What happens when I give to a draft fund?

Draft funds let communities persuade a specific person to run for office by gathering a pot of grassroots money and supporter names for that person should they file to run. In this way, small-dollar donors can try to “draft” a candidate, and if they run, they’ll already have established grassroots support. Draft funds are a concrete way to encourage women, people of color, and folks from other underrepresented communities to run for office.

When you give to a draft fund, we’ll hold your donation in escrow until the potential candidate named by the fund makes their decision. If they decide to run, they’ll receive all the money within ten days of their FEC filing. If they do not run for office, the money will go to a different recipient specified on the contribution form — often the group managing that particular draft fund. All of this will be noted on the contribution form and accessible to the donor.

Different groups can create multiple draft funds for the same potential candidate. If you give to a draft fund and the potential candidate does file for office, your donation counts toward your contribution limit for that campaign.

Draft funds differ from nominee funds on ActBlue: Nominee funds go to whichever candidate wins a specified Democratic primary and becomes the Democratic nominee. Draft funds are a persuasion tool to encourage someone to run for a specific office.

ActBlue does not run draft fund efforts, endorse the potential candidates they name, or ever receive money raised into draft funds. We pass along the funds according to the language on the form. We report all federal contributions to the FEC, including draft fund disbursements.

As a nonprofit, we use tips from donors to pay our bills. We don’t profit from any of the contributions we process, including draft funds. You can add an optional tip for us on the contribution form when you enter your credit card information.

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