*By Chloe Aiello* A new platform is inviting politically progressive consumers to vote with their wallets. The Progressive Shopper platform is designed to educate left-leaning shoppers about political donations made by their favorite brands. The platform aggregates public records on campaign contributions made by companies and their employees, and then ranks the companies as "highly recommended," "OK," or "please shop somewhere else," based on their support (or lack thereof) for the Democratic Party. Progressive Shopper co-founder Mark Hanis said consumers have a right to transparency when they shop. "There is a huge amount of money involved in politics. Probably the next presidential campaign will cost upwards of $1 billion. And a lot of that is coming from corporations where we shop every day. So we do think there should be more transparency," Hanis told Cheddar on Wednesday. Because individuals are behind the products developed and the decisions made within any company, Hanis said his platform includes personal donations from employees as well as the corporate donations. The breakdown is available on Progressive Shopper's site and its browser plug-in. Only donations of $200 or more are in the public record. Hanis and Progressive Shopper believe the campaign finance process should be reformed, but until then, Hanis said: "This is the world as it is, let's try to inform our consumers, so they can shop along with their values." For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-new-platform-revealing-brands-political-contributions).
