ActBlue Hosts Dark Money Group to Raise Donations Via ‘Ian Response Fund’
FORT MYERS (FLV) – A coalition of Democrat advocacy groups, such as Florida Rising, encouraged donors to give money to a hurricane relief fund that funnels into a dark money organization.
Political advocacy groups including Florida Rising, Dream Defenders, Florida Immigrant Coalition, FL Jobs With Justice, and Faith in Florida coalesced to promote the Florida Ian Response Fund.
“The Florida Ian Response Fund will address urgent response needs of impacted communities, ensure equitable state and federal responses, and provide emergency aid throughout the state via a network of grassroots organizations that are standing by to quickly address the needs of their communities,” the fund’s website said.
However, the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee criticized the Florida Ian Response Fund for not showing up as a valid charity under Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services website.
Florida Rising and the coalition urged people to donate at Ianresponse.org, which the FRSCC pointed out is platformed on ActBlue. ActBlue said its “platform is available to Democratic candidates and committees, progressive organizations, and nonprofits that share our values…”
The Florida Ian Response Fund is housed at Organize Action, which is a 501(c)(4) tax exempt organization. 501(c)(4)’s are generally under no legal obligation to disclose their donors even if they spend to influence election.
‘Organize Action‘ does not appear on the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ website. On their website, they say they are a “tax exempt 501(c)4 nonprofit organization.”
Florida’s Voice asked Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried if she would investigate.
REPORTER: “ActBlue was hosting a charity, Organized Action, I think it’s what it’s called. But when I searched it on your charity checker, they had this hurricane Ian fund, and it just wasn’t showing up. Is that something you would investigate?”
FRIED: “Yeah, of course… so I always am encouraging everybody before you give a single dollar to an organization to go onto our check-a-charity on our website to check it out. And if somebody gives or there’s something that doesn’t seem right or it jut doesn’t pass the sniff test, certainly put it in a report into our office and we investigate every complaint that comes in. We want to make sure that consumers are giving of their money and it’s going to a cause that is beneficial.”
“People during times like this want to volunteer, want to financial give as well,” Fried said. “And so it’s really important that you’re checking where that money is going towards, that it is a reliable nonprofit, that you know that you’re looking to make sure that not a significant amount of that money is going to administrative costs.”
Florida Rising has endorsed Democrat candidates including Charlie Crist, Val Demings, Loranne Ausley, Janet Cruz, Janelle Perez, and Eunic Ortiz.
“As Floridians continue to rebuild and recover, we strongly urge those who want to help to give to reputable organizations positioned to help people, not political organizations using this money ‘to win elections and change laws,'” the FRNCC said.
