Acronym (political organization)

McGowan and Dubin co-founded Acronym in 2017[3][7] with the stated intention of "advancing progressive causes through innovative communications, advertising, and organizing programs".[8] Since then, Acronym has made significant investments in digital media campaigns that aim to register voters. Within just over a year of its founding, Acronym had raised tens of millions of dollars for digital advertising campaigns, running more than 100 ad campaigns and registering 60,000 voters.[9]

In 2019, Acronym launched the Courier Newsroom,[10] a digital for-profit media company which publishes what appear to be local pseudo-news outlets but which are actually Democratic Party propaganda efforts.[11][lower-alpha 2][10][13] The creation and operation of Courier Newsroom has raised outrage and ethics questions about ACRONYM and about its financiers, who include billionaires Reid Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs.[14]

In November 2020, Fast Company called Acronym "the Democrats' most advanced digital advertising project."[15]

Acronym's backers include Michael Dubin (DSC founder), Reid Hoffman, and Laurene Powell Jobs.[16]

Acronym's affiliated organizations and PAC donors include high-profile donors like the director Steven Spielberg and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.[lower-alpha 3] Other donors of $100,000 or more include Kate Capshaw, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Mimi Haas.[17] Acronym's PAC, PACRONYM, has further received "eight-figure checks" from financiers Seth Klarman and Donald Sussman, venture capitalist Michael Moritz,[18][19][20] and from George Soros' "Democracy" super-PAC.[21] Quartz summarized the top donors to PACRONYM as "hedge funds, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood."[22]

Because of the substantial volume of money that it has raised, and because of its status as a 501(c)(4) political nonprofit organization that is not required to disclose the donations it receives, Acronym has been widely described as a dark money group.[23][24] Acronym has received criticism for the lack of transparency in its funding structure,[9][24] although McGowan and others have defended the 501(c)(4) funding structure as a useful innovation for progressive advertising groups to adopt.[9][25]

In 2019, the Iowa Democratic Party paid $63,000 to Shadow, Inc., a for-profit software company acquired by Acronym, to create a mobile application to tally results from the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses.[26][27] Shadow, Inc. was created[28][26] in 2019 by Acronym when they acquired the technology firm Groundbase from Gerard Niemira, who was then made CEO of Shadow, Inc.[29] Niemira had also previously served as chief operating officer and chief technology officer of Acronym prior to being CEO of Shadow, Inc.[7][30]

In the wake of Acronym's involvement in the 2020 Iowa Caucuses' vote tallying problems, McGowan downplayed Acronym's connection to the app Shadow that was responsible for delays and inconsistencies in reporting election results. A report in The Intercept, however, found that "internal company documents, a source close to the firms, and public records show a close and intertwined relationship between Acronym and Shadow."[29] ACRONYM later divested its interest in Shadow Inc.[6]

In addition to Shadow, Inc., Acronym has owned several for-profit corporations, including the digital strategy firm Lockwood Strategy and the media company FWIW Media.[9][10] Acronym planned to launch an apparel company called Rogue Swag,[9] and later ran an apparel campaign under that name.[31] Courier Newsroom, which describes itself as a "progressive media company", is also owned by Acronym.[32] Courier Newsroom acts as a parent company for local news websites.[32][33]

In November 2019, Acronym founder Tara McGowan announced that Acronym and its affiliated Super PAC, called Pacronym (and styled PACRONYM), would undertake a $75 million online advertising campaign targeting four potential swing states in the 2020 United States presidential election.[34][35] Pacronym received $2,407,208 in 2018 and spent $1,000,000 (43%) the same year in payments to Lockwood Strategy, also owned by Acronym.[36] Since the campaign of incumbent president Donald Trump was reported to have a significant advantage in digital advertising during the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, this large expenditure by a Democratic-aligned organisation was considered by many political strategists and media commentators to be a crucial safeguard for the Democratic Party against the risk of being outspent in digital advertising before their presidential nominee could be chosen.[34][37] Nick Fouriezos of Ozy magazine identified Acronym, and McGowan's efforts in particular, as "one of the major forces shaping the Democrats' general-election fight against Donald Trump".[9]

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Emily's List, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Planned Parenthood have hired Acronym for digital organizing services.[9]

David Plouffe, who was campaign manager for former president Barack Obama, serves on the board of directors of Acronym.[7][38]

Acronym publishes a weekly newsletter called FWIW,[39] as well as an accompanying podcast called the FWIW Podcast, which is published by Courier Newsroom.[40] Hosted by McGowan, the FWIW Podcast is a biweekly podcast about the digital race for the White House. Past guests have included David Plouffe, Jeff Zeleny, and DNC CTO Nell Thomas.[40][41]