PBS' Rick Steves Raises $50,000 For ACLU

EDMONDS, WA - PBS travel guru Rick Steves' Inauguration Day fundraiser for the ACLU netted $50,000, and drove eight times the normal amount of traffic to his website, according to his company.

Last week, Steves pledged that he would donate $1 for every $1 spent on his website on Friday to the ACLU, an organization that he is predicting will be busy during the Donald Trump administration.

"Over the last week, millions of Americans have been inspired to, in their own way, celebrate and defend what they believe makes our country so ... American," Steves wrote on his blog. "I declared that I’d give a dollar to the ACLU for every dollar spent at ricksteves.com on Inauguration Day. A thousand of you responded. And today, I wrote a check to the ACLU for $50,000. Thanks!"

Technically, shoppers spent $42,962 in Steves' store on Friday, but he kicked in the extra $8,000 saying that he was inspired by the large marches that occurred in protest of Trump on Saturday. Steves said he sold 305 travel bags, 901 accessories, 573 books, and 161 DVDs on Friday.

Amy Duncan, Steves' social media manager, said that the response to the fundraiser has been overwhelmingly positive. Facebook posts about the fundraiser reached nearly 3 million people, and some 50,000 "liked" or "loved" it.

Steves is a University of Washington graduate and an Edmonds resident. He's also active in local charities in Edmonds and Washington state.

Duncan said that Steves has done other online fundraisers. Each year during Christmas, he does a similar fund-matching drive through his store for Bread For the World, a charity focused on ending poverty and hunger. Steves and his fans raised approximately $500,000 for the charity this Christmas, Duncan said.

Image via Ricksteves.com