A Mitt Romney campaign announcement declaring its latest fundraising figures raised a few eyebrows on our team — not because of the amount of money that was raised, but rather because of how the campaign characterized its contributors. The press release highlