Hire ActBlue Fundraising Strategists
To effectively Hire ActBlue Fundraising Strategists, you must first distinguish between necessary external consultancy and the robust support already included in the platform’s standard fees. Many campaign managers panic early in the cycle, signing expensive retainers for digital strategy that ActBlue provides for free as part of their transaction model. You need to stop viewing fundraising solely as a software problem and start treating it as a resource allocation challenge. If you blindly hire external help without auditing what the platform offers natively, you are essentially paying twice for the same advice.
How to Hire ActBlue Fundraising Strategists Without Wasting Campaign Cash
The political fundraising landscape is littered with campaigns that bleed cash because they misunderstand the tool they are using. You are likely looking at ActBlue because it is the industry standard for Democratic and progressive fundraising, processing billions in small-dollar donations. However, you need to understand the baseline economics before you bring on personnel. ActBlue charges a flat 3.95% processing fee on contributions. There are no setup fees, no monthly subscriptions, and no enterprise licensing costs. Crucially, this fee includes access to their internal fundraising experts. When you look to hire ActBlue fundraising strategists, you are often looking for someone to manage the platform, but the platform creates its own support ecosystem. The real problem usually is not a lack of strategy, but a lack of execution on the basics. Before you write a job description or sign a contract with a digital agency, you must realize that the platform’s revenue model is built on your success. They do not make money unless you process donations, which aligns their internal strategists with your goals more tightly than some third-party consultants who get paid regardless of your fundraising total.
Strategic Resource Allocation: Internal Support vs. External Consultants
The decision to hire ActBlue fundraising strategists usually comes down to a choice between utilizing the platform’s native support team or retaining an external digital agency. ActBlue provides personalized support and digital fundraising strategists to all clients at no additional cost. These internal experts can help you with onboarding, form optimization, and understanding the compliance landscape. For a small to mid-sized campaign, this is often sufficient. You get access to the technical know-how without the overhead of a monthly retainer. However, there are limitations. ActBlue’s internal team focuses on the platform itself. They will help you build a better form, but they will not write your email copy, design your social media graphics, or manage your broader digital ad buy. This is where external consultants come in. If you are running a large-scale operation that requires complex voter file matching, aggressive email acquisition programs, or multi-channel marketing automation, you may need to hire external strategists. Agencies like Blue State or MissionWired specialize in this broader scope. The danger lies in the middle ground. If you hire a consultant solely to set up ActBlue forms—something the platform support does for free—you are wasting resources. Your strategy should be to exhaust the free resources provided by the 3.95% fee first, and only hire external talent for tasks that require creative production or advanced data modeling that sits outside the platform’s native capabilities.
Tactical Execution: Maximizing the Platform's Power
Once you determine your staffing approach, the strategists you engage must focus on specific high-yield features. ActBlue is not just a payment processor; it is a conversion engine. A competent strategist will immediately implement Smart Options for recurring donations. This feature allows you to present donors with automated recurring asks or pop-ups that encourage them to make a monthly commitment immediately after a one-time gift. This is the single most effective way to build cash flow for the duration of a campaign. Furthermore, your strategy must involve rigorous A/B testing. The platform allows for unlimited branding and form variations. You should be testing ask amounts, button colors, and mobile layouts constantly. If the strategist you hire is simply setting up a default page and walking away, fire them. They should also be leveraging the collaborative features, such as joint fundraising pages, which allow you to split donations with other candidates or organizations. This is critical for coalition building and list growth. Finally, data management is non-negotiable. While ActBlue does not offer native voter file targeting, it exports rich contributor data that must be synced with your CRM. A high-level strategist ensures this data flows seamlessly into compliance reports and targeting tools, rather than sitting stagnant in a CSV file.
