Jonathan Zucker is a political technology entrepreneur and campaign finance attorney best known as the founder of Democracy Engine, the first COO and second CEO of ActBlue and the founder of It Starts Today.
History
Zucker worked at the Democratic National Committee from 2003–2005, serving as the NationalDirector of Operations for Finance, overseeing technology, legal, compliance, vetting, and data-management for the DNC's $100 million major-donor program. Prior to the DNC, Zucker worked with progressive and Democratic organizations as a fundraiser, legal counsel, and field organizer, including The Interfaith Alliance, Human Rights Campaign, GenderPAC, and the Democratic Leadership Council. Zucker was later the first employee of ActBlue, where he served as Senior Strategist & Counsel, COO & Counsel, and Executive Director between 2005 and 2008.
Political startups
Zucker is involved in two current organizations:
Democracy Engine — which he founded in 2009 and serves as CEO—is a nonpartisan online donation processing platform to handle fundraising for candidates at all level of US elections as well as political committees and nonprofits;
It Starts Today —which he founded in 2017—is a partisan Democratic PAC that operates an online donation platform soliciting monthly donations equally divided between all Democrats running for Congress;
Past projects include:
CrowdPAC — founded by Steve Hilton and for which he served as Strategist and Counsel — used data on political candidates to recommend them to users based on each user's interests. Crowdpac ceased operations in June 2019.
if.then.fund — co-founded with Joshua Tauberer uses votes on legislation as the trigger for campaign contributions to re-elect or oppose members of Congress.
Ruck.us — which he joined in 2013 as co-Founder and COO—is a digital toolkit for down-ballot political candidates, he left his role as COO in 2016.
Candi-Date used nonprofit scorecards of incumbents to recommend candidates based on user interest.
Zucker has been involved with advisory opinion requests to the Federal Election Commission in the area of technology and fundraising, including:
AO 2006-30, in which the FEC permitted fundraising for an individual who had not yet declared for office.
AO 2007-27, in which ActBlue requested permission to raise funds on behalf of Separate Segregated Funds.
AOR 2007-35, in which Zucker advised FreeCause, Inc, in an attempt to receive permission to implement a browser tool bar that used commissions from online shopping to make contributions to political candidates. The FEC was unable to address the merits of the request due to it only having 2 members at the time of the request. The Office of General Counsel issued a draft opinion favorable to the request.
AO 2008-08, in which Zucker sought clarification about the application of biennial contribution limits to a donation made to a future, as yet undetermined, candidate.
AOR 2009-28, in which the FEC deadlocked on partisan lines in response to Zucker's request from a Separate Segregated Fund to accept earmarked contributions from non-members of the SSF. The initial draft from the FEC's Office of General Council provided a favorable answer to the request.
AO 2011-06, in which Democracy Engine received permission to operate as a vendor, establishing a new model for political fundraising technology.
AO 2014-07, in which Crowdpac received permission to operate as one of the most disruptive new forces in campaign finance.
AO 2019-01, in which It Starts Today received permission to solicit conditional earmarked donations to future party nominees.
