Draft funds

This exclusive ActBlue feature puts small-dollar donors in the driver’s seat by enabling grassroots communities to raise money for someone they think should run for federal office before any official campaign announcements have been made. In this way, small-dollar donors can try to “draft” a candidate, and if that person runs for office they will start their campaign with clear grassroots support (and money). Draft funds are a concrete way to encourage women, people of color, and folks from other underrepresented communities to run for office!

There are a few important things to know about draft funds:

1. Draft funds are available on a limited basis, and currently only for federal offices.
2. Draft funds can only be created by groups or communities, not individual supporters (details on creating draft funds are below).
3. There can be multiple draft funds created by different groups for the same potential candidate.
4. If the person named by a draft fund does not run for office, the money will go to a different recipient specified on the contribution form — most often the group managing that particular draft fund. All of this will be noted on the contribution form and accessible to the donor at the time of giving.
5. Draft funds are different than nominee funds on ActBlue: Nominee funds go to whichever candidate wins a specified Democratic primary and becomes the Democratic nominee, while draft funds are a persuasion tool to encourage a specific candidate to run for a specific office.

Please note that in order to create a draft fund on ActBlue, managing groups must have demonstrated grassroots communities. If your group is interested in creating a draft fund, please email us at support@actblue.com for more information.