Distributed Fundraising: Frequently Asked Questions

Trust us, since we incorporated our own organization: incorporating takes a lot of time, reams of paperwork, and hundreds (or potentially thousands) of dollars in fees. On top of that, each type of non-profit has a variety of legal restrictions—for example, 501(c)(3) organizations are generally prohibited from taking part in elections. By using the national Indivisible fundraising system, you won’t have to worry about managing your donations, and we’ll handle a lot of the paperwork on the front end.

Groups that are already incorporated are welcome to join the fundraising program. However, in many cases, incorporated groups can simply fundraise on their own without going through this system. It's up to you!

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 will be providing toolkits, resources, and campaign ideas to help you do the most effective fundraising you can. 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, including those who give to your local groups. We are also giving local groups the option to opt-in to sharing a higher percentage of their fundraising with us, so that we’re able to roll-out bigger and better programs across the country next year.

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 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
• 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; 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

If your original treasurer can no longer fulfill their duties, your group can switch treasurers. Fill out the form here and we’ll be in touch with next steps.

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 now 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 longer fees for your group!

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, now or later. You can also create additional pages for different campaigns by duplicating the page we created and making edits. If you need help with ActBlue, please email info@actblue.com. Additionally, ActBlue has put together some useful tips to help you take advantage of all the features they have to offer, which can be found 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 keep in mind that a 10% fee still applies for checks.

We are unable to accept cash donations through the distributed fundraising program.

No, unfortunately you cannot use ActBlue for merchandise sales. However, if you have group merchandise, you can offer t-shirts or other items as a thank-you gift to donors that make a contribution if this is something your group wishes to do.

Each group will have a customized ActBlue page connected to our national organization, the Indivisible Project. 90% of donations that come through that page will be transferred to the debit card as a grant to your group, and no other local groups will be able to access those funds.

ActBlue does send email receipts to donors.

Groups will have access to a list of donors that gave through their ActBlue page, but the level of information is dependent on what the donor puts in. At minimum, there'll be an email address so they can write a thank you email, and most should also have an address where they can send cards or notes.

Here is a guide about how to access your donor information.

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.

In some instances Indivisible national is able to accept grants on behalf of groups through the distributed fundraising program. If you’re looking to accept grant funds through the program, contact fundraising@indivisible.org for next steps. Our legal, finance, and fundraising staff will assess whether we’re able to accept the grant. We do our best to work with groups and grantors to accept grants, but it’s not always possible. The decision making process, and agreement process if the grant can be accepted, usually takes 2-4 weeks.

Here are some things to note about grants accepted through the program:

• Like all other donations through the program, 10% of the grant funds are retained by Indivisible national to help cover the costs of the program. (see more here)
• The funds must be granted to “Indivisible Project,” and will then be given as a sub-grant to your group. This requires all parties (your group, Indivisible Project, and the grantor) to sign a grant agreement (or agreements). Our legal staff will help draft the agreement(s).
• Your group is responsible for all reporting requirements, tracking of grant spending, and maintaining a relationship with the grantor (if required). Your group is still responsible for normal monthly reporting with Indivisible national.
• We are only able to accept grants from nonprofits, not corporations. Usually the nonprofit will need to be a 501(c)(4), but depending on circumstances it may be possible to accept funds from a 501(c)(3).
• The purpose of the grant spending must align with allowed spending within the distributed fundraising program, and should not be especially restrictive. It’s less likely that we’ll be able to accept the funds through the program if the spending is for partisan political activity.

Indivisible also offers a grant program called GrassRoots Organizing Wins (GROW) which supports group collaboration and capacity building. Groups can apply for grant money for projects, supplies, trainings, venues, vendors, and more. This program is administered through the distributed fundraising program. You can find more details here.

Starting on August 15th, 2020 all individual donations to groups in the distributed fundraising program over $200 will be disclosed to the FEC.

• Who will be affected: Donors to your group who make a donation over $200
• What information will be disclosed: Name, address, occupation, employer, date of contribution, and amount of contribution
• How will you get this info?: ActBlue automatically collects most of this information. If we need to confirm or collect occupation and employer information, we will reach out to donors who give over the disclosure threshold.
• Will donors be notified?: Yes, we will email donors who donate a gift over $200 to notify them that their donation will be disclosed to the FEC.

