The Mega-Donor Downsides

Ask not what you can do for your mega-donors, but what your mega-donors mean you no longer need to do. 

They need to stop spending so much time on fundraising. This, to my mind, is one of the more worrying themes of the so-called rise of the political mega-donors. 

Fundraising brings conversations with real people, relationship-building, a route to democratic participation beyond voting. These all have democratic value. 

When a political party can meet most of its financial needs with a chat to a few men (it is nearly all men making these massive donations), one incentive for engagement with people disappears. 

I’m not saying that political parties should turn down a mega-donation when it is offered, or that committed wealthy people shouldn’t put their money behind their beliefs. I’m concerned that mega-donations are an option at all. 

A cap for all donors to political parties can, if done well and with an eye on loopholes, end the risk of the extreme concentration of political funding. This has real democratic value beyond constraining individual donor influence.e