There are several kinds of contributions. The Contributions data entry screen offers contribution category codes appropriate to your situation, but refer to your addendum for details of which contribution types are appropriate to your situation. Some examples of contribution types are:

• Monetary: Contributions of cash or checks.
• Non-monetary: Contributions other than cash or checks, known as in-kind contributions. Examples include furnishing goods or services for a campaign fund-raising event or providing office equipment to be used by the campaign.
• Enforceable promises to make a payment: An enforceable promise is made if a person (from the California FPPC Campaign Disclosure Information Manual A, 1991):
• Guarantees a loan;
• Furnishes security for a loan;
• Endorses a loan;
• Co-signs a loan;
• Makes and delivers a post-dated check;
• Establishes a line of credit at a bank or other commercial lending institution for a candidate or committee; or
• Promises in writing to make a payment for specific goods or services, and the candidate or committee, based on the promise, expends funds or enters into an enforceable contract with a third party.
• Exempt Legal Services: Federal committees must report the value of donated legal and accounting services, but under certain conditions this work is exempt from contribution limitations.
• Staff Advances: Federal committees must record advances (for example: travel expenses, or payments to a vendor) made by a staff member from his/her own personal funds as a contribution. Whether the advance is later reported as a contribution or a committee expense, depends on when the committee reimburses the staff member.

1. Types of Contributors

Campaign Craftware handles different types of contributors depending on election jurisdiction and the form of the contribution:

• Individual: A contribution made in the contributor's own name. Contribution checks must be drawn on personal checking accounts not on business checking accounts.
• Entity/Business: A contribution made by a business entity, corporate, partnership, trust or otherwise.
• Partnership/Trust: A contribution made to a federal committee by a partnership or its partners, or by a trust. Federal committees may not accept contributions from corporations.
• Small PAC: A contribution made by a Political Action Committee (see Glossary) which does not meet the qualifications of a "broad based" PAC described below.
• Broad Based PAC: A contribution made by a Political Action Committee that has been in existence for more than six months, receives contributions from one hundred or more persons, and acting in concert makes contributions to five or more candidates.
• Political Party: A contribution made by a recognized political party.
• National Party Committee: A contribution to a federal committee by a committee established and maintained by a national political party. A party’s national committee, House and Senate campaign committees are defined as national party committees.
• Nonqualified Political Committee: A contribution to a federal committee by a nonqualified political committee.
• Multicandidate Political Committee: A contribution to a federal committee by a political committee that has been registered at least six months, has more than 50 contributors and, with the exception of state party committees, has made contributions to at least five candidates for federal office.
• Candidate’s Immediate Family: A contribution to a candidate controlled committee by a member of the candidate’s immediate family. Refer to your election authority’s regulations for a precise definition.
• Other Candidate Controlled Committee: A contribution made by another candidate's controlled committee.

1. Exceptions

Refer to your election authority’s regulations for goods and services that are not considered contributions. For example, the following are usually not considered contributions:

• Volunteer personal services;
• Payments made by an occupant of a home or office for costs of holding a meeting or fund-raising event there, if the costs for the meeting or fundraising event are $500 or less;
• Those items of value where full and adequate consideration is paid by the committee to the providers.

1. Contribution Limits

For many campaigns, there are legal limits on contribution amounts. Campaign Craftware helps the committee avoid violating these limits by inhibiting acceptance of any contribution that would do so. During the committee setup process you’ll be asked to specify the contribution limits, if any, that apply to the various types of contributor to your campaign. Contribution limits for federal committees are already included in Craftware. See Section 3.3 for definitions of contributor types.

If limits are in effect, Craftware reviews the selected contributor’s prior contributions, then calculates and displays the maximum allowable contribution remaining. Craftware refuses to accept any contribution that would exceed the maximum and displays a message to that effect. An override feature is available to handle excessive contribution checks that were inadvertently deposited to the committee checking account.

If contributions are not limited, a message stating that fact appears, and Craftware accepts any amount entered in the contribution amount field.

2. Contributions (Add/Edit)

When you select "Contributions (Add/Edit)" from the Main menu, a sub-menu similar to the following is displayed:



Contributions Menu

The functions provided by this sub-menu give the user all of the capabilities necessary for compiling and maintaining information about the campaign's contributions and contributors. Only the functions appropriate to your committee type are presented. This screen is just a sample. Each function is described separately in the following sections.

1. Add New Contribution
1. Batching Contributions

In most cases, you’ll add contributions in "batches". That is, the committee will receive and deposit a number of contributions on the same date and enter them in one data entry session. To facilitate this, Craftware lets you enter common information about the batch just once, instead of for each contribution.

Selecting "Add New Contribution" displays a batch information screen similar to the following:

Use this screen to enter information that is common to a number of contributions. This saves time when you are entering a group of checks that are:

• received and deposited on the same date
• from a single fund raising event
• from a single conduit, lobbyist or fundraiser.

