Groups across the country have been asking for support with fundraising, so it was important to us that we develop this program. However, it is very expensive to maintain this distributed fundraising system—including lawyers and an accountant to ensure the money is handled and spent legally and to fill out any necessary regulatory reports; staff time to manage the vendors and provide fundraising resources; credit card processing fees through the ActBlue platform itself; and the cost of the debit cards to allow you to spend the money.
We think this is an important service to provide, and we’re trying to keep the cost to you as low as possible. That’s why, starting June 1, we’ll lower the portion of funds that we take from 15% to 10%. We’re going to be running the program at a loss to us, but want to make it as useful and accessible to as many groups as possible.