This was published 7 years ago
Planned Parenthood has seen donations skyrocket in wake of Donald Trump's win
By Daisy Dumas
If there is one unforeseen advantage of Donald Trump's election to the seat of the US presidency, it is the fevered goodwill that has flowed into the coffers of progressive, anti-Trump, causes since.
Since the Republican nominee's election win on November 8, nonprofit organisations in the US - such as pro-choice charity Planned Parenthood - have seen a massive upsurge in donations. In the build-up to Christmas, the wave of generosity only strengthened as disappointed voters did their best to counter the President elect's dismaying policies around civil rights, including immigration and women's reproductive rights.
We'll call it the Trump-Pence effect: Donations flooding in to progressive charities in the wake of the Republican election win in November. Credit: Albin Lohr-Jones, Bloomberg
According to the Guardian, Planned Parenthood received more than 300,000 donations in the six weeks since the election - a rate of fundraising that is 40 times its usual.
A spokesman told the news site that around half the donors were millennials and 70 per cent had never given to the family planning organisation before.
One of those was singer Katy Perry, who gave $A13,000 to Planned Parenthood in November, telling her large social media following that it was "time to turn words into action".
It hasn't ended there. The news site reported that donations to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) rose by 7,000 per cent the day after the election, with the organisation reporting it has raised almost US$23 million from more than 300,000 donors since.
It said the tide of giving has reached far and wide and has included both national and local groups working for environmental protection, gun safety, voting rights, public eduction, press freedom, women in office and workers' rights.
To give the flood of donations a little more potency, many of the financial gifts have been made in the name of Trump, his right-hand man, Mike Pence, and other Trump administration insiders themselves.
A high profile example was Amy Schumer's donation to Planned Parenthood in honour of famous anti-abortionist, Pence.
The website Donate Bigly - tagline "small hands v. big hearts" - makes it easy, in its own words, to donate to nonprofits in honour of Trump, Pence "and their binder of deplorables," taking no cut along the way.
There, users are encouraged to part with their cash to further the work of charities including the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), with a host of politicians including Jeff Sessions receiving certificates of thanks for their part in the generous donation. Sessions, Trump's Attorney General elect, has a history shadowed by allegations of racism and is known to hold deeply conservative views.
For their part, progressive charities are reacting to fears of Trump and his allies. As the NAACP website puts it, "We need you more than ever".