With just days until the official start of the Republican National Convention, the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee is scrambling to collect $6 million it still needs after more than two dozen corporations decided not to donate to the event.
The long list of companies who contributed money in 2012, but reneged on at least $8.1 million in donations this year, was included in a letter from the host committee to billionaire donors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson. The letter, first reported by Politico, urged the couple to make up the missing $6 million the committee still needs in order to meet its goal of $64 million.
“Over the past couple months, negative publicity around our potential nominee resulted in a considerable number of pledges backing out from their commitments,” the letter says, according to Politico.
Last month, Wells Fargo, UPS, Motorola, JPMorgan Chase, Ford, and Walgreens all said that they would not be sponsoring this year’s convention, despite contributing money in 2012. That list has continued to grow, and now includes other major corporations and donors like David Koch, FedEx, Visa, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Apple, BP, and United Health. Koch and Coca-Cola were each committed to donating $1 million before they backed out.
Though many of the corporations didn’t cite reasons for their decisions, critics pressing them to withdraw have pointed to Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim fear-mongering, hateful rhetoric toward immigrants, women, and other minorities, and the violence he has inspired in his supporters.
The letter indicates that the presumptive Republican nominee, who frequently touts his personal wealth, is unwilling or unable to make up the costs himself. It also comes after Republican National Committee has vowed for months that Trump would not hurt the convention’s fundraising efforts.
Civil rights advocacy group Color of Change PAC began a campaign this February to convince many past RNC donors to withdraw their sponsorship this year.
“We really tried to focus on corporations that have given in the past,” spokesperson Rashad Robinson told ThinkProgress. “We focused on how this really is not a business-as-usual convention and corporations have to make a choice between a relationship with Trump and a relationship with our community.”
After holding private meetings with various companies and running public ads and campaigns to convince them to withdraw, Robinson said his group saw many successes.
“After a series of behind-the-scenes conversations with Coca-Cola, they announced that they would be scaling back their participation significantly,” he said. “We also were out publicly against Coca-Cola — they were very much feeling the heat from us.”
He also said that Microsoft agreed not to give any cash to the RNC, although it will still be donating to the Democratic National Convention.
Friday’s letter, Robinson said, proves just how dishonest the RNC has been “about how much Trump was hurting them or would hurt them.”
In January, GOP convention spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski told Politico that the host committee was seeing “growing interest” from donors and indicated that Trump would not hurt the fundraising goals.
“Donors are certainly looking at the marketing opportunity a convention will provide, and this convention promises to be a great opportunity regardless of the nominee,” she said.