Campaign contributions definition
Campaign contributions include money, loans, or services given to influence federal elections and are regulated by the FEC.
A campaign contribution is anything of value given, loaned, or advanced to influence a federal election. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulates contributions to candidates for president, the US Senate, and the US House. Contributions include money, loans, and in-kind goods or services given free or below market value.
A campaign may not take money from a corporation, labor organization, or national bank's own funds, though those groups may set up a separate political action committee (PAC) that can make contributions. Campaigns also may not take money from federal government contractors or foreign nationals, and no one may give using another person's name.
Campaigns raise and spend contributions through a committee, which reports to the FEC. Committees must list the name, address, occupation, and employer of anyone who gives more than $200 during an election cycle. The FEC posts those reports on its website within 48 hours of receiving them.
What are campaign contribution limits?
Contribution limits are caps that federal law places on how much a single source may contribute. In the 2025 to 2026 election cycle, an individual may give $3,500 per election to a candidate’s committee. The same person may give $5,000 per year to a PAC and $44,300 per year to a national party committee.
Each election counts separately. A primary, general, runoff, and special election each carry their own limit, so that a contributor may give the maximum for a candidate's primary and the maximum again for the general election.
The FEC indexes the candidate and party committee limits for inflation in odd-numbered years.
Are campaign contributions tax deductible?
No. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Publication 526 lists political organizations and candidates among the organizations that don’t qualify for a charitable deduction, so the money can’t be written off.
What happens to unused campaign contributions?
A campaign may use leftover funds only in ways federal law permits. Those uses include authorized campaign expenses and the ordinary expenses of holding federal office. The money may also go to charity, to a national, state, or local party committee, or to state and local candidates under state law.
Federal law prohibits spending campaign funds on personal use. The law defines personal use as paying an expense that would exist regardless of the campaign or the candidate’s duties in office. For example, a candidate couldn’t use campaign funds for a home mortgage, rent, utilities, clothing, tuition, vacations, or a country club membership.
Keep exploring
- Who’s funding the 2024 election? - Over 75% of the funds raised for the 2024 election have come from political action committees (PACs) and party committees, which then redistribute the funds to different campaigns.
- Tracking 2024 election contributions and spending - A majority of funding for the 2024 election — over 65%, or nearly $5.6 billion — comes from political action committees, also known as PACs.
- How much money are candidates raising for the 2026 midterm?
- What does the Federal Election Commission (FEC) do?
