Following President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 election, Democratic supporters have gained a massive influx of energy and support all over the Web. Hours after the president made his announcement, Heidi Li Feldman, a law professor emeritus at Georgetown University, launched an ActBlue fundraiser comprising of Mastodon users.

The results have been nothing short of incredible: in the course of two weeks, the initiative has raised over $485,000 for Vice President Kamala Harris’s election campaign. Supporters are coordinating through the #MastodonForHarris hashtag, sharing everything from news stories to new donations as the total number continues to go up.

“I knew it could raise hundreds of dollars,” Feldman tells us, “What I’m really wowed by is that, on a truly people-powered platform, without any algorithms boosting for clicks, we have now raised over $485,000.”

Although growth has somewhat slowed in the second week, it’s still worth pointing out the significance of a couple thousand users coming together to raise half a million for a political campaign. Funding and coordination on the Fediverse has never been done at this scale before, and it opens up questions about how viable other kinds of fundraising and activism might work here.

Twitter’s recent censorship of the White Dudes for Harris account reflects the pitfalls of letting central network control fall into the wrong hands, and plenty of people are thinking about alternatives. Threads also holds a problematic position when it comes to deprioritizing political content on their network. This might be a ripe opportunity for platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky to shine, and Mastodon For Harris already provides an interesting case study on how to organize. In addition to fundraising and advocacy, the group also hopes to convince Kamala Harris and her team to officially establish a presence on Mastodon.

Community Feedback

While the success of Mastodon For Harris is an impressive feat for the community, some critics have pointed out that the Harris campaign likely already benefits from the Democratic party’s massive war chest. A common complaint we found when researching this story is that network and userbase of the Fediverse are both underfunded, and that political contributions might be better served in supporting mutual aid networks. A non-trivial part of the network currently relies on gift donations or GoFundMe campaigns to simply pay their bills, buy food, and receive medical treatments.

It’s also worth considering the delicate nature of Fediverse infrastructure. At the moment, a lot of instances and projects draw in very few donations, and are largely paid for out-of-pocket by project leads and operators. Even though Mastodon itself is the largest and most-funded out of any grassroots platform, it can only afford to pay a small number of people to work on it full-time. With an increased corporate presence in the Fediverse, there’s some legitimate concerns about how open source developers can hope to compete with entities that have far more resources at their disposal.

Organizing Efforts Continue

Mastodon For Harris continues to fundraise for the Harris campaign, and harnesses a growing amount of energy and enthusiasm as different groups across the network converge together. The community surrounding #MastodonForHarris is thriving, as the timeline shows countless announcements, insights, and calls for different demographic groups to hold meetings on strategy.

“That solidarity is so encouraging,” Feldman explains, “I am confident that the results of Mastodon for Harris will draw the attention of the Harris campaign to Mastodon. More crucially, the Mastodon community has demonstrated a profound commitment to rule of law and secular, pluralist constitutional democracy.”