💰 FEC Campaign Finance Contributions Scraper

🚀 Extract campaign finance contribution data from the FEC in seconds. Filter by contributor name, committee, city, state, employer, date, or amount. No coding, no complex setup required.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-04-16 · 📊 50+ fields · 🔄 Runs on Apify cloud or locally · 📁 Export: JSON, CSV, Excel

The FEC Campaign Finance Contributions Scraper extracts detailed political contribution data from the Federal Election Commission's OpenFEC API. Each record includes 50+ structured fields covering contribution amounts, dates, contributor details (name, address, employer, occupation), committee information (name, type, party, treasurer), election details, and links to original filing documents. Whether you need 10 records for a quick lookup or millions of contributions for large-scale political research, this tool handles it automatically.

Built for journalists investigating campaign finance, researchers analyzing donation patterns, political analysts tracking fundraising trends, compliance professionals monitoring contributions, and transparency advocates building public accountability tools. The scraper supports filtering by contributor name, committee ID, city, state, ZIP code, employer, occupation, date range, and amount range. Each record links back to the original FEC filing PDF for verification.

Target Audience	Use Cases
Investigative Journalists	Campaign finance investigation
Political Researchers	Donation pattern analysis
Compliance Professionals	Contribution monitoring
Transparency Advocates	Public accountability reporting
Political Campaigns	Donor research, competitive analysis
Academic Researchers	Political science studies

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📋 What the FEC Campaign Finance Contributions Scraper does

• 💵 Extracts contribution amounts and dates for tracking donation patterns, aggregate totals, and fundraising timelines
• 👤 Collects contributor details including full name, address, city, state, ZIP code, employer, and occupation for donor profiling
• 🏛️ Gathers committee information with committee ID, name, type, party affiliation, treasurer, and filing status
• 📄 Links to original filings with PDF document URLs, filing form numbers, and image references for verification
• 🗳️ Captures election details including election type, two-year transaction period, and candidate information when available
• 📊 Tracks aggregate data with year-to-date contribution totals and amendment history for compliance monitoring

The scraper queries the FEC OpenFEC API with your specified filters, handles pagination automatically, and processes results efficiently. You can combine multiple filters for precise targeting, such as contributions from a specific employer in a specific state during a specific time period.

💡 Why it matters: The FEC database contains hundreds of millions of contribution records. Manually searching, downloading, and organizing this data is time-consuming. This scraper delivers structured, filterable data ready for analysis in minutes.

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🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon...

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⚙️ Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
apiKey	string	No	FEC OpenFEC API key. Default: DEMO_KEY (rate-limited). Get a free key from api.open.fec.gov.
maxItems	integer	No	Maximum contributions to collect. Free users: limited to 10. Paid users: up to 1,000,000.
contributorName	string	No	Filter by contributor name (partial match supported).
committeeId	string	No	FEC committee ID (e.g., C00034157).
contributorCity	string	No	Filter by contributor city.
contributorState	string	No	Filter by 2-letter state code (e.g., CA, NY).
contributorZip	string	No	Filter by contributor ZIP code.
contributorEmployer	string	No	Filter by employer name (partial match).
contributorOccupation	string	No	Filter by occupation (partial match).
minDate	string	No	Minimum receipt date (YYYY-MM-DD).
maxDate	string	No	Maximum receipt date (YYYY-MM-DD).
minAmount	number	No	Minimum contribution amount in USD.
maxAmount	number	No	Maximum contribution amount in USD.
twoYearTransactionPeriod	integer	No	Two-year period (e.g., 2024 for 2023-2024 cycle).

Example 1: Search by contributor name

{
  "contributorName": "Smith",
  "contributorState": "CA",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example 2: Large contributions in a date range

{
  "minAmount": 1000,
  "maxAmount": 5000,
  "minDate": "2024-01-01",
  "maxDate": "2024-12-31",
  "twoYearTransactionPeriod": 2024,
  "maxItems": 500
}

⚠️ Good to Know: The default DEMO_KEY works but has lower rate limits. For faster processing, get a free API key from the FEC at api.open.fec.gov. Multiple filters can be combined for precise targeting. Free users are automatically limited to 10 items per run.