3 Costly Mistakes When Staffing Your Digital Fundraising
The first mistake is ignoring compliance capabilities. ActBlue has built-in tools for 501(c)3, 501(c)4, and federal or state political committees. I have seen campaigns hire generalist marketing agencies that do not understand FEC regulations, leading to massive legal headaches. Ensure your strategists specifically understand political compliance, not just e-commerce. The second mistake is failing to integrate with NGP VAN. ActBlue is designed to talk to NGP VAN, the central nervous system of Democratic data. If your fundraising data is not syncing with your voter file, you are flying blind. You cannot effectively re-solicit donors if you do not know who they are. The third mistake is paying a percentage of the raise to a consultant on top of the platform fee. ActBlue takes roughly 4%. If you hire a consultant who also wants 5% or 10% of digital revenue, you are giving away nearly 15% of every dollar before it hits your bank account. Avoid commission-based compensation for external strategists; stick to flat retainers or hourly rates to protect your margins.
Pre-Hiring and Launch Checklist
Before you sign any contracts or launch your first email, run through this checklist to ensure you are actually ready to scale. First, verify your entity type and bank account structure to ensure you qualify for the platform; ActBlue is exclusive to Democrats and progressive organizations. Second, audit your current data flow. Do you have NGP VAN or another CRM ready to receive data imports? If not, solve that before hiring a strategist. Third, define the scope of work explicitly. Are you hiring someone to click buttons in ActBlue (which is a waste of money), or are you hiring them to write compelling creative content that drives traffic to those buttons? Fourth, schedule a strategy call with ActBlue’s internal support team. Do this before hiring anyone else. Get their baseline advice so you can assess whether an external consultant is actually adding value or just repeating standard best practices. Finally, ensure your mobile optimization is perfect. Over half of your traffic will come from phones; if your strategist is sending you desktop-only previews, they are not qualified for the job.
The Sutton & Smart Difference
At Sutton & Smart, we believe that technology should serve the campaign, not drain its budget. We do not profit from software markups or vague retainer agreements. When you hire us, we audit your entire digital ecosystem to ensure you are utilizing the free tools available to you before spending a dime on external execution. We bridge the gap between the technical capabilities of ActBlue and the creative demands of a modern campaign. We help you negotiate the noise of the consultant class to find a strategy that is lean, compliant, and ruthlessly effective. Contact us to stop guessing and start optimizing.
Stop Wasting Your Digital Budget
Contact Sutton & Smart today to audit your strategy.
Ready to launch a winning campaign? Let Sutton & Smart political consulting help you maximize your budget, raise a bigger war chest, and reach more voters.
Jon Sutton
An expert in management, strategy, and field organizing, Jon has been a frequent commentator in national publications.
AutoAuthor | Partner
Have Questions?
Frequently Asked Questions
No. ActBlue does not charge a monthly subscription or enterprise fee. All tools and access to their support team are covered by the 3.95% processing fee per transaction.
Generally, no. ActBlue is specifically designed for Democratic candidates and progressive organizations. If you are running as a Republican or a strictly non-partisan entity that does not align with their mission, you will need to use a different platform.
ActBlue is primarily a fundraising and payment processing platform. NGP VAN is a CRM and database used for compliance, voter targeting, and volunteer management. Most Democratic campaigns use both, integrating them so that donation data from ActBlue flows into NGP VAN.
This article is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice. Political campaign laws, FEC regulations, voter-file handling rules, and platform policies (Meta, Google, etc.) are subject to frequent change. State-level laws governing the use, storage, and transmission of voter files or personally identifiable political data vary significantly and may impose strict limitations on third-party uploads, data matching, or cross-platform activation. Always consult your campaign’s General Counsel, Compliance Treasurer, or state party data governance office before making strategic, legal, or financial decisions related to voter data. Parts of this article may have been created, drafted, or refined using artificial intelligence tools. AI systems can produce errors or outdated information, so all content should be independently verified before use in any official campaign capacity. Sutton & Smart is an independent political consulting firm. Unless explicitly stated, we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any third-party platforms mentioned in this content, including but not limited to NGP VAN, ActBlue, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Google, Hyros, or Vibe.co. All trademarks and brand names belong to their respective owners and are used solely for descriptive and educational purposes.
https://www.actblue.com/pricing/
https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/actblue/C00401224/expenditures/2022
https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/FEC-FY-2024-Agency-Financial-Report.pdf
