ActBlue
Fundraising software
Political campaign software
Nonprofit software
Political software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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Pay-as-you-go
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What is ActBlue
ActBlue is an online fundraising and payment processing platform used primarily by Democratic candidates, progressive organizations, and nonprofits to collect and manage contributions. It provides hosted donation forms, recurring giving tools, compliance-oriented donor data capture, and integrations for exporting contribution data to other systems. The product is typically used for high-volume, small-dollar fundraising across web, email, and mobile channels, with an emphasis on political fundraising workflows in the United States.
Purpose-built political fundraising flows
ActBlue centers on donation form creation, recurring contributions, and donor checkout experiences designed for political and advocacy fundraising. It supports common campaign use cases such as rapid-response fundraising pages and embedded donation links across digital channels. The platform’s focus on contribution capture and processing makes it a strong fit when fundraising is the primary workflow rather than broader constituent management.
High-volume payment processing
The platform is designed to handle large volumes of small-dollar transactions and recurring donations, which is a common requirement for modern political fundraising. It provides standardized donor data collection during checkout and produces contribution records that can be exported or synced to downstream tools. This specialization can reduce operational overhead compared with using a general-purpose payment stack plus custom forms.
Ecosystem integrations and data export
ActBlue supports integrations and data export options that allow campaigns and nonprofits to move contribution data into other systems used for CRM, email, and analytics. This makes it practical to use ActBlue as the payments and donation-form layer while relying on separate tools for broader engagement workflows. The integration approach aligns with organizations that prefer a modular fundraising stack.
Limited full-suite campaign features
ActBlue is primarily a fundraising and payments platform rather than an end-to-end campaign operating system. Organizations typically still need separate tools for voter file management, field organizing, volunteer coordination, and broader digital engagement. Teams seeking a single system for fundraising plus comprehensive campaign operations may find the scope too narrow.
Not a full nonprofit CRM
While ActBlue captures donor and transaction data, it is not designed to replace a full constituent relationship management system. Advanced nonprofit needs such as membership management, event registration, case management, and complex segmentation often require additional software. This can introduce data synchronization and reporting complexity across systems.
Political alignment and eligibility constraints
ActBlue is closely associated with Democratic and progressive fundraising in the U.S., which can limit suitability for organizations outside that ecosystem. Some organizations may face internal governance, brand, or stakeholder considerations when selecting a politically affiliated fundraising processor. International use cases and non-U.S. compliance requirements may also be less central to the product’s design.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Pay-as-you-go Free tier/trial: Tools are free to use (no subscription); no time-limited trial listed on site.
Pricing details:
- Standard ActBlue processing fee: 3.95% processing fee on each contribution (applies to most groups).
- Raise by ActBlue (state & local product): 3.5% processing fee per transaction.
- No monthly, setup, or hidden fees listed; ActBlue states its fundraising tools are provided at no cost and the processing fee is passed to the campaign/organization.
- Some state and local campaigns may require the campaign to create its own merchant account and will operate under a different fee structure (specific merchant-account rates are not specified on the site).
- Minimum donation amount: $1 (minimum contribution requirement stated in support pages).
Example costs:
- $100 donation (standard ActBlue): $3.95 processing fee.
- $100 donation (Raise by ActBlue): $3.50 processing fee.
Notes: AB Charities (ActBlue’s service for 501(c)(3) nonprofits) also states a 3.95% processing fee on transactions. ActBlue emphasizes "no cost to use our tools" while passing along the processing fee to recipient groups.
Seller details
ActBlue
Somerville, MA, USA
2004
Non-profit
https://www.actblue.com/
https://x.com/actblue
https://www.linkedin.com/company/actblue/