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📊 Output

🧾 Schema

Emoji	Field	Type	Description
💵	contributionAmount	number	Contribution amount in USD
📅	contributionDate	string	Date contribution was received
🆔	transactionId	string	Unique transaction identifier
👤	contributorName	string	Full contributor name
👤	contributorFirstName	string	Contributor first name
👤	contributorLastName	string	Contributor last name
📍	contributorAddress	string	Contributor street address
🏙️	contributorCity	string	Contributor city
🗺️	contributorState	string	Contributor state code
📮	contributorZip	string	Contributor ZIP code
🏢	contributorEmployer	string	Contributor employer
💼	contributorOccupation	string	Contributor occupation
📊	aggregateAmount	number	Year-to-date aggregate total
🏛️	committeeId	string	FEC committee ID
🏛️	committeeName	string	Committee name
🏛️	committeeType	string	Committee type
🎭	committeeParty	string	Committee party affiliation
👤	treasurerName	string	Committee treasurer
🏛️	committeeCity	string	Committee city
🏛️	committeeState	string	Committee state
📋	filingForm	string	Filing form type
📄	reportType	string	Report type
📅	reportYear	number	Report year
📋	scheduleType	string	Schedule type
🗳️	electionType	string	Election type
📅	twoYearPeriod	number	Two-year transaction period
📄	pdfUrl	string	Link to original FEC filing PDF
🔗	contributionUrl	string	FEC contribution detail URL
🔢	fileNumber	number	FEC file number
🔢	imageNumber	string	FEC image number
📝	receiptType	string	Receipt type description
📝	lineNumber	string	Filing line number
🔄	amendmentIndicator	string	Amendment indicator
📅	scrapedAt	string	Data collection timestamp
❌	error	string	Error message if extraction failed

📦 Sample records

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✨ Why choose this Actor

Feature	Details
📊 50+ data fields	Contribution amounts, contributor details, committee info, filing links
🔍 13 filter options	Name, committee, city, state, ZIP, employer, occupation, dates, amounts
📄 PDF filing links	Direct links to original FEC filing documents for verification
💵 Amount range filtering	Target specific contribution size ranges
📅 Date range filtering	Focus on specific election cycles or time periods
🏛️ Full committee data	Name, type, party, treasurer, location, and filing status
📁 Multiple export formats	JSON, CSV, Excel for any workflow

📈 Typical performance: Collects 500+ contribution records per minute. A dataset of 10,000 contributions takes roughly 20 minutes.

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📈 How it compares to alternatives

Feature	This Actor	Manual FEC Search	Generic Scrapers
50+ structured fields	✅	Partial	❌
13 filter combinations	✅	Limited	❌
PDF filing document links	✅	✅ (one at a time)	❌
Export to CSV/JSON/Excel	✅	CSV only	Partial
Scales to 1M+ records	✅	❌	❌
No coding required	✅	N/A	❌
Scheduled runs	✅	❌	Partial

Purpose-built for FEC campaign finance data, with every contribution field mapped and direct links to original filing documents.

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🚀 How to use

1. Create a free Apify account - Sign up here (includes free credits)
2. Open the FEC Campaign Finance Contributions Scraper - Navigate to the Actor page and click "Start"
3. Set your filters - Enter contributor name, committee ID, state, date range, or amount range
4. Choose your limit - Set maxItems (free users: up to 10)
5. Run and download - Click "Start", wait for completion, then export as JSON, CSV, or Excel

⏱️ First results appear in under 15 seconds. A typical run of 100 contribution records completes in about 30 seconds.

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💼 Business use cases

Investigative Journalism Research donor networks and contribution patterns Track large contributions by employer or industry Verify candidate fundraising claims Build databases for transparency reporting	Political Research Analyze donation patterns by geography Study contribution amounts across election cycles Map donor-committee relationships Track fundraising trends over time
Compliance & Legal Monitor contribution limits and aggregate totals Track PAC and committee filing activity Verify donor identity and employment data Build audit trails from filing documents	Academic & Policy Research Study the influence of money in politics Analyze donor demographics by occupation Build datasets for political science studies Track small-dollar vs. large-dollar giving trends

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🔌 Automating FEC Campaign Finance Contributions Scraper

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/fec-campaign-finance-contributions-scraper").call({
  contributorName: "Smith",
  contributorState: "NY",
  minAmount: 500,
  maxItems: 200
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("parseforge/fec-campaign-finance-contributions-scraper").call(run_input={
    "contributorName": "Smith",
    "contributorState": "NY",
    "minAmount": 500,
    "maxItems": 200
})
items = list(client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items())
print(items)

• 📖 Apify API Reference
• 🐍 Python API Client docs
• 🟢 Node.js API Client docs

Schedules: Set up daily or weekly runs with Apify Schedules to track new contributions, monitor specific committees, or build historical datasets across election cycles.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

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🔌 Integrate with any app

• 🔗 Make (Integromat) - Connect FEC data to analytics dashboards or databases
• 🔗 Zapier - Trigger alerts when new contributions match your criteria
• 🔗 Slack - Get notified when large contributions are filed
• 🔗 Airbyte - Sync contribution data to your data warehouse
• 🔗 GitHub - Automate campaign finance data pipelines with GitHub Actions
• 🔗 Google Drive - Export contribution data directly to Google Sheets

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💡 Pro Tip: Combine the FEC Contributions Scraper with the USASpending Scraper to analyze the relationship between campaign contributions and federal contract awards.

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🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form and we will get back to you within 24 hours. For bug reports, feature requests, or integration help, we are here to assist.

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Disclaimer: This Actor is provided as-is, without warranty. It accesses public FEC data through the official OpenFEC API. The authors are not responsible for how the collected data is used. Campaign finance data is public record under federal law. Always verify data accuracy for critical applications.