The Business of Giving.

As the campaign winds down – both Barack Obama and John McCain (as well as other politicians) are making their last fundraising pitches. Over the course of the election, the two candidates have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions.

Just this past weekend, Barack Obama’s campaign announced that they raised $150 million dollars – in September alone. It’s a mind boggling amount.

Where is all of this money coming from?

The September financial reports for both Barack Obama and John McCain released the information for several donors who made “big” donations.

Per the campaign finance laws individuals are permitted to donate just $2,300 per candidate, per election (primaries and the general election are counted separately).

However, individuals are permitted to donate an additional $28,500 to their national political party, and an additional $10,000 to their state committee(s).

Donors can earmark (ie get their donations to the candidate) by giving money to “joint committees” – those that are set up to benefit both the national party and the candidate.

According to the reports issued by Obama, over 600 donors gave $25,000 or more to his campaign in September.

Senator McCain’s records show that, through September, over 300 individuals have donated over $50,000 with some donors giving $70,000+ by “adding in” state parties as beneficiaries.

In previous elections donors were able to avoid the caps on campaign contributions by making large donations to campaign organizations (”soft money”) – These funds were used to promote various political issues/agendas without expressly endorsing one candidate. The perception was/is that the individual candidates did not receive the monies and therefore there are no caps on gifts. The McCain (yes, the same McCain) – Feingold Campaign Reform Act of 2002 restricted the use of “soft money” by the National Parties.

You can track the amounts given by: party, state, candidate, etc, with the interactive Presidential Campaign Finance Map on the Federal Elections Committee (FEC) website.