After natural disasters, it's quite common for people to open their pocketbooks and make donations to relief funds and other nonprofit aid organizations in the affected area. The wildfires that erupted around Los Angeles in January 2025 were no different.
Even those in the political landscape got involved — the Pod Save America podcast, hosted by former Barack Obama aides, posted a link on social media giving people an easy way to donate. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren also provided a link for people to donate. Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom created a website to combat misinformation about the fires. That website also provided a donation link.
However, social media users found something they thought suspicious about these donation links — when clicked, the links redirected to a site run by ActBlue, the largest Democratic Party political action committee, or PAC, in the country. Several posts on X labeled the donation links as a scam and claimed that money donated through those links would go to ActBlue itself or Democratic politicians, not toward relief efforts.
These posts were incorrect, however. As far as Snopes could determine, none of the money donated through those links went to Democratic politicians or the ActBlue PAC.
What Is ActBlue?
While most Americans think of ActBlue as the largest Democratic PAC, the organization's full reach is significantly greater. According to ActBlue's FAQ page, it's a "nonprofit organization that builds tech and infrastructure for Democratic campaigns, progressive-aligned causes, and people trying to make an impact in order to fuel long-term change."
More simply, ActBlue is a fundraising platform registered and organized as a political action committee in order to maintain transparency in campaign finances. It's also only available for candidates and organizations promoting liberal and left-wing ideas.
After the organization was founded in 2004, it ballooned into a must-use resource for any Democratic or progressive candidate. During U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' first 24 hours as a presidential candidate in the 2024 election, ActBlue processed over $90 million in donations, according to The New York Times. But despite starting as a platform for political campaigning, ActBlue has since expanded its reach to allow other nonprofit organizations to use the service.
ActBlue Charities vs. ActBlue PAC
One example of that expansion is ActBlue Charities, a separate arm of the organization specifically dedicated to 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Since ActBlue Charities is separate from the ActBlue PAC, no money from these donation links can go to political candidates without breaking campaign finance laws. According to ActBlue's FAQ, the organization simply passes along donations received by the platform to the organizations they were earmarked for. Donations are made "within 30 days," according to the contribution rules present on donation pages.
In order to offset credit card processing fees, ActBlue applies a 3.95% processing fee to all contributions, which it claims are passed along to groups and organizations using the platform to donate. ActBlue denies the claim that it makes any money from donations, saying it relies instead on tips from donors "to pay our bills."
Based on publicly available tax documents, Snopes was able to confirm that ActBlue passed along all the money donated through its platform as recently as 2022.
In 2022, ActBlue Charities raised $78,494,370 from "program service revenue," which the IRS defines as "activities that the reporting organization was created to conduct." In simpler terms, since ActBlue Charities was created to pass money from people to charities, the "program service revenue" is the amount people donated to charities through ActBlue.
Meanwhile, the organization spent $75,538,459 on what its tax form described as "passed-through contributions," and $3,196,103 on "passed-through processing fees" over the same time period. (The math worked out to a processing fee of 4.2%, a tiny bit higher than the 3.95% advertised.) Adding those two expenses together means that ActBlue passed along $78,734,562 to charities, $300,000 more than what people donated.
In 2023, ActBlue Charities did not disclose the amount it earned from "program service revenue" and spent in "passed-through contributions" on its tax forms.
There's a simple solution for anyone with lingering doubts about the legitimacy of ActBlue Charities who wishes to donate to victims of the Los Angeles wildfires: Donate directly to local charities that do not use ActBlue as a fundraising platform.