April 19, 2021
Somerville, Massachusetts—Today, ActBlue announced 2.6 million grassroots donors gave a total of $314 million in Q1 2021, kickstarting another election cycle with record levels of engagement. Q1 was ActBlue’s largest first quarter of any election cycle by dollars raised, contributions, unique donors, and number of groups fundraising.
Donors gave to 10,603 campaigns and organizations — almost half the number of groups that raised on ActBlue in the entire 2020 election cycle. The momentum of advocacy and organizing on the left only continues to grow: 18.8% of groups were new to ActBlue this quarter.
Folks are staying involved and coming back to give in a new cycle, with 87.7% of Q1 donors having donated previously during the 2020 cycle. Folks newer to the movement in particular kept their momentum going: 39.9% of all Q1 donors were first-time donors in the 2020 cycle.
Donors doubled down on local and midterm elections: Contributions to congressional (House and Senate) candidates tripled compared to Q1 ‘19, and the dollars raised for state candidates who have an election in 2021 more than doubled compared to Q1 ‘19.
After a year of historic organizing around racial justice and the pandemic in 2020, movement-building stayed strong into 2021. 2,568 nonprofits raised money through ActBlue in Q1, a 146.2% increase compared to Q1 2019. The nonprofits raised 5 times more compared to Q1 2019, from 3.8 times the number of contributions.
“Small-dollar donors are paying close attention to the issues critical to our democracy,” said Erin Hill, Executive Director of ActBlue. “Even as the 2020 election cycle ended, donors kept focused on investing in long-term change. This quarter showed the urgent need for action and policy change across many fronts, and small-dollar donors signaled they are not going anywhere.”
View more Q1 numbers in ActBlue’s blog post here.