Distributed Fundraising: Frequently Asked Questions

You can see information about common legal structures here. If you choose to become a legal entity, your group would be responsible for forming the entity and remaining compliant with fundraising, spending, and reporting. Indivisible staff cannot assist with that.

Your group is allowed to be in the Distributed Fundraising program while also separately having a status of some kind (501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), etc.); however, we encourage your group to migrate off the Distributed Fundraising program since the primary purpose of this program is to provide Indivisible groups tools and support without having to seek your own status. If you have 501(c)(3) or (c)(4) status and you choose to continue using the Distributed Fundraising program, you will be required to validate annually that you are keeping the legal entity separate from the Distributed Fundraising program. If you are a registered PAC (federal or state), we will work with you to migrate off of the Distributed Fundraising program.

If your group is registered as a 501c3, 501c4, PAC or LLC,  the distributed fundraising account must be completely separate from your legal entity, and can not serve as your legal entity’s bank account. The name of your legal entity should be different from the name of your Indivisible group, and the treasurer should be different.

If you have additional questions about compliance and reporting for spending or fundraising outside of the distributed fundraising program, contact a lawyer and/or tax professional in your state.

Donors will have the opportunity to contribute to local Indivisible groups, our national organization, or both! We view our local and national fundraising efforts as collaborative and promised in our fundraising philosophy that we will try not to compete with local groups’ fundraising efforts. We want your fundraising efforts to be a success and to support your group’s activities, and we provide toolkits and resources to help you do the most effective fundraising you can. Your group will have a unique donation page that you can direct donors to. Within ActBlue, you will have direct access to everyone who’s donated to you so it’s easy for you to follow-up with your supporters.

At the same time, we’re proud to be fueled by small dollar donations at the national level because it ensures we’re most accountable to the millions standing indivisible across the country. We’ll continue to pursue donors across the country, which includes those  who give to local groups.

Groups are free to leave the program if it does not meet their needs. If you would like to leave, please reach out to fundraising@indivisible.org.

The treasurer can be any member or leader of your group that:

• Is not a candidate 
• Is not an elected official
• Does not hold a paid or volunteer political party position
• Does not have a volunteer or elected role with a political party that provides them access to non-public strategic information (messaging, voter targeting, etc.)
• Does not have a staff or volunteer  role or otherwise closely involved with the campaign of any treasurer stepping out of the role (if applicable)
• Is not the Treasurer of your legal entity, if your group has a 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), LLC, or other status

The treasurer that you list on the distributed fundraising program application will:

• Sign the distributed fundraising program agreement, agreeing to follow the rules of the program
• Serve as the primary point of contact to receive any updates about the distributed fundraising program from Indivisible
• File all necessary reports including monthly reports and political spending reports
• Sign the Firewall Agreement if/when submitting the first political spending request of the cycle
• Have the TrueLink debit card issued in their name
• Be responsible for making sure that all expenses are permitted
   

The treasurer should be able to complete the following technical tasks to fulfill their role:

• Successfully create site logins by entering an email address and password, checking email (including spam) to confirm account details, and request replacement passwords as needed; sites include ActBlue, and Truelink (login information for your Truelink account is the last four of your card, the last for of your SSN, and your date of birth)
• Open, edit, and save csv files OR open and save PDF files
• Save, find and attach jpeg or pdf files

The Assistant Treasurer can be any member or leader of your group that:

• Is not the Treasurer of your DF account 
• Is not a candidate 
• Is not an elected official
• Does not hold a volunteer or paid political party position 
• Does not have a volunteer or elected role with a political party that provides them access to non-public strategic information (messaging, voter targeting, etc.)
• Does not have a staff or volunteer  role or otherwise closely involved with the campaign of any treasurer stepping out of the role (if applicable)
• Is not the Treasurer for your legal entity, if your group has a 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), LLC, or other status

The Assistant Treasurer that you list on the distributed fundraising program application will:

• Sign the distributed fundraising program agreement, agreeing to follow the rules of the program
• Serve as the backup, or secondary, point of contact to receive any updates about the distributed fundraising program from Indivisible
• When the Treasurer in unavailable to do so, file all necessary reports including monthly spending reports and political spending reports
• Support the Treasurer in making sure that all expenses are permitted

