Nonprofits Opposed to Trump’s Ideology See a Surge in Donations

Thursday,17 November 2016

NesiaLive.com - On Saturday, Steve Mendelsohn received an unexpected phone call.

A staff member with the HBO comedy show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” had a small question about the Trevor Project, the nonprofit where Mr. Mendelsohn works and which the show planned to feature in a comedic call-to-arms.

An American Civil Liberties Union volunteer observed a polling station during voting in the presidential election in Las Vegas last week. Credit David Becker/Reuters

In the segment, which was broadcast the next day, Mr. Oliver urged viewers to donate to causes he felt were being threatened by President-elect Donald J. Trump — and to do so on behalf of friends or loved ones who voted for him. The list of groups he encouraged his audience to support included the Trevor Project, which provides help to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

“It’s working,” Mr. Mendelsohn, the nonprofit’s deputy executive director, said on Wednesday, adding that the on-air mention helped sustain an outpouring of donations that had begun in the days after the election.

The Trevor Project has company. At least a dozen nonprofits that oppose Mr. Trump’s policies or actions have reported similar, in some cases explosive, surges in support since Nov. 8.

 President-Elect Trump: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) Video by LastWeekTonight

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which supports women’s reproductive rights, received donations from 182,000 people in the week after the election, about 40 times more than in a typical week, a spokesman said on Wednesday. Of those, 45,000 people donated in the name of Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a vocal opponent of abortion who has fought to deny federal funds to the group.

“We are so grateful to this community across the country, and we will never stop fighting for them,” Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, said in a statement.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which defends the rights of the individual, said on Monday that it had received more than $7 million from about 120,000 donations over the five days after the election. During the same period after the 2012 election, the group collected less than $28,000 from 354 donations.

“This is the greatest outpouring of support for the A.C.L.U. in our nearly 100-year history, greater than the days after 9/11,” Anthony D. Romero, the group’s executive director, said in a statement on Monday. “All of this support will be put to good use protecting the rights of all Americans.”

By the end of Tuesday, the group’s postelection tally had risen to nearly $9 million.

The Sierra Club, an environmental conservation organization, said on Wednesday that it had gained 11,000 new monthly donors in the week since the election, more than had signed up in the first 10 months of the year. That figure is set to eclipse, by about tenfold, a previous monthly record.

Other groups have also reported surging support.

The Anti-Defamation League, which combats anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination, saw a 50-fold increase in online donations on the day after the election. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties and outreach group, gained more than 500 volunteers in the two days after the election. NARAL Pro-Choice America, which fights for abortion access, reported on Wednesday that it had signed up 290 times as many volunteers since the election as in an average week.

In a typical month, She Should Run, a group formed to encourage women to run for office, might hear about a few dozen to a few hundred potential candidates, a spokeswoman said. In the last few days, it heard about more than 2,500.

The Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Immigration Law Center and International Refugee Assistance Project have all reported an outpouring of support, too.

For the Trevor Project, the donations came as a welcome relief. Before the election, the group was falling short, Mr. Mendelsohn said.

“We were behind where we thought we would be by $200,000,” he said. “We assume that that’s because people were putting their money towards the campaigns and not towards organizations like us.”

But in the five days between the election and the day Mr. Oliver’s segment was shown, the group received $165,000, about six times what it expected in an average week.