WinRed for States FAQ

What is WinRed

WinRed is an online fundraising platform supported by a united front of the Trump campaign, RNC, RSLC, NRSC, and NRCC. It’s built on a proven fundraising technology and is designed to combat ActBlue.

Who is eligible?

Starting today, WinRed is available for all Republican candidates — from President all the way down to city council. Based on the ability to take funds directly and customize the forms to add whatever information you need to collect, WinRed can work in every state besides Connecticut. However, only you can determine as to whether you can use the platform in a compliant way for your specific race.

How does WinRed work for state candidates?

WinRed’s feature set is different for state candidates. Because of the individual compliance requirements and campaign-finance laws of each state, WinRed for States operates with individual merchant accounts for each campaign. This means that your donations are raised by your organization directly.

This also means some features, such as the ability to split donations and upsell to other candidates, are not available at this time. The majority of other features are available including the massive network of one-click Republican donors which was built largely by the Trump campaign, the RNC, and other top campaigns in the country.

How does compliance work?

Compliance on WinRed for States works similarly to other donation platforms in that the individual campaign is responsible for collecting the necessary information. Our team will assist you in adding any specific fields you need filled out by donors so that you stay compliant with your local regulations. When signing up, please indicate which fields you need. Campaigns are also responsible for adding their own disclaimers. Again, our team is ready to help get this added for you.

Within the platform, there is an entire section dedicated to payout information so that your compliance team can download all the reports they need and easily see which donations are included in each payout you receive.

How is this legal in my state?

WinRed Technical Services (“WRTS”), a for-profit company incorporated in the state of Delaware, has decided to make its platform available to state and local political committees. WRTS will require any nonfederal candidate or committee wanting to utilize the WRTS platform to raise funds into its own merchant account; such funds will not be earmarked (as that term is understood in 11 CFR § 110.6(b)(1)) through WinRed, the federal political action committee (“PAC”) associated with the platform. Thus, any funds received by nonfederal candidates and committees through the WRTS platform will be deposited directly into the candidate or committee’s merchant account, and the candidate or committee will serve as the merchant of record for credit card payments. Funds will not be commingled with any other WinRed user’s funds and will not be conduited through the WinRed federal PAC.

This policy, which recognizes that each state separately and distinctly regulates political contributions, allows state and local candidates and other nonfederal committees to participate on the WRTS platform without receiving earmarked contributions, as that term is defined under federal law. Quite simply, WRTS serves as a vendor to state and local candidates and nonfederal committees that raise funds via the platform, with WRTS being compensated for its services, including its operation and maintenance of the platform, through the transaction fees paid to WRTS on each contribution made on the platform.

Of course, this guidance does not constitute legal advice, and we recommend nonfederal candidates and committees consult counsel should they have any questions about participation on the WinRed platform.

How do I sign up?

To request a WinRed account, head here. All applications will be reviewed by our team and then sent onboarding instructions via email. We try to get to all applications as fast as we can.

In order to onboard, you will need to have the following information. Gathering all of this now will drastically speed up your onboarding time:

Business Information:
Business Name
Website
Business Phone
Tax ID
Address (Can’t be a PO Box initially)*

Account Owner Information:
Email
First and Last Name
Occupation Title
Phone
DOB
Last 4 Digits of SSN
Address
Front and back picture of driver’s license, passport or other government ID

Bank Account Information:

Account Holder Name
Routing Number
Account Number