The Assistant Treasurer that you list on the distributed fundraising program application will NOT:

• Have the TrueLink debit card issued in their name

The treasurer should be able to complete the following technical tasks to fulfill their role:

• Successfully create site logins by entering an email address and password, checking email (including spam) to confirm account details, and request replacement passwords as needed
• Open, edit, and save csv files OR open and save PDF files
• Save, find and attach jpeg or pdf files

If your original treasurer can no longer fulfill their duties, your group can switch treasurers. You can see more details around this process and fill out the form here.

You can join the distributed fundraising community Facebook group here! This is a place where Indivisible group leaders and treasurers can discuss experiences using the distributed fundraising program to learn and connect together.

Though there are ActBlue and TrueLink debit card fees, Indivisible pays those fees on groups’ behalf so that 100% of the funds your group raises are deposited onto your debit card to spend on permitted group activities. In short – there are no fees for your group!

Note that when you activate your TrueLink card you’ll see that fees are listed; these are paid by Indivisible and won’t come out of your debit card balance.

Groups do not receive tax-exempt status though Indivisible when they’re formed. Groups may, on their own, choose to apply for tax-exemption directly with the IRS or remain unincorporated. You can find more information on groups and common legal structures here. This means that Indivisible cannot provide proof of nonprofit status for group events, meetings, or expenses. Are we able to make tax exempt purchases?

Your group is responsible for its own compliance requirements. We encourage you to review resources from the Alliance For Justice  and consult with an attorney and/or tax professionals as needed for activities outside the scope of the Distributed Fundraising Program. All Distributed Fundraising Program fundraising and spending must be conducted in compliance with DF Policy and Volunteer Cardholder Agreement.

There are lots of ways you can raise funds for your group using the distributed fundraising program! Some of the most common are via email and social media, or in person at events. You should be aware of restrictions around certain types of fundraising activities. You can see more fundraising advice and information here.

Yes! We will create a template ActBlue fundraising page for you, which you can use as-is. If you prefer, you can directly edit your ActBlue page by following the instructions here.

We recommend including information about your group’s activities and mission. Ideally, the page is specific about what your group does and gives some level of detail, but is not so detailed or time-specific that you’ll need to update it frequently or that you’ll be legally restricting the donation. If you list specific types of spending as examples, it should be clear that those are examples and not the exact things you’ll spend funds on.

Be sure not to ask for support for any work that is not allowed within the distributed fundraising program.

If your fundraising asks are paid (like a Facebook ad) and you’re mentioning a candidate, you should go through the political spending approval process before spending funds on that ask.

If you need any assistance drafting your fundraising page ask, reach out to fundraising@indivisible.org.

 We prefer that all donations come through your group’s ActBlue page. Funds donated online are the easiest for us to process.

If you have donors that would prefer to contribute via check, we are able to accept checks of $50 or more. Your group is responsible for taking in all checks and ensuring the following guidelines are met:

1. Checks must be made out to “The Indivisible Project.” Please note that contributions to Indivisible Project are not tax deductible as charitable contributions or as business expenses under IRC Section 162(e).
2. The name of your group must be included in the memo line.
3. Checks MUST be accompanied by a deposit form that can be downloaded here.
4. Mail the check(s) and deposit form to the address listed on the deposit form.
5. The deposit form and your group’s name in the memo line are the only way we can distinguish between a gift that is intended to support your group versus a general gift to Indivisible.

Please note that it takes several weeks to process check donations into your account.

Cash donations are outside the scope of the Distributed Fundraising Program.  We encourage you to review resources from the Alliance For Justice and consult with an attorney and/or tax professionals as needed for activities outside the scope of the Distributed Fundraising Program. All Distributed Fundraising Program fundraising and spending must be conducted in compliance with Distributed Fundraising Policy and Volunteer Cardholder Agreement.

Your group will have a unique ActBlue donation page with your group’s name and information.

ActBlue does send email receipts to donors.

No, distributed fundraising contributions are not tax-deductible.

Yes, you can find more information here.

