I literally came to ask that question. I understand why it makes sense for the politicians, but what does the individual get out of it by donating? Or is it just pay someone you like to hope they win?
I donate to political campaigns because it's a form of activism for issues or candidates that are important to me. When I was young, I had a lot of time but not much money, and so I directed my activism towards volunteering, phone banks, working for candidates, canvassing for issues.
These days, I'm old and I have more money than I did then, and less time than I did then, so I'll pitch in money to campaigns, candidates, and issues that are important to me... that money pays for the donuts in call centers or the pizza for volunteers, and 20 years ago I ate the donuts and pizza and drank the soda, and so now-a-days I'm paying for those things so that other people can do what I did then.
This morning I donated to the Democratic National Committee because I believe strongly in
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison's "50 State Strategy," which is a strategy to put money and funding into every state in America, conservative or liberal, in order to get grass roots democrats to run against comfortable Republicans who might not have had a challenger in their last 2 or 3 political elections. It was a measley $50 and I don't think that $50 is the difference between winning a House race in 2022 and losing it, but I believe that it's important for conservative Republicans to be challenged even in races that they're going to win by 10 or 20 points... It means the RNC has to spend more money in those districts and that House races shouldn't be purely decided by the incumbent's primary, because that makes for a more divided, less productive House.
Part of why I donated today is to say, "Hey, I want whatever portion of this donation goes into challenging a comfortable incumbent, even if the challenger loses," but part of it is also a signal to the DNC that I believe strongly in this strategy (which is similar to a successful strategy employed by Howard Dean when he chaired the DNC in the mid-2000s) and that people like me are willing to donate to the DNC when they have strategies like this, but I might not donate while Tom Perez is chair and cedes House races "because there's no chance." Part of why I think that government is so polarized and incapable of getting things done effectively is because we've been willing to sit back and not even challenge in a Republican district, which IMO just makes that district more partisan, less willing to compromise, and you end up getting completely looney nutjobs like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Louie Gohmert. My line of thinking is that by helping to finance the campaign of someone who will still probably lose by 5-10 points in a deep red GOP district, that they have to run a general election makes the district a little more likely to nominate a more moderate Republican than simply the craziest, GOP terrorist that wins a walk-away primary.
My $50 (and subsequent donations over the next 18mos) won't win any election in 2022, but it'll help fund ideas in the DNC that I agree with which might help win 2 or 3 House elections in 2026. I could probably take that $50 and dump it into Dogecoin and hope to turn it into $100 in 2026 (or $0), but I see these sorts of investments as more important, and just as important to the other non-profits that I might donate money to in a given year.
