Joint fundraising done right

Your election campaign or political committee may wish to have a fundraiser with other candidates or committees. That's OK. You just need to pay attention to a few details.

A candidate's campaign can't donate to another candidate or to a political committee. One exception: You can donate surplus funds to a party committee.

Any expenses for the joint fundraiser should be shared equally, or if the candidate's campaign provides something of value for the fundraiser, the other campaigns involved should compensate the candidate's campaign for it.

Political committees other than a candidate's election campaign may donate to each other, or to a candidate's campaign. So if one donates more than others, figure out the fair market value of the contribution. Divide it by the number of committees participating, and report that as an in-kind contribution.

Contribution limits apply. If a contribution to a candidate exceeds contribution limits, the candidate's campaign should refund the excess to keep it within limits.

If it's an online event, the easiest way to handle contributions is to post a series of links on a web page for donors to give, one for each committee that's involved.

You may ask donors to give to the fundraiser and divide the contributions later. If you do that, create a separate bank account for proceeds from the joint fundraiser and then divide it evenly.

There are detailed instructions on how to do that on the PDC website.