Your passion for the candidate is so great that you agreed to be his campaign manager. Your first task is to bring in much needed funding. You dive headfirst into organizing events; it is going to be huge, featuring the best food and entertainment in town. Your guest list will gather the richest in the hope that they will open their wallets after a few glasses of champagne. The sky is your limit, or is it?

Political Campaigns Have Limits

The Federal Election Commission has enacted Federal Election Campaign Act since 1975. Enacted on February 7, 1972, the Federal Election Campaign Act governs the fundraising and expenditure of all federal political campaigns. This gave rise to the requirement that candidates formally disclose all contributions they’ve received to their political aspirations. Congress further limited campaign activity in 1974 by placing legal limits on how much donors could contribute to a particular candidate.

What your fundraising means is straightforward: You cannot allow donors to write checks for any amount they want. Before every presidential election, donor contribution limits are adjusted to enable additional fundraising according to the Consumer Price Index; regardless, there are still limitations. Besides how much a donor can contribute, the classification is also considered in terms of the maximum donation amount.

For example, PACs or National Party Committees can donate extra money than individuals, so you must consider who your donors are before you can tell them how much they can give. If you set your event between the current and new campaign contribution limits, you’ll have to work with the old chart, and, as you’ll see while reading This article moreover, quantity is not the only thing you must worry about.

Illegal Campaign Donations

In the recent election, there was quite a lot of controversy over the sources of campaign donations, and if you are considering inviting the oil magnate from Saudi Arabia in the hope that he’ll write a check for billions, you might as well think again. Anyone classified as a foreign citizen in the United States is prohibited from donating to federal political campaigns. If the oil magnate holds a residency green card, he can write a check, but if he does not, you have just received an illegal campaign contribution.

More Complicated Than It Looks

Political fundraising falls under a different purview than other non-profit fundraising. This is why many campaign managers are involved in politics or, at the very least, majored in politics in their higher education. You must understand US politics at its core to be capable to run a successful and legal campaign. The Graduate School of Political Management offers online options for busy adults. Get more info about their political science degrees online Here.

If you have a solid understanding of the structure of US politics and how checks and balances work, and if you understand what is and is not allowed in campaign activities, you have a far better chance of managing a successful campaign. You will be happy to earn a degree in political science after your candidate accepts the oath of office. Who knows? Maybe he will run your next campaign.