I'm getting tired of left wing fundraising websites.

[zipplewrath]

About a decade ago, I made the mistake of thinking I could make a difference and started contributing to various left leaning candidates. They didn't win and it didn't help. None the less, apparently my email address was "harvested" and since then every wanna be left leaning candidate (and a few less than left leaning) have been what I can only presume is "sold" my address. Yes, I can "unsubscribe" from that particular candidate, but literally hours or days away I recieve several more requests from candidates I have never heard asking for contributions. The latest, but not nearly the first, is ngpvan.com. I know nothing of them, but I do note that when visiting their website, there is no option to say "lose my email", and in fact there is little to no capacity to communicate with them at all, unless of course I'm a candidate wanting to use their services. I strongly suspect that they will charge a hefty fee for such services and as such, I won't EVER donate to any candidate that uses such a service. Just a warning to those candidates that chose to use such outfits.

[TwilightZone]

1. E-mail:

[e-mail], per their twitter account, to unsubscribe from their e-mails.

Link to a support form, if you don't want to e-mail:

https://supportcenter.ngpvan.com/contact-us

Candidates use services because they're usually cheaper than having someone on staff handle mass mailings and because they're generally good at what they do. That's why so many use them. If you aren't going to support candidates who use media services, you might end up with a short list.

[zipplewrath]

3. Gave it a try

I have decided to focus my support on local/state candidates generally and contribute directly to them. Unfortunately, that often means working through some fundraising organization like this one. I avoid it at all costs, but I suspect Actblue is selling my email address "liberally".

[Tetrachloride]

2. A new iCloud account is recommended , or a new Gmail

Bank, insurance company , hospital — change these first.

iCloud allows 3 alias addresses.

After a month of making sure everything is ok, you can ignore the old account

[brooklynite]

4. Are you sure you can't unsubscribe?

Every fundraising email I get has an unsubscribe option.

[zipplewrath]

5. For each candidate

You can unsubscribe from each candidate to which they sell your address. But you can't seem to unsubscribe from them selling your address.

[Demovictory9]

6. exactly

[radius777]

7. This is a major problem, as it discourages

people from donating and participating in the system, and simply breeds cynicism. It affects all types of donations not just left leaning.

Voting also has this issue, that once a person starts voting regularly they then get bombarded with junk mail, surveys/polls, etc - and are more likely to be called for jury duty. I've heard apolitical types and young people cite such reasons for why they avoid voting.

Participation and activism should not 'punish' people in ways they currently do.

[DFW]

8. And especially, they need to stop calling me "Deborah"

Many of the fundraising requests I get address me as Deborah. I guess there are lot of people named Deborah that contribute, and so they program their email blasts accordingly. Needless to say, fundraising requests that address me as Deborah get deleted immediately.

I stopped contributing through Act Blue years ago for a number of reasons.

I do take a brief look at requests, but if it is from someone I never heard of, and have no reason to have heard of them, I assume they got my address from someone I never authorized to pass it around, since I NEVER authorize anyone to pass my address around.

AND---I HATE all those "surveys" that are just thinly disguised requests for money. State your purpose clearly, and I'll at least look. Pretend to be a "survey" and I will not. I will delete it (or toss it in the trash, if snail mail) the moment I see the word "survey." Unless it is from a Republican. THEN I'll fill it out, and send it back, just to give them some answers they are NOT looking for. No money, honey.

I make 99% of my contributions by check, anyway. Yeah, it takes longer, but that way, I'm sure that the recipient gets 100% of what I'm sending.

[NurseJackie]

9. My husband has a disposable email service that we both use...

... you can make-up addresses on-the-fly (that get forwarded to your real email) and if the seller, or candidate, or organization ends up taking advantage... then I can simply turn off that email (temporarily) or delete it forever.