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.

In order to help local groups fundraise, it’s necessary that the funds be donated to Indivisible Project, our national organization, and we then grant the majority of the money to your local group for your group activities. For that reason, the money can only be spent on activities that are legally permitted for Indivisible Project’s tax status. Because we are a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, there are certain things that this money cannot be spent on.

Permitted expenses:

• Public education. This includes work to educate the public about legislative processes or proposed legislation.
• Voter registration and GOTV activity when not coordinated with a political party, candidate, or campaign. This includes work to register voters or provide information about election dates and locations, absent any mention of candidates. It is only permitted to spend funds on this when you are not collaborating with a political party. In Arizona, this work must be totally non-partisan (no partisan messaging or targeting).
• Lobbying. This includes the cost associated with asking elected officials to support or oppose legislation. 
  • Please note: Certain states may require you to register and report any spending on lobbying state or local officials or asking others to do the same. Lobbying as a general category can also include advocacy work such as rallies, asking folks to call their legislators, etc. 
• Group building. This includes any normal costs of supporting your group’s day-to-day operation that is not specific to a certain project or campaign, such as meetings to plan agendas and discuss overall group strategic direction.It can include things like meeting space rental and food, Zoom accounts, website costs, general group swag, etc. 
• Donations to 501c3 or 501c4 charitable organizations.
• Pre-approved independent political spending on federal elections. For federal reporting purposes, partisan political spending includes: any activity conducted to influence the election, selection, nomination, or appointment of any individual to a federal office; to an office in a political organization or political party; or as a delegate or elector for President or Vice President. This may include, for example, ads that explicitly seek to support or oppose a candidate for federal office, or voter outreach that explicitly supports or opposes a candidate. You may notice a theme here: supporting or opposing a candidate for federal office. More general work related to elections, like get-out-the-vote activities that don’t mention a candidate, are not considered partisan political spending for federal reporting purposes, as noted above. Any activity that qualifies as political spending MUST be pre-approved. This is because Indivisible must file reports on this spending with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), sometimes within 24 hours of the communication being disseminated. This is why it is extremely important that you get pre-approval for political spending, and work with us to get the information we need to file with the FEC. The political spending pre-approval form is here.

Prohibited expenses:

• Coordinated political activity. This includes spending that is done in coordination with candidates, candidate committees or their agents, political parties, or PACs. Spending is considered coordinated if it is done in cooperation, consultation, concert with, at the request, or suggestion of a political party, candidate, candidate’s authorized committee, or their agents; if a candidate, candidate committee, political party, or campaign representative was materially involved in decisions regarding the expense; if members of a campaign had substantial discussion about the expense; or if the expense was made through a common vendor with a campaign, political party, or committee, or with the guidance of a recently departed ex-employee of a campaign, political party, or committee. NOTE: This also means that there are restrictions on what kind of fundraising requests can be made. Please do not ask people to donate money so that it can be spent on any specific candidate’s campaign or independent expenditure campaign.
• Direct contributions to campaigns or political committees. This card cannot be used to make direct financial contributions or offer other direct financial support to a candidate, candidate’s committee, political party, or PAC.
• Political spending on state or local races, including supporting or opposing ballot measures or questions. The card cannot be used for any political activity directed towards influencing the outcome of state or local races. Indivisible cannot provide support for legally-mandated reporting associated with these races.
• Unrelated personal expenses or personal enrichment.
• Drugs or alcohol of any kind.
• Staff or independent contractors. The card cannot be used for payment to any vendor that would require a tax form or payroll system in order to accept payment.

In many cases your card simply won’t work at places where these kinds of purchases are made, but it is your responsibility to make sure you follow these rules.

Groups cannot use the funds raised through the distributed fundraising program to hire staff or independent contractors. You can, however, hire vendors such as caterers for events.

If the Facebook ad is for general group activities, events, and recruitment, then funds raised through the program may be spent without pre-approval.