First, when you advertise the event, make sure that you clearly state the purpose of the event (issue area or legislative process) and that this is not a candidate event.Then, at the event, you should remind everyone in the room that you’re there to discuss issues and strategies for winning support for our positions on those issues. Here’s a helpful script:

“Hey everyone, I just wanted to make everyone aware that the purpose of the meeting today is to discuss issues, not to discuss supporting or opposing candidates for office. We may have discussions about candidates at a later date, but the purpose of this meeting is going to focus strictly on issues and is nonpartisan.”

If the candidate chooses to ignore that disclaimer and talk about him/herself as a candidate or tries to share campaign literature, politely remind them that it is inappropriate to talk about candidates at this particular event and try to refocus the discussion around the issues you’re there to discuss. Sometimes people are stubborn or just don’t get it, but your job is to ensure that the organization’s purpose is made clear and that the meeting does not get hijacked for other purposes.

Indivisible’s fundraising philosophy states the following, and this extends to groups within the distributed fundraising program:

• We won’t accept funding from political parties, their leaders, and candidates for office to avoid any appearance of influence on our strategy.
• We will never accept funding from corporations.

In short, it’s not permitted to accept donations from political parties and their leaders, candidates for office, or corporations.

• It is not permitted to sell tickets for events via your distributed fundraising account. You can hold an event where you suggest that attendees make a donation of a certain amount to your group.
• It is not permitted to sell items via your distributed fundraising account. You also cannot use grant funds to buy merchandise or materials to make merch and sell it for a “suggested donation.” This also means you cannot use distributed fundraising funds to build or maintain an online storefront where you take in funds. It is allowed, however, to receive a donation/share of proceeds from a third party website such as Bumper Active which tracks and manages tax collections and payments for merchandise they sell.
• If you are seeking donations at the same time/table/event as giving out t-shirts, you may have a donation link available at the event and even put a suggested donation amount alongside the link, but you should not have that donation transaction connected to receiving any merchandise.

All political activities must be conducted in compliance with the Indivisible Political Activities Policy and only upon the pre-approval of Indivisible staff.

You can view the spending rules here.

Unauthorized or improper spending is a violation of Indivisible policy and the Cardholder Agreement, must be immediately reported to the Distributed Fundraising team, must be reimbursed to Indivisible, and may result in immediate suspension or cancellation of the card. Please refer to your signed Cardholder Agreement and Compliance Policies for instructions regarding unauthorized or improper use of the card.

Notify fundraising@indivisible.org immediately if you have issues or questions regarding reporting.

You can pay vendors offering goods or services to the general public. You may not hire staff or retain independent contractors.

Much like work on candidate elections, work on recall petitions is typically considered partisan political activity. Since recalls can only happen to officials governing at the state and local levels, then work on recall petitions or elections are not permitted through Distributed Fundraising since partisan political work at the state and local levels is not permitted through this program.

With funds raised via the distributed fundraising program,it is permitted to:

• Donate funds to a 501c3 organization, 501c4 organization, school or hospital
• Donate items to a 501c3 organization, 501c4 organization, school or hospital if the amount is $500 or less per expense

With funds raised via the distributed fundraising program, it is NOT permitted to:

• Donate funds directly to an individual or a GoFundMe page
• Donate items directly to an individual
• Pay for mutual aid costs directly on behalf of an individual (ex: legal fees, etc)

Individuals in your group can do mutual aid work directly, outside of the distributed fundraising account. You can also take part in activities that don’t involve spending money such as:

• Sharing mutual aid opportunities, GoFundMe pages, or other fundraisers on social media
• Including actions to get involved with mutual aid opportunities in your group emails
• Including information on your website that leads folks to local mutual aid organizations

All spending for political activity requires pre-approval. Just fill out this form here and you’ll receive a reply promptly after your request has been reviewed.

True Link is a third-party vendor that provides debit cards. When you sign up for a distributed fundraising account, they will send you a card in the mail.

