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ADL Sees Online Fundraising Boom After Election

The Anti-Defamation League has seen a dramatic increase in online donations since the election of Donald Trump, new data shared with Jewish Insider showed.

The ADL has been a fierce critic of Trump’s candidacy, suggesting his rhetoric on the campaign trail led to an uptick in racism and anti-Semitism and condemning him for a tepid denouncement of his anti-Semitic supporters and retweeting of white supremacist and anti-Semitic memes. During the election, the ADL also undertook the task of protecting Jewish journalists from anti-Semitic attacks leveled at them by some white nationalist supporters of Trump.

And just recently, along with other major Jewish organizations, ADL criticized the appointment of Steve Bannon as chief advisor to President-elect Trump, calling him “hostile to core American values” for condoning anti-Semitism as the editor of the controversial website Breitbart.com.

Last Wednesday, the day after the surprising election results, the ADL received a 50X increase in online donations, mostly from new donors. According to the Jewish civil rights/human relations group, about 75 percent of donations are from first-time donors. Major donors are also making six-figure commitments, increasing their annual contributions in light of the election.

Additionally, in 26 regional offices across the country, the ADL is receiving a highly increased call volume from both donors and especially from people asking to volunteer or to get involved in any way to combat anti-Semitism and bigotry.

“We are heartened by the outpouring of support that we and reportedly other nonprofit organizations in this field have received over the past week,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told Jewish Insider. “They are a testament to the fact that Americans are united against anti-Semitism, hate and prejudice in all forms and will step up and show up in order to fight bigotry.”

According to Greenblatt, many of the new donors are most interested in seeing ADL “scale up its work in the cyberhate space, where the anti-Semitism and hate speech has been most alarming.”

ADL is kicking off its inaugural “Never is Now!” two-day summit in New York City on Thursday to address some of the most urgent challenges facing the Jewish community and identify new strategies to effectively combat anti-Semitism.

Tickets to the events are sold out, according to ADL.

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