Coverage

Michigan's electronic record thins out sharply before 2004 — the 1998 contribution file is a fraction of a percent of a modern year. Rows flagged sparse should not be read as "little money was raised".

Counted once. Federal data reports much of the same money twice. Left out, and counted: 347,968 memo rows ($212,435,324) that restate money itemized elsewhere; 1,070,815 ActBlue/WinRed pass-through rows ($154,488,989) that the receiving campaign also reported; 20,191 committee-to-committee transfers ($362,557,811) already on the giver's report; 162,190 rows the FEC publishes in two files. Kept: 683,901 small gifts ($38,664,478) that only the conduit itemized. Every federal transaction links to its filed page on fec.gov. FEC data published Sun, 11 Oct 2026 16:37:14 GMT.

What is not here. Nonprofit donor lists: the IRS redacts them, and since 2020 social-welfare groups (501(c)(4)), unions and trade associations do not report donor names to the IRS at all. Returns are filed 1–2 years late and cover fiscal tax years. Only e-filed returns are included, so 2019–2020 are thinner. The smallest organizations file the postcard 990-N, which has no financial detail. Grants under $5,000 are not itemized on a 990.

Counted once. Amended or re-filed returns: the latest submission per organization, tax period and form is used (2,715 earlier versions set aside); 3,519 superseded 527 reports likewise. A nonprofit's payment to a political committee is kept on the IRS side and linked to the committee — never added to the committee's own receipts, which already include it. Of 2,315 Michigan 527 reports, 2,315 have itemized contributions that sum exactly to the total the report states. 14 Michigan 527s are also registered with the state under the same name; their state and IRS reports are separate records of overlapping money, shown separately and never summed together. Foundation grant recipients carry no EIN on the return; 132,368 were matched to one by exact name and ZIP, and are marked so.

Limits. Wayne County: contributions 1985–present and expenditures 2001–present; no separate receipts file. Macomb County: contributions 2020–2026 only (no expenditures yet), and committees are identified by name only — there is no county committee id, so two committees with the same name would be combined. Oakland County is not yet loaded. Employer pages include county contributions that list an employer.