Deposits / balance

• A maximum of $5,000 per business day can be deposited on the debit card. If you raise more than this in a two week period, we’ll deposit $5,000 per day until you’ve received all the funds you raised. 
• There is a maximum balance of $20,000. For any funds over that we track manually on an external tracker and deposit as the balance is spent down.
• There is a maximum monthly deposit limit of $20,000. If we hit that limit the deposits will have to be delayed until after the monthly limit has passed. It’s a rolling monthly limit.

Spending

• There is a maximum daily spending limit of $5,000 per day on the card. 
• There is also a monthly spending limit of $20,000 total.

First, log in here to see your transactions.

If the transaction that didn’t go through appears here as denied, that means that TrueLink blocked it and you’ll be able to see the reason. Sometimes this can be due to insufficient funds, incorrect card information, etc. Other times it’s because it’s in a category of spending that’s not permitted through the program. If you still have questions after reviewing the denial reason, reach out to fundraising@indivisible.org.

If it doesn’t show up when you’re logged into TrueLink, the transaction was blocked by the vendor and you’ll need to connect with the vendor about next steps.

We will transfer funds from ActBlue to your True Link card every two weeks once you activate our debit card. You can see the deposit schedule here. Note that after you activate your card for the first time any outstanding deposits won’t appear until the next business day.

You can check the balance on your card using any of the following ways 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:

Phone call: You can check your balance anytime using True Link’s phone system. Simply call 1-800-299-7646. You can also hear recent transactions or request to speak to a representative.

Online: Visit https://www.truelinkfinancial.com/ and click the “Login” button in the top right corner. Then click the link that says “True Link card user log in.” Provide the last 4 digits of your Social Security number, your date of birth, and the last 4 digits of your True Link Card number. You will then be able to see your balance, monthly statements, and recent transactions.

Text message: As long as True Link has your mobile number on file, it is very easy to check your balance from your phone. (Standard text message rates may apply). Send the word “balance” to 1-800-299-7646. If you receive an error message, please call their Customer Support team at 1-800-299-7646 to make sure your number is on file.

For financial tracking purposes, it is not possible to have more than one TrueLink card for your group.

It is NOT permissible to reimburse political (candidate-related) expenses via Venmo. Those must be completed directly with the TrueLink card after getting pre-approval (more info here).

In the event that you are unable to use your True Link card to make purchases for your group, you are permitted to link your card to the mobile payment app Venmo to make reimbursements.

If you wish to reimburse other group members this way, you are required to submit itemized receipts along with your monthly report. Please remember that as your group’s treasurer, you are solely responsible for ensuring that all expenses fall within our spending guidelines, which can be found here.

There is no time limit for expenses that you reimburse folks for; as long as it’s a permissible expense (non-political) and you have the receipt from the vendor, you can issue a reimbursement. If you have any questions about permitted expenses, please reach out to fundraising@indivisible.org prior to making the reimbursement.

You should use only personal Venmo accounts, not business accounts. Anyone can create a Venmo account using these instructions. If you already have a personal Venmo account, that’s what you should use for this purpose. Venmo only allows one account per phone number, so you won’t be able to set up a separate personal and group account with the same phone number.

Linking your True Link Card to Venmo (This should be done for the person who will PAY others, someone that does not need to be reimbursed themselves )

• Open the Venmo App on your phone
• Tap the icon at the bottom right that says “me”
• Tap the gear icon in the top right
• Tap “Payment Methods”
• Tap “Add bank or card…” and then tap “Card”
• Select debit card
• Add your card information manually or with your phone’s camera

Make the payment (This should be done for the person who will PAY others)

• Make sure you have the username of those you need to pay – (you can find it by opening the app and navigating to the bottom right person w/ dollar sign. The username will be at the top and start with @)
• Open the Venmo App on your phone
• Hit “Pay or request”
• Enter the person’s Venmo username
• Select them from the drop-down list
• Enter the amount and a description
• Hit “Pay”
• Confirm payment

For extra security, we suggest that you do NOT make your TrueLink card the default payment method. When sending money to someone in Venmo, you have the option to switch your payment method before you pay. We suggest selecting your TrueLink card (which will say “Sunrise Banks”) at this point so you don’t accidentally use it when paying for personal expenses!

