WASHINGTON – Bernie 2020 today announced a record grassroots fundraising haul with nearly one million donations in the second fundraising quarter. Overall the campaign booked $24 million in the second quarter, raising $18 million and transferring $6 million. This quarter’s fundraising reflects a growing and persistent grassroots movement in support of Sen. Sanders’ presidential bid driven by working people. The average donation was $18 and nearly 99.9% of donors can give again, showing durable and energetic grassroots support that will continue to back the campaign in the many months leading up to the first caucuses and primaries.
Other numbers to note:
- The campaign received almost 200,000 individual donations since the day of the first debate
- The 2016 campaign did not get to 2 million donations until December of 2015 — eight months into the campaign
- The most common profession was a teacher
- The most common employer was Walmart. Others in the top 10 include Amazon, Starbucks, Target and the US Postal Service — the people Bernie is fighting for
- More than 225,000 donations from people in the first five states during Q2
The second quarter fundraising haul comes as Bernie 2020 lends its traditional fundraising channels, like email and peer-to-peer texting, to support issue advocacy causes and local activism. In the last few months, Bernie 2020 has emailed and texted supporters to warn them of ICE raids and inform immigrants of their rights, turn out people to support workers on picket lines at McDonalds, the University of California, Delta and American Airlines, Wabtec, Amazon, General Motors, Disney, and Nissan, and fundraise for local abortion rights groups after the Alabama abortion ban.
“You don’t need Wall Street or fossil fuel money to harness a movement,” Shakir said. “In fact, by rejecting the influence of corporate money we have built a campaign that not only speaks to the working people and their issues but supports them in tangible ways. This is what a Bernie Sanders presidency would look like.”