If the Facebook ad supports or opposes a candidate for elected office, your group must request pre-approval through this form. It will also require that an Indivisible staff member is an administrator on your group’s page for the length of the run of the ad so that the ad will have the correct disclaimer. When running ads to support or oppose a candidate, you will not be able to run other non-political ads concurrently. If you are interested in running political ads on Facebook, please reach out to fundraising@indivisible.org for more information.

No, the only electoral activity that you can use funds for is activity related to a federal election—House of Representatives, Senate, and Presidential races. Indivisible cannot provide support for legally-mandated reporting associated with these races. However, the funds can be used for state and local lobbying activity, with the understanding that you are responsible for understanding and following relevant state and local lobbying and campaign finance laws

This spending may be subject to reporting and registration requirements depending on your state or locality if you spend the money to ask a decisionmaker to take action or refrain from taking action on specific legislation or if you ask others to do the same. It’s a good idea to check state and local lobbying rules before taking such action because it is your responsibility to make sure reporting is done properly for such expenditures

Generally no. Please reach out to fundraising@indivisible.org before spending money to support or oppose ballot initiatives and we can review the details. 

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.

Contributions to campaigns are not permitted through the distributed fundraising program.

Anytime you work with a person who is also a candidate, you should be clear up front that you’re interacting only about issues, and not about the person’s campaign for office. Once your group has endorsed a candidate for office, this separation becomes even more important. Sometimes it becomes impossible to avoid candidate interactions after an endorsement, but you should always make clear that those interactions are strictly limited to issue advocacy and that you do not want to discuss anything electoral or related to their campaign. It’s usually a good idea to not only make this clear in person, but also to make it clear in any written correspondence about the issue advocacy. Also, please note: if you spend money on any issue advocacy with regard to a clearly identified candidate, federal, or state law may put requirements on such communications and you should probably check with a lawyer before doing so.

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 card, we’ll be creating your account with True Link, and they will send you a card in the mail. Indivisible will be transferring 90% of the money you raise in ActBlue to your True Link card as a grant to your group so that you can buy supplies and other materials to support your group’s activities.

If you have any issues with the True Link platform or card, you can contact their customer service at 1-800-299-7646 or send an email to support@truelinkfinancial.com. The support team is fully staffed Monday - Friday 6AM - 5PM PT. True Link also has a smaller staff on the weekends that returns voicemails and emails during business hours. If at any time you try to reach True Link and are not able to, you can leave a voicemail or send an email, and True Link will return your message in a timely manner.

Each group will receive a debit card that you’ll be able to use to access the funds you raise through your ActBlue page. We’ll send you the card after you start raising funds through ActBlue. Funds raised through ActBlue are transferred to the debit card every two weeks. Please note that we are unable to transfer less than $1. If this is the case, these funds will be added to your next transfer.

We will transfer funds from ActBlue to your True Link card every two weeks. However, the first transfer may take longer because you will have to receive your card in the mail and set up your account before True Link can add the funds to it. Please note that we are unable to transfer less than $1. If this is the case, these funds will be added to your next transfer.

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 www.truelinkcard.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.

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 yourself or 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. 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 with the person and dollar sign
• Tap the gear icon in the top right
• Tap “Payment Methods”
• Tap “Add bank or card...” and then tap “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.

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.

The Distributed Fundraising program provides a way to raise and spend funds to support your work. This resource provides ideas to spend your group’s funds effectively, as well as things to consider when planning how to spend your funds. You can reach out to your organizer if you’d like more help thinking through effective spending, or you can reach out to supportteam@indivisible.org.

Email fundraising@indivisible.org to alert us and we’ll walk through how you can reimburse for the purchase.

Each month, 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. A full step by step guide to download and submit the report is available here.

It’s important for audit purposes that you submit your monthly report on time every month. Your report is due on the 15th day of the following month. As noted in the cardholder agreement, failure to submit accurate and complete monthly reports may result in your card being canceled. If your treasurer won’t be able to submit the report in time, please reach out to fundraising@indivisible.org so that it can be arranged for another group leader to submit the report.

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.