句中them和最后一个was如何理解?

问题描述:

句中them和最后一个was如何理解?
"Because there was a lot of people across this country that was in favor of George Zimmerman being acquitted by virtue of them donating money to his defense,so that was a clear indication early on people was in support of him being acquitted in this case."
them 与donating money to his defense是什么关系?was 后面内容修饰indication还是people,省略什么词?

them 指的是a lot of people,them 后面省略了“who are",people后面也省略了一个who 吧