ActBlue’s count (up 14%). To protect their privacy, The Times is not publishing the full names of the donors and families included in this story.

Donations from those who donate frequently may accumulate. Campaigns come together through community fundraising committees, which distribute contributions far beyond what individuals can contribute to candidate committees alone.

Although only 0.2% of WinRed’s donors, these highly frequent donors account for a quarter of transactions and up to 8% of total fundraising. In 2020, frequent donors accounted for just 1.7% of WinRed’s fundraising. For ActBlue, frequent donors accounted for 3.6% of total funding, up from 2.4% in 2020.

Campaigns are counting on this kind of response from frequent donors, who increasingly account for a larger portion of overall fundraising. Among the committees that have raised more than 100,000 donors, the right’s biggest beneficiary is Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim), who represents California’s 40th Congressional District, which includes part of Orange County. Hills). 35% of her WinRed fundraising came from frequent donors. On the left, Occupy Democrats received 31% of their ActBlue funds from frequent donors.

Kamala Harris’ campaign committee and PAC received 1% of their funds from frequent donors. Trump’s PAC received 3% and 5% from frequent donors.

Campaign text is usually designed to feel unique and urgent. For Sandra, they reflect the personal relationships she has built with federal, state and local candidates. Their text asks her to help by completing a survey, reading the information and considering a donation through a unique code that represents a high level of security for her.

“If you could talk to President Trump for five minutes, what would you say?” she joked. The question didn’t make much sense, but she talks to him almost every day. “He’s probably the first message I get and the last message I get.”

Republicans are sending more fundraising messages than Democrats, according to an analysis by YouMail, a robocall blocking service. Both parties spike text message spikes around major news events, such as the change of a party candidate or a criminal conviction.

“If you look at the numbers released for fundraisers, it’s clear that it correlates with the sheer volume and high level of text messages,” said Alex Quilisi, CEO of YouMail. He added that robocalls are decreasing because people tend to ignore them. But with text, it’s easy to do something with just a click.

“Our estimates are that every voter in America receives, on average, between one and four emails per week,” Kuilici said.

According to Quilici data, most messages came from the 88022 shortcode used by the Trump campaign, second only to Temu and ahead of CVS, USPS and Walmart. He estimates that from mid-September to mid-October, the figure was between 4 million and 8 million messages sent per day. A Times reporter sent a text message to the number, which has never responded or made a donation, but has received at least five messages a day since then.

Democratic campaigns also rely on frequent donations.

Gary, a former lawyer and lobbyist who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has donated more than 12,000 times since the election cycle began, primarily to left-wing groups such as Retired Americans PAC and Diverse Democratic Congressional PAC.

Gary, 82, said his daughter Hilary thinks he’s contributing too much. “A typical day for me now would be a small amount (of donations), less than $10 or so, but my daughter says, ‘I gave too much money today.'”

Since Hilary has access to her bank account, she can see and track the progress of each transaction. She said her father sometimes forgets that he has already donated that day. His donations can exceed 60 per day.

Hilary noticed an increase in her father’s donations since her mother passed away in 2019. There were only 18 donations that year. In 2020, there were nearly 1,400 posts. He used to lead an active life traveling, scuba diving, and skiing with his wife, but now he has fewer things to do to fill his days, and these messages make him feel involved. Yes, she said. She hopes the donations will stop after the election. Or at least, I hope the campaign realizes, “Okay, he donated today.” We’re not going to keep sending (messages). ”

Gary’s daughter Hilary worries that he is spending too much money and is addicted to texting.

(Roberto E. Rosales/For the Times)

Like Sandra, Gary receives many text messages and emails every day. Hillary said she is “responding to everything and donating money.”

“Every time he receives an email, he thinks it’s contacting him directly,” she added. Her father shared concerns about the messages, saying, “They’re telling me I have to (donate).” They say they think I like Trump now. ”

When he complains to her that he doesn’t have money, she reminds him that you contribute thousands of dollars a month through these small donations. During this campaign, Gary donated nearly $62,000, most of it divided into thousands of $5 donations.

“When you split the price of something into multiple parts and multiple fees, people are more likely to pay more,” said Erin Witte, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America.

Campaigns often ask for small amounts, such as $5 or sometimes as little as $1. But the donation page to complete that small transaction has a maze of checkboxes that, when checked, will automatically repeat your donation on a specific day or at regular intervals.

When you combine regular donations with a personal connection to a candidate, mass texting can lead to very frequent donations, which can keep your donation totals growing. Witte said he doesn’t know if this is inherently abusive, but pointed to the fact that the system is designed to react and target people who exploit cognitive biases.

But it’s not illegal.

“When we started thinking about political campaigns about 50 years ago, texting didn’t exist,” Witte said, adding that political campaigns are exempt from certain parts of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Do Not Call Registry. he pointed out. This means it can be difficult to stop the messages. And once someone starts participating in a campaign, that information is often shared with others.

Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes defended the fundraising strategy.

“President Trump’s campaign is proudly supported by small-dollar donors,” Hughes said. “We provide direct and direct support by notifying you as soon as you sign up for a recurring donation, sending a three-day notice before processing, notifying you when processing is complete, and having staff on hand to assist with refunds and cancellations. We strive to be transparent.”

Sandra said she used to receive transaction notifications, but not anymore. WinRed’s website states that donors can request a refund for erroneous donations within 60 days of the donation date. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

ActBlue will accept refund requests within 90 days and will attempt to recover funds from the committee for donations made before that date. If a caregiver needs to request a refund on behalf of another person, ActBlue has established an advanced care team. This team will work with your power of attorney and other guardians to process refunds, cancel recurring donations, close accounts, and even issue blocks from all future donations associated with your email address. You can.

Megan Hughes, the charity’s communications director, said: “We understand that each donor’s situation is different. When concerns are raised, Act Blue strives to resolve them with empathy and efficiency. ” he said.

The campaign will not stop sending fundraising messages to donors even after reaching the donation limit. In fact, you can make the most of your donations through a community chest committee. These allow for complex ways to move funds between participating committees in order to increase the amount that donors can contribute after reaching Federal Election Commission limits for individual committees.

Initially, all of Sandra’s presidential donations went to President Trump’s Save America political action committee. The fine print on the contributions page says this is a community fundraising committee representing his candidate committee and his Save America PAC. During the election period, a single donor can contribute up to $23,200 to participating committees and recount funds.

In April, as Sandra’s donations neared the limit, her donations began going to the newly formed Trump National Committee. This partnership between the Trump Nominating Committee and the Republican National Committee has a much higher contribution limit of $150,000 per year due to the higher limits for party committees.

Brett Kappel, an attorney with deep campaign finance experience, said there is no incentive for fundraising committees to communicate with campaigns and stop sending messages to donors who have reached their limit. Instead, committees are allowed to keep excess contributions in their accounts for 60 days, during which time they can earn interest or receive investments. And as long as the fundraising committee is still active, regular donations can continue long after the election is over.

Rather than track excessive donations, some committees wait until they receive a letter from the FEC before remitting or refunding donations, Kappel said.

As Sandra watched the results come in on election night with friends, she was delighted to see many of the candidates she supported win seats. She said she plans to reduce her donations now that the election is over. But breaking the habit of replying to messages can be difficult. There’s always another election around the corner. Sandra said she keeps a hard copy of each transaction to track her contributions.

“I mean, my paper alone is huge,” she said. “That’s why I’m glad to see this piece end so I can get rid of all that stuff. And I’m never going to do anything like this again.”