Who can contribute

Individuals

An individual may make contributions to candidates and their authorized committees, subject to limitations

Contribute

Under the Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act), certain contribution limits are indexed for inflation every two years, based on the change in the cost of living since 2001, which is the base year for adjusting these limits. The inflation-adjusted limits are:

• The limits on contributions made by persons to candidates (increased to $3,500 per election, per candidate) (52 U.S.C. § 30116(a)(1)(A));

Minors

An individual who is under 18 years old may make contributions to candidates and political committees, subject to limitations, if:

• The decision to contribute is made knowingly and voluntarily by the minor;
• The funds, goods or services contributed are owned or controlled by the minor, proceeds from a trust for which he or she is a beneficiary or funds withdrawn by the minor from a financial account opened and maintained in his or her name; and
• The contribution is not made using funds given to the minor as a gift for the purpose of making the contribution, and is not in any way controlled by another individual.

Trusts

A political committee may:

• Accept contributions from an individual’s estate made through a testamentary trust, subject to the same limitations and prohibitions that were applicable to the decedent during the decedent’s lifetime.
• Only accept contributions from trusts in which neither the committee nor any officer, director, employee, member, agent, or affiliated organization of the political committee serves as a trustee or exercises any control over any undistributed trust corpus or interest amount.

Note that the committee must disclose the name of the both the trust and the name of the decedent on its report.

Contributions may be made from a living (inter vivos) trust as long as the trust’s beneficial owner has control over the use of the trust funds. The contribution should be reported as a contribution from the beneficial owner (as signor on the contribution), rather than from the trust.

Special requirements apply to contributions from trusts to presidential campaigns that are eligible for federal matching payments.