What's the least shady political organization I can donate to in the US?
I still get tons of political calls, texts, and emails from donations I made around 2016 and 2020. Is there any organization I can use to donate money that won't harass me in the future or sell my data to someone else who will?
(I got a text soliciting a political donation while I was typing this question!)
Electronic Frontier Foundation, maybe.
That and planned parenthood.
If there are two orgs that care deeply about privacy, but do a lot of good in the world, those would be it.
And the Free software Foundation?
Why would you want to donate to a political organization? I don't get it. If you don't know of a political organization already that you want to support, why go out to find one?
Your donation could go to a different / better cause than a political party.
I’m all for removing the influence of money from politics. But as long as money remains the main medium of influence, people not donating to political causes as a matter of principle is effectively removing the influence of people from politics.
Exactly. For instance, OP could donate to me.
I left out specifics because I didn't want this thread to become a political debates, but I want to support the people running against fascists, because the fascists will do a hell of a lot worse than sell my contact information. I'd just much rather do it without getting harassed.
I would recommend not using your regular email address or phone number. I think you might be required to give your real address, though.
I think they all share lists. I supported Bernie in 2016 and I'm getting a ton of Biden/Kamala text messages (all blocked and sent to spam). That was the only time I actually directly donated and put in my real phone number (instead of my throw away numbers).
Could be your donation was a matter of public record and can be accessed
Also, I'd be amazed if they didn't have a way to get contact information from non-political sources. Like, off the top of my head - if I'm running a Dem campaign I'd be talking to every car dealership I could and seeing if I can buy their list of people who signed up for updates on EV availability to see if I can turn some of those people to donors, and I'm pretty certain there's no laws or regulations that would stop them from doing that.
This kind of technique is very clever. I've done this when looking for potential employers. I don't know what it's called.
ACLU seems to be pretty good about not calling. They may send occasional mail, though.
They all add donors to lists and send them solicitations based on the premise that a former donor doesn't need as much convincing for their cause. It's fairly easy to unsubscribe as soon as you get the first message, but by then your email may have already entered a partnership pool, so you'll start getting similar solicitations.
Best way around it is to use an email anonymizing service, or one way phone/text numbers. Or you can treat it like a game and donate under username+charity@mailservice.com, then watch how many more messages you get to that specific address.
To answer your main question, eff.org and msf.org are pretty good charities. You can also check https://www.charitynavigator.org/.
If it's purely political orgs, local groups are less likely to have aggressive fundraising arms.
local groups are less likely to have aggressive fundraising arms
And more likely to need your donation!
Remember to register as with the service name as your middle name. Ie John Actblue Doe. This way you know who sold your data.
PSL maybe?
It's tricky. If they aren't bothering donors like you for more, they're leaving money on the table, and so probably aren't very good at being a nonprofit in other ways as well.
Maybe just ask to be on the no-call list, and similar?
It is a somewhat specific 'special interest', but if you have an interest in pro-choice democratic women running for office, then maybe emilyslist.org. The name stands for, "Early Money Is Like Yeast". They look for women who might not be in politics to get them to run in state elections -- not just federal.