Give money
Who to give to
Be careful about giving money in response to text messages. There are a lot of scams and sketchy fundraisers (PACs that send tons of text spam and pass along only a small fraction of donations to actual candidates). In fact, I recommend never clicking on a link in a spam message; it only encourages them (this applies to email spam too). Instead, look up candidates’ official web sites online and donate there.
Candidates
In 2026, I personally think you should focus on Democrats running in competitive races for the U.S. House and Senate. But my perspective is limited; all the Democrats in my state races are guaranteed to win. State and local politics may be a higher priority for you.
If you want to make it really easy, there are ActBlue fundraisers that split your donation to the House and/or Senate campaigns that are most competitive. Swing Left has a few.
Organizations
There are other organizations that are very worthwhile. In 2026, one of the scariest issues is that the Trump administration is trying to interfere with elections. You can donate to several nonprofits that are working to defend the integrity of elections, including through lawsuits, election watching, and giving legal assistance to election officials:
The Brennan Center for Justice (recommended by multiple friends of mine)
Campaign Legal Center (recommended by article linked above)
The Carter Center (recommended by article linked above)
The Election Official Legal Defense Network / CEIR (recommended by article linked above)
Where the money goes when you donate to a campaign
[ads, staff (management, fundraising, legal, facilities, technical, designers, writers, organizing volunteers, …), facilities, travel]
When to give
Giving earlier in selection season apparently helps more (this is according to campaign managers’ experiences, not any kind of data, but I have no reason to doubt it). Campaigns can plan more effectively for cash they know they have, rather than hypothetical cash they may have later. I suspect it may also affect how the money is spent: early in a campaign, it might help buy more ads, or hire more staffers; later, it might make the difference between a staffer getting paid and not getting paid.
How much to give
I don’t know how you should decide how much to give. Everyone’s circumstances and priorities are different. If your answer is “a lot,” it can get complicated.
In 2026, an individual can give a maximum of $3500 per election to each candidate for federal office. Primaries, general elections, runoffs and special elections are separate elections, so you can give the maximum to the same candidate again for each stage. You can give up to the maximum to as many candidates as you want.
You can, in addition, give to other types of political organizations, with different limits. In some cases, those organizations can pass the money along to candidates.
There are no limits on donations to super PACs, but there are legal limits on what they can do with it. For example, they are not allowed to give the money to campaigns or to coordinate with campaigns. Though apparently the FEC under Trump has been letting them get away with it. (The FEC has also been eroding other distinctions and separations, and in some cases the courts have been allowing it.)
State and local elections aren’t covered by the above; each state has its own laws.
How much good it does
Not much, but a little, probably. Sources differ.
The most famous study is probably the one by Freakonomics author Steven D. Levitt in 1994, which found that campaign spending had surprisingly little effect. The previous accepted wisdom was that spending had a “large positive effect” for challengers, but very little effect for incumbents. Levitt’s study concluded that “Campaign spending has an extremely small impact on election outcomes, regardless of who does the spending.”
My research assistant (ok, my AI assistant) found these other studies, which mostly disagree with Levitt:
- Gerber 1998: Finds that “in an average Senate election the incumbent's spending advantage yields a 6% increase in the incumbent's vote share,” and “the marginal effects of incumbent and challenger spending are roughly equal.”
- Hall 2016: Looks at effects of campaign spending on overall share of legislature seats, rather than individual wins, pointing out that there can be a spillover effect between campaigns (i.e., a presidential campaign may boost congressional candidates in the same party). “A 1-point increase in a party's share of all contributions in a cycle raises its share of the legislature by roughly half a point.” Also, “state-level corporate campaign contribution bans have a large effect on electoral outcomes.” Suggests money matters more down-ballot than in federal races, which might be an argument against my advice to focus on U.S. Congress seats, although I still think that the greater importance of those seats could outweigh this.
- Schuster 2020: Isolates only money actually spent on voter contact. Finds real effects (unfortunately not quantified in the abstract), mostly by changing who turns out rather than flipping votes. “Spending on messages to voters has a statistically significant effect on voter support… Not all voters are equally affected by spending; low-information voters, members of a political party and the economically dissatisfied respond strongly…”
There are also probably variations in how effectively different campaigns use their funds. The largest effect, on the margin, is probably spending on get-out-the-vote efforts, i.e. encouraging people to vote who will probably vote for the candidate, rather than changing the minds of people who might vote against them (this is a recurring theme throughout; see especially the section on volunteering for a campaign).
Earning to give vs volunteering
If you can convert your time into cash at a high rate, it is very likely more effective to spend your time earning extra money to donate, rather than donating your time.
This doesn’t mean you have to choose that route, of course; you might want the experience of volunteering. Also, some people earn a high salary, but not overtime; they may not really be able to “convert their time into cash” on the margin.
Giving things other than money
Campaigns often need office equipment and other stuff. Particularly if you have electronics that are a bit out of date, they might be able to use it. Maybe even cars?
You can also donate your time and skills, which is the subject of the next section.