Joint fundraising transfers

Reporting on candidate forms

House and Senate committees report receiving transfers from joint fundraising committees in the “Transfers from Other Authorized Committees” category on Form 3, Line 12. Transfers from joint fundraising committees must be itemized on Schedule A, regardless of the amount of the transfer.

Martha Washington for Congress and Dolley Madison for Senate decide to hold a fundraiser together and create a joint fundraising committee called Friends of Martha. They decide to split costs and proceeds equally.

The joint fundraising representative holds an event on March 25, 2018. At the event, Friends of Martha collects a total of $10,800. The contributions came from James Madison for $5,400 and James Monroe for $5,400. Since proceeds were split evenly, Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe each made a $2,700 contribution to Martha Washington’s committee.

To host the event, Friends of Martha incurred $800 in expenses. At the end, Martha Washington for Congress receives a check from Friends of Martha on March 31, 2017, for $5,000. ($10,800 raised - $800 spent = $10,000 left to send to each committee. Martha gets $5,000 and Dolley gets the other half.)

To report the joint fundraising transfer, the committee will first report information about the Joint Fundraising Representative(JFR), and include the JFR’s information, the amount from the check, the date the money was transferred, the election designation and the aggregate election cycle-to-date total for the JFR.

The committee will also report information about the original contributors as memo entries that are tied to the main transfer entry. This will include the individual’s information, the contribution amount, the date that the contributor originally gave the money, election designation, and the aggregate election cycle-to-date total. The committee will also use the description field to clearly link the memo entries to the original transfer.

Note:

• The date of the transfer and the date the original contributors gave money can be the same, or the memo entries can have dates that are earlier than the JFR transfer date.
• The amount of the joint fundraising transfer should be less than or equal to the total for all of the memo entries supporting that transfer. The memos show the committee’s whole share of the contribution (the gross amount). In contrast, the joint fundraising transfer entry shows the committee’s share of the fundraiser’s proceeds minus the allocated costs to put on the fundraiser (the net amount).
• For added clarity on the report, the committee may itemize a memo entry that discloses the sum total of original contributions that support the joint fundraising transfer but do not require itemization. The memo entry should include:
  • the total amount of contributions that did not require itemization to support the joint fundraising transfer; and,
  • a description that identifies the memo entry as providing information about unitemized contributions, for example "Unitemized Receipts - Friends of Martha."

Reporting last-minute contributions

If a candidate’s campaign participates in a joint fundraiser, the joint fundraising representative must notify the campaign if it receives contributions of $1,000 or more less than 20 days but more than 48 hours before 12:01 a.m. of the day of any election in which the candidate is running. It is imperative that the joint fundraising representative quickly notifies the campaign of the receipt since the principal campaign committee is responsible for filing the 48-Hour Notice (Form 6) to disclose those contributions within 48 hours of the receipt. The notice should disclose the information for the original contributor(s) rather than information about the joint fundraiser’s total transfer.

Reporting with FECFile

To enter a joint fundraising transfer go to the Summary Page tab, right click on “Line 12 Transfers from other authorized committees” and select ”new.” To create memo entries for the contributors, right click on the transfer entry and select transaction split. Click “add new…” and enter the contributor information for the transfer.