ActBlue

ActBlue is essentially the default Democratic candidate donor hub. It has a huge variety of features and can make it easy for local Democratic candidates to get money donated to their political campaign.

ActBlue, at its core, is a financial transaction platform. Democratic politicians who are running for office can integrate the platform into their campaigns. From there, users can direct others to their ActBlue website, by which people can make donations. 

There is no question that ActBlue is, more or less, the default platform used by Democrats running for office. As a result, users can set up a profile that can be used. Donors can then just click a couple of buttons and "rush" money to a candidate. Indeed, the program was built to be as frictionless as possible, encouraging quick donations based on a candidates' social media use or Email fundraising pitch.

Furthermore, ActBlue was built for a social media age. It has a variety of tools that allow for sharing of a webpage, ensuring that someone who makes a donation can brag about their donation on social media. Indeed, the entire website is replete with share buttons, encouraging friends to get their friends to donate.

There are no fees on ActBlue, per se, and certainly nothing that is paid by the candidate. However, donors are encouraged - or guilt-tripped - into making a "tip" in order to help ActBlue. These tips are optional, but donors tend to leave the default click blank, and as such, make a tip.

Candidates for office can easily set up their donor pages so that it meets their specifications. They can use any text, branding, pictures, and more. This allows for users to essentially make their ActBlue donor page a page of their own website. Furthermore, the website gives candidates a slew of analytics, making it easy to determine who is donating, when they are donating, and where they are coming from. This can also make campaign finance reporting very, very easy. 

The website can be annoying to set up, and it is not quite instantaneous, often requiring a few days before it can be set up. This can delay overall implementation and hinder the program's usefulness, although the company would likely say that the additional steps it makes users go through are necessary for full implementation and legal compliance. 

Pros:

• Highly useful and viewed as the "default" method by which individuals can donate to Democrats.
• Makes it exceptionally easy to donate money to multiple candidates, or to set up recurring donations. 
• No fees are required by donors or paid by candidates. 
• Has a slew of customization options.
• Makes compliance easy.

Cons:

• Takes a while to get set up.
• Requires additional steps to show users how to send a paper check.