The information entered into the fields on this screen is included as default information in the data entry screens for this session. To override any of the default information, simply type over it during data entry.

Craftware fills in today’s date for both dates of receipt and of deposit of the batch of contributions, but you may change either or both. The receipt date may be today’s date or earlier, but Craftware will not accept a future date received.

The optional "Event" field associates a batch of contributions with a specific fund raising event, so that later you can generate a report of event totals. Use this field when you wish to identify and track contributions resulting from particular fundraising activities, such as a direct mailing.

Refer to your election authority’s rules to see if you are required to track the routing of contributions through conduits, intermediaries, lobbyists or fund-raisers. Even if you are not required to report this information, you may wish to track this activity for your committee’s own use. Use the Administrative Reports module to generate in-house reports.

To further identify the source of the contribution, or batch of contributions, as resulting from the efforts of a Conduit, a Lobbyist or a Fundraiser, press F3 to display the following menu:

• A conduit is a person, other than an employee of or paid consultant to the committee, who delivers checks to the campaign for others. Typically, this is a person who physically collects and transmits contributions from friends and/or business associates and then delivers the contributions to the campaign.

• A lobbyist is a person or entity who is paid to influence legislative or administrative action on another's behalf. In the context of Craftware source categories, the term generally refers to a lobbyist who influences others to make contributions directly to the committee or is a paid representative of the contributor.

• A fundraiser, in this context, is a person or entity to which the committee is to give credit, such as a commission, for contributions. Examples would include someone who organizes a specific fundraising activity, or a supporter with a specific fundraising goal.

Use the arrow keys to select Conduit, Lobbyist or Fundraiser and press ENTER or the SPACEBAR to display the pick list of contributor names. Select the name from the pick list. If the name is not on the list, press F10 to display the data entry screen. See Section 3.7 for detailed instructions on adding a conduit, lobbyist or fundraiser.

Press CTRL-W to proceed.

1. Selecting an Existing Contributor

After you have completed the batch information screen, the contributor pick list will be displayed. The first time you use Craftware to record a contribution, the only name on the contributor pick list is the candidate's. Each contributor you add becomes accessible via the contributor pick list.

To select an existing contributor, highlight the contributor’s name and press ENTER.



Contributor Pick List

2. Adding a Contributor

If the contributor is not yet on the pick list, press F10 to add. The following is an example of a contributor type pick list:

Select a contributor type and press ENTER. See Section 3.3 for a list of contributor types. The data entry screens for different contributor types vary slightly. Refer to the addendum specific to your election jurisdiction if you want to see representations of the screens appropriate to your situation.

The top part of the screen is for information about the contributor. The bottom part of is for information about the contribution.

Shown here is the Individual Contributor screen for California committees.

Press the SPACEBAR to select Title (Mr., Ms., etc.), then press TAB or ENTER to move on to the next field. Type in contributor information as required. For example, California committees are required to report the following information for individual contributors:

• Full name, street address, city and state
• Occupation
• If employed, employer's name
• If self-employed, contributor's business name

1. Contribution Information

Type in the information requested in the contribution information box in the lower part of the screen. Use the SPACEBAR to select Contribution Type. A list of applicable codes is displayed at the bottom of the screen. In this case, options are: M for monetary (the default), N for non monetary or E for enforceable promise. Different options may apply to your situation. See the applicable Addendum for details.

• Monetary Contributions. You must enter each check’s bank code or ABA number to ensure that the deposit ticket produced by Campaign Craftware is complete and accurate. The ABA (American Banking Association) number is found on all checks in the form xx-xxxx or xx-xx. Use code M for monetary contributions.
• Cash Contributions. Use code M for cash contributions. Type the letters CASH in the check number field. Craftware must track cash receipts for both deposit tickets and for compliance purposes.

• Non-Monetary (In-Kind) Contributions: Use code N for non-monetary (in-kind) contributions. Enter a description of the goods or services.
• Enforceable Promise Contributions: California committees may select Contribution Type E for enforceable promise contributions. Enter a description of the transaction.
• Exempt Legal Services Contributions: Federal committees may select Contribution Type E for exempt legal and accounting services contributions. Refer to FEC rules for details.
• Staff Advance Contributions: Federal committees may select Contribution Type S to record payments made by staff from their personal funds for campaign-related goods or services. Enter a description of the goods or services. Staff advances may or may not eventually be reported as contributions, depending on when reimbursement is made. Refer to FEC rules for details.

If campaign contribution limits are in effect, Craftware will check for previous contributions made by this contributor and display a message indicating the maximum allowable contribution.

In this example, a $5,000 limit applies and the contributor has previously contributed $1,000. A message pops up indicating that the maximum allowable contribution is $4,000. The following is the completed contribution data entry screen after entering another $1,000 contribution:

Federal committees are prohibited from accepting contributions from corporations; however, they may accept contributions from partnerships or trusts, if the entire contribution can be attributed to one or more of the partners. The F7 Attribution feature is not available to California committees.

