September/October 2010 Issue

Fat Cats United: 10 Biggest 527 Groups

How much money has the College Republican National Committee raised so far this year? How about the SEIU?

<a href="http://www.crnc.org/site/c.npIUKWOrFkG/b.5771869/k.BFBE/Home.htm">College Republican National Committee</a>

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527 groups, which can collect unlimited donations, raised $506 million in 2008. They’ve already raised $236 million for this fall’s election—and it’s not even a presidential year. Here are the 10 biggest:

527 COMMITTEE / POLITICAL LEANING

TOTAL RAISED

TOP DONOR / AMOUNT

American Solutions for Winning the Future
Conservative/Republican

$17.2 million

Crow Holdings
$350,000

Service Employees International Union
Liberal/Democratic

$6.4 million

SEIU
$6.4 million

America Votes
Liberal/Democratic

$6.4 million

Friends of America Votes
$2.4 million

Citizens United
Conservative/Republican

$5.8 million

Self-employed donors
$61,320

College Republican National Committee
Conservative/Republican

$4.5 million

John Templeton Foundation
$450,100

EMILY’s List
Liberal/Democratic

$4 million

Akonadi Foundation/Newsweb
$250,000 each

Carly for California
Conservative/Republican

$3.6 million

Carly Fiorina Enterprises
$2.5 million

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Liberal/Democratic

$2.7 million

IBEW
$1.2 million

ActBlue
Liberal/Democratic

$2.5 million

JPMorgan Chase
$39,848

Mid-Atlantic Leadership Fund
Liberal/Democratic

$2.4 million

Democratic Governors Association
$1.45 million

As of July 9. Top donors list does not include retired donors.

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

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