Inequality
The Power of Mega-Donors
How concentrated is political money in America?
American democracy runs on money, but that money comes from a surprisingly small slice of the population. While millions of Americans make small donations to political campaigns, the vast majority of campaign funds come from a tiny elite of mega-donors.
This article examines the concentration of political giving using FEC data to answer a fundamental question: just how concentrated is the money that funds American elections?
Visualization
The Concentration Problem
Visualizing where political money really comes from
Top 1% Contribution Share
The top 1% of donors (14,938 out of 1,493,704) contribute 17.3% of all itemized donations.
Money by Donor Size Category
Total contributions grouped by lifetime giving level. Blue = small donors, purple = mid-range, red = mega-donors.
Number of Donors by Category
While most donors give small amounts, the total money is dominated by the few who give the most.
Top 100 Mega-Donors Treemap
Each box represents a top donor, sized by total contributions. Click to explore individual donor profiles.
What the Data Shows
The top 1% of donors contribute 17.3% of all itemized donations. That means just 14,938 individuals out of 1,493,704 total donors account for $10.44 billion in political contributions.
At the very top, the million-dollar+ donors number just 4,150 people, yet they contribute $22.91 billion — that is 38.0% of all itemized donations.
Why This Matters
Political scientists have long documented the influence of money in politics. When a small number of donors provide the majority of campaign funds, candidates may feel more accountable to those donors than to the broader electorate.
This concentration has accelerated since the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010, which allowed unlimited independent expenditures by corporations and individuals. Super PACs and other outside groups now regularly receive multi-million-dollar checks from single donors.
The Top 100
The treemap above shows the 100 largest individual donors in the FEC data. The top donor, BLOOMBERG, MICHAEL R., has contributed $1387.4M in itemized contributions. Together, the top 100 have given $10.44 billion.
Data
Top 25 Mega-Donors
Methodology
This analysis uses FEC itemized individual contribution data aggregated across all available election cycles. Donors are grouped by their total lifetime giving as recorded in FEC filings.
The bucket thresholds reflect meaningful legal and behavioral boundaries:
- <$200: Below the FEC itemization threshold
- $200-$2,900: From threshold to the individual contribution limit to candidates
- $2,900-$50K: Donors who max out to multiple candidates or give to PACs
- $50K-$1M: Major donors who bundle or give to Super PACs
- >$1M: Mega-donors who dominate outside spending
Note that unitemized contributions (those under $200 from a single source) are not included in this analysis, as they are reported only in aggregate.