Select a Partnership/Trust from the contributor pick list, and the following data entry screen is displayed:

After filling in the requested information, press F7 to attribute the check to one or more partners. Select a partner from the pick list or press F10 to add.

Enter the amount to be attributed to that partner. If part of the check is still unattributed, select another partner and continue attribution. When the entire check amount is attributed, the following screen displays:

A message appears in the contribution block, noting that this is a partnership check. Press CTRL-W if you are finished with this contribution.

You may view or edit this information later by selecting "Reattributions" from the Contributions sub-menu.

1. Edit Existing Contribution

This function allows you to make changes to existing contributions.



Contributions Menu

Selecting "Edit Existing Contribution" from the contributions menu causes the pick list of contributor names to be displayed.



Contributor Pick List

Highlight a contributor and press ENTER. A list of that contributor’s contributions is displayed. Select the contribution you wish to edit.



Existing Contributions List

A data entry screen with the contribution information filled in will be displayed. You may change any of the data, including the contribution amount, but be careful that the change does not result in the contribution limit being exceeded.

2. Name Only Add/Edit

Use this function to edit information about an existing contributor or add a new contributor.



Contributions Menu

Selecting "Name Only Add/Edit" from the contributions menu displays the contributor pick list.



Contributor Pick List

To edit an existing contributor, select the contributor and press ENTER. The contributor’s data screen will be displayed. The following is an example of a Name Only Add/Edit entry screen for an individual.



Individual Contributor Name Only Data Entry Screen

To add a new contributor, press F10 and the a menu similar to the following will be displayed.



Contributor Type Menu

Highlight contributor type and press ENTER. A fresh data entry screen appropriate for this contributor type will be displayed. Enter contributor information then press CTRL-W to save.

3. Unitemized Contribution

An unitemized contribution is typically a number of relatively small contributions entered and reported as one value. For example, a fundraiser held away from the candidate's area results in a number of $5.00 donations, and these donors are unlikely to exceed the reporting limit by contributing further. Caution: if one or more of these small amount donors later contribute enough to exceed the reporting limit and the original small amount has not been reclassified, a campaign disclosure violation will occur.



Contributions Menu

Select "Unitemized Contribution" from the Contributions sub-menu and a screen showing any unitemized contributions is displayed:



Unitemized Contributions List

Select an existing unitemized contribution to edit, or press F10 to add a new unitemized contribution. The following screen will be displayed:



Unitemized Contribution Data Entry Screen

Enter the dates, total amount of the unitemized contributions, the event name, and optional source data (conduit, lobbyist, fundraiser).

4. Reattributing a Contribution

Select Reattributions from the pick list of functions and press ENTER. This feature not implemented at the time the documentation was last updated.

5. Redesignating a Contribution

Select Redesignations from the pick list of functions and press ENTER. This feature not implemented at the time the documentation was last updated.

6. Salting the List

Select Salt the Names from the pick list of functions and press ENTER. This feature not implemented at the time the documentation was last updated.

1. Adding a Conduit, Lobbyist or Fundraiser

Note: FEC procedures use "conduit" and "intermediary" interchangeably. However, in the context of Craftware, an intermediary is an entity which collects contributions, deposits them into its own checking account, and then writes its own check to the committee. Craftware’s usage of conduit refers to an entity who gathers contributions from others and delivers the original checks to the committee. Federal committees, please adhere to Craftware’s usage of conduit and intermediary.

This section discusses the details of adding a new conduit, lobbyist or fundraiser in Campaign Craftware. Add a new source when you add or edit a contribution whose source is not already entered into Campaign Craftware. Select from the menu presented. It will be similar to the following:



Conduit Type Selection Menu

NOTE: If you are adding a lobbyist or a fundraiser, the same menu is displayed, but with the appropriate heading (for example, "Select Type of Lobbyist"). The resulting data entry screens will also be the same as the following when adding a lobbyist or a fundraiser.

Other conduit types may be presented, depending on your committee type. The above example is for a California campaign. Some examples of other conduit types are: Nonqualified Political Committee, Multicandidate Political Committee, or National Party Committee.

If you select "Individual", the following data entry screen is displayed into which you may enter the appropriate information. The SPACEBAR scrolls through choices in the Title field (Mr., Ms., etc.)



Individual Conduit Data Entry Screen

 

Enter the information in the appropriate screen. Exit by completing the last field on the screen or by pressing CTRL-W.

2. Elections with Contribution Limits

Contribution limits apply to individual elections, so limits may be different for a primary versus a general election. When limits are in effect, the "Election" field in the contribution information box identifies the election to which this contribution is attributed. This field appears just below the contribution receipt and deposit dates on the screen.

The following is an example of a contribution data entry screen for an individual contributor when contribution limits are in effect. The entry is either P for primary election or G for general election. Campaign Craftware automatically sets the default according to the contribution date and the election dates. To override the default press the SPACEBAR to toggle between P and G.