As a reminder, you must submit ALL itemized receipts for each reimbursement made through Venmo, so be sure to have all receipts in-hand before doing so. Please reach out to fundraising@indivisible.org with any additional questions or for assistance with linking your debit card to Venmo.

Via Venmo it’s not permitted to reimburse “yourself” with the funds, so you can disconnect the TrueLink card and reconnect it to another trusted group leader’s card who can process the reimbursement to you using the process above.

If none of these options work please see the next question down in the FAQ about how to get a check reimbursement.

The preferred method for reimbursements is to connect your True Link debit card to the mobile payment app Venmo. Instructions and guidance to do so can be found here.

Please note: Direct reimbursements should only be viewed as a last resort, and Indivisible will only make these in rare cases after every other avenue has been exhausted. Treasurers that are found to abuse the reimbursements policy — by intentionally paying through methods other than their TrueLink debit card (or encouraging others to do so), knowing that they have not successfully been able to link their debit card to a Venmo account and can request a direct reimbursement — will not be eligible for future reimbursements.

Before a reimbursement from Indivisible is considered, groups should attempt to connect their card to make the reimbursement themselves. If they are unable to do so, they should reach out to fundraising@indivisible.org to troubleshoot. Only after troubleshooting with the distributed fundraising associate and determining that it is not possible to provide their own reimbursement will a reimbursement from Indivisible be considered.

Additionally, the following guidelines must be met:

• Only treasurers with a signed fundraising agreement with Indivisible are eligible for reimbursements (we cannot provide reimbursements for other group members).
• Only expenses that are permitted through the distributed fundraising program are eligible for reimbursements.
• We cannot reimburse for partisan political expenses.
• The funds requested to be reimbursed must be available on the group’s TrueLink debit card at the time of the request.
• Treasurers need to fill out the reimbursement request form here.
  • The minimum amount for a reimbursement is $100. Multiple charges can be included with the reimbursement request form to meet this minimum.
  • Itemized receipts must be included along with the reimbursement request form.
• Reimbursements will run once a month. Reimbursement request forms submitted by the 5th of the month will be reimbursed by the end of that month.

• Email fundraising@indivisible.org immediately to alert us and we’ll walk through how you can reimburse for the purchase(s).
• If this is the First instance:
  • The treasurer must reimburse the full amount of the expenditure.
• If this is the Second instance within 12 months:
  • The treasurer must reimburse the full amount of the expenditure.
  • The TrueLink card will be deactivated until the full amount of the expenditure is reimbursed.  
  • The treasurer must verify that they have reviewed the Distributed Fundraising treasurer training video.
• If this is the Third instance within 12 months:
  • The treasurer must reimburse the full amount of the expenditure.
  • The card will be deactivated and the treasurer will be removed from the DF program.
  • The group will be suspended from the DF program for at least 30 days and until a new treasurer is identified and trained.
• Please review the complete Compliance Policies document sent to your Treasurer in September 2026. Please email fundraising@indivisible.org if you need a copy or have questions.

Unfortunately this is not possible, as the program is not set up to be able to accept grants on behalf of Indivisible groups.

No. Any communications calling for a boycott of a company are not allowed. Corporate pressure campaigns are also not allowed, unless explicitly pre-authorized by Indivisible Project.

Each month that you spend funds, you need to log into the True Link website (www.truelinkcard.com) and download a copy of your transactions for the previous month. This report is available on the 5th and a reminder email will be sent to all treasurers that need to submit this report. A report is only needed if you spent funds the previous month.

After adding notes on the purpose for each expense (what, where, and why), you’ll submit the report here by the 15th.

Any failure to comply with Indivisible policies will lead to disciplinary action up to and including loss of card privileges and removal from the DF program.

If you do not have expenses for the previous month, you do not need to submit a report. We will send an email around the 5th of each month to treasurers that need to submit a report for the previous month’s expenses.

Yes! Please save all of your receipts in a file with a note about what the expenses were for. Indivisible is required to conduct random audits of group expenses to make sure that folks are complying with the rules above, and we may ask you to send us your receipts when doing so. Like most organizations, Indivisible also conducts an annual audit, and our auditors may ask to see your receipts for various purchases.