by Ruth Talbot, Brandon Roberts and Nat Lash Updated
Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars flow through political organizations known as 527s. These organizations are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission and are not subject to FEC-style restrictions on who can contribute or how much they can give, though donations are not tax deductible. These groups are spending more and more, topping $1 billion in 2022. Use our database to explore who funds these organizations and how they’re spending the money.
For example: Republican Governors Association, D.C. or Bloomberg
Advanced search
Search a term across all parameters. Any matches in the organization name, contributor or recipient name, contributor employer or occupation, expenditure purpose or leadership name will be returned.
| Description | Operator | Example Query |
|---|---|---|
| Search for an exact word or phrase | " | "first class" |
| Return results that include both phrases | + | church + state |
| Return results that include one phrase or another | | | GOP | Republican |
| Return results that do not include a word | - | football -soccer |
| Return wild-card or fuzzy matches | * | Jose* (matches Jose, Josetta) |
| Prioritize the enclosed operation if the query has multiple operators | ( and ) | (Homer | Marge) + president |
Explore all: Organizations · Contributions · Expenditures · Leadership
Contributions (All time)
$9.28B
Expenditures (All time)
$9.15B
Activity by State
States and territories with the highest total contributions to organizations located there over the last two years of available data.
| District of Columbia 107 recently active organizations | $1B |
| Massachusetts 17 recently active organizations | $370M |
| Virginia 47 recently active organizations | $68M |
| California 104 recently active organizations | $58M |
| Illinois 16 recently active organizations | $39M |
| North Carolina 43 recently active organizations | $31M |
| New York 42 recently active organizations | $29M |
| New Jersey 30 recently active organizations | $19M |
| Maryland 31 recently active organizations | $14M |
| Pennsylvania 26 recently active organizations | $8.5M |
| Nevada 7 recently active organizations | $8.5M |
| Wisconsin 14 recently active organizations | $8.2M |
| Indiana 33 recently active organizations | $5.9M |
| Florida 54 recently active organizations | $5.1M |
| Ohio 28 recently active organizations | $3.9M |
| Michigan 44 recently active organizations | $3.7M |
| Washington 16 recently active organizations | $3.5M |
| Texas 42 recently active organizations | $2.8M |
| South Carolina 15 recently active organizations | $2.8M |
| Colorado 17 recently active organizations | $2.4M |
Largest Organizations
Organizations that received the highest total contributions in the last two years of available data.
| ActBlue Non-Federal Massachusetts | $230M |
| Democratic Governors Association District of Columbia | $210M |
| Republican Governors Association District of Columbia | $170M |
| ActBlue Technical Services, Inc. Massachusetts | $130M |
| Republican State Leadership Committee - RSLC District of Columbia | $81M |
| AFSCME Working Families Fund District of Columbia | $72M |
| Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee District of Columbia | $47M |
| Put Michigan First District of Columbia | $38M |
| Republican Attorneys General Association District of Columbia | $37M |
| Democratic Attorneys General Association, Inc. District of Columbia | $35M |
| EMILY's List Non-Federal District of Columbia | $29M |
| District of Columbia | $27M |
| Alliance for Common Sense District of Columbia | $26M |
| Nar State Exchange Account Illinois | $25M |
| Aft Solidarity 527 District of Columbia | $23M |
| IBEW PAC Educational Fund District of Columbia | $21M |
| The PAC for America's Future District of Columbia | $20M |
| State Victory Action North Carolina | $17M |
| DAGA People's Lawyer Project District of Columbia | $14M |
| GOPAC, Inc. Virginia | $14M |
All States and Territories
Alaska Alabama Arkansas America Samoa Arizona California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Delaware Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Northern Mariana Islands Mississippi Montana North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Virgin Islands Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming
About This Data
What is a 527?
A 527 is a nonprofit formed under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, which grants tax-exempt status to organizations whose primary purpose is attempting to influence the election of one or more people to public office at the national, state or local level. But contributions to these organizations are not considered tax-deductible, unlike gifts to charities.
What organizations are in the 527 Explorer?This database covers tax-exempt political organizations organized under Section 527, excluding organizations that are regulated by the Federal Election Commission (like federal PACs are); that expect to receive less than $25,000 in annual contributions; that are nonpolitical nonprofits, like charities; or that are political committees for a state or local candidate or a political party. An organization’s state is taken from the address reported on its most recent form 8871.
What organizations report itemized contributions and expenditures?Tax-exempt political organizations, other than qualified state or local political organizations, that have filed for tax-exempt status with the IRS under Section 527 must file Form 8872 to disclose any expenditures made or contributions received. A qualified state or local political organization is one whose political activities relate solely to state or local public office and that routinely files publicly available reports with one or more states. For state-by-state information on tax-exempt political organizations and their filings, see the IRS’ listings.
Note: Only electronic filings are included in this data. While many organizations filed electronically before 2020, electronic filing for all organizations was only required beginning in January 2020. Therefore, some contributions and expenditures made prior to 2020 may not be reflected in this data.
How are the totals calculated?An organization’s total contributions and expenditures are calculated by summing up the most recent report filed for each reporting period. However, organizations sometimes file reports for overlapping dates or reports that duplicate data. For any date range, the most recently filed report is marked. Duplicate contributions or expenditures (ones that have the exact same name, amount and date but show up in multiple reports) have been removed from the calculated totals.
