Hillary Victory Fund

The Hillary Victory Fund was a joint fundraising committee for Hillary for America (the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign organization), the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and 33 state Democratic committees. As of May 2016^[update], the Fund had raised $61 million in donations.

The Fund's promotional materials described it as a way to "support Hillary Clinton and Democrats up and down the ticket." Individual donations were first allocated to Hillary for America (up to $2,700 or $5,400 for married couples), then to the Democratic National Committee (up to $33,400) and finally divided among state parties. During the primaries, the state parties received little of the funds raised. The Bernie Sanders campaign criticized the Fund and alleged that Clinton's campaign was "looting funds meant for the state parties to skirt fundraising limits on her presidential campaign."

The Clinton campaign courted state party leaders to join the Fund during the August 2015 Democratic National Committee summer meeting. The fund's launch was originally delayed by concerns from the Clinton campaign over the party's control of shared monies, but went forward on September 10, 2015, as a partnership between the Clinton campaign and the United States Democratic Party's Democratic National Committee. The fund was the earliest fundraising coalition formed between a presidential candidate and the national party. Several officials in the national committee only became aware of the plans in the weeks before its launch. The 33 state parties were added six days later. Mississippi, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Wisconsin were among the first state Democratic Party committees to commit to the Victory Fund. The states, in turn, would receive monies from the fund and assistance with voter registration. Some states, like California, Iowa, Nebraska, and Washington, chose not to participate. The Utah Democratic Party chose to participate and its head said that state donations were expected to be sent to national headquarters. Access to the fund was "legally available to any Democratic candidate", though only Clinton's campaign received direct access to large donors. A spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee said that the joint fundraising committee was designed to raise funds for use after the presidential primary, and was no different from the victory funds of the previous two presidential elections. Proceeds would be invested in the national electoral roll, state party budgets, and expanded research, digital, and communications systems.

The fund raised about $27 million in 2015 and received "six-figure donations from longtime Clinton allies". Hillary Clinton attended her first Hillary Victory Fund event in early December 2015 with 160 attendees. The musician Sting hosted the event in New York. Tickets ranged from $33,400 per person to $100,000 per couple, and raised $8 million for the fund. The fund held a second event, hosted by Elton John and Katy Perry in Radio City Music Hall, in early March 2016. George and Amal Clooney hosted a third fundraiser on April 15, 2016, in the Bay Area home of venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar for the Hillary Victory Fund in which seats at the head table with the Clooneys and Clinton cost $350,000. A fundraiser the next day at the Clooneys' mansion had an entrance fee of $33,400 per person. (For comparison, other Clinton fundraisers without celebrities asked hosts to raise $10,000 to $50,000.) Attendees at the Clooney mansion event included Kate Capshaw and Steve Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Haim and Cheryl Saban. Following the national committee's decision to end its 2008 ban on federal lobbyist contributions, the International Business Times reported another event on March 21, 2016, organized by Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, Citibank and News Corporation lobbyist Steve Elmendorf, pharmaceutical lobbyist Jeff Forbes, and financial lobbyist Susan Brophy for the Hillary Victory Fund. A single donor could give upwards of $700,000 to the fund.

The fund was managed by the Clinton campaign and its treasurer was the campaign's chief operating officer, Elizabeth Jones, who had the sole discretion for the timing of money transfers. The Washington Post wrote that the fund operated within the Clinton campaign and was run by campaign staff, who were, in turn, funded by the Hillary Victory Fund. Money raised by the Fund was deposited with Amalgamated Bank, a union-owned bank that also hosted accounts of Hillary for America and the Democratic National Committee. The campaign said that the state parties and other party campaigns would benefit from the agreement in a time when Republicans received donations in "record amounts". The campaign saw itself as competing with "untold hundreds of millions of dollars being spent with zero accountability by super PACs".

The Hillary Victory Fund let the Clinton 2016 presidential campaign ask big donors for over $350,000 apiece per calendar year, or $700,000 from married couples. American presidential campaigns have a history of working to reach the legal maximum donations from single donors. In 2008, Barack Obama's presidential campaign sought $30,000 in donations from big donors, which was the legal limit for donations to the campaign and related fundraising committees. In 2014, the Supreme Court case McCutcheon v. FEC built on the Citizens United decision by ruling that limitations to an individual's total political donations were unconstitutional. These unregulated contributions to political party committees is known as "soft money", and had led to corruption cases in both parties from malfeasance in the 1980s and 90s before Congress barred its use in 2002. The 2014 Congressional omnibus budget bill also raised political party donation limits.

In 2016, single donors to the Hillary Victory Fund could contribute $2,700 to the Clinton campaign, $33,400 to the Democratic National Committee, and $10,000 to each of the 33 state Democratic Party committees, for a total of nearly $360,000 in a calendar year. Joint finance committees like Hillary Victory Fund could receive that amount in a single check and proportion the funds accordingly. A donor who maxed out their contributions in 2015 could also max out in 2016 for a total of $700,000 towards the 2016 election, which is 135 times the $5,400 personal limit for presidential campaign contributions. (By comparison, in prior election cycles, individual donors were limited to $123,200 in total contributions.)

The fund raised about $27 million in 2015. Individual donors who contributed over $300,000 in 2015 included Susie Tompkins Buell, Fred Eychaner, J. B. Pritzker, Laure Woods, Avie Glazer, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Philip Munger, and Alice Walton. In September 2015, the Hillary Victory Fund spent $800,000 on fundraising and Clinton campaign staff salaries, gave $600,000 to the Democratic National Committee, and left $1.75 million to be distributed. More than $4 million of the fund went to direct mail and online fundraising for small contributions. Much of this material resembled Clinton campaign materials and used the campaign slogan. The Hillary Victory Fund spent $6.4 million on operations in 2015, of which two-thirds went to Clinton campaign-affiliated vendors in Washington, D.C. By the end of 2015, $3.24 million went to Clinton's campaign and $4.13 million went to the national committee. Of the latter, the state parties were due to receive $1.8 million, but the funds were redirected to the national committee to pay off outstanding debt. Clinton staff salaries and overhead were paid $1.5 million out of the fund in 2015. The fund also ran Clinton's online merchandise store. Purchases at the store did not count towards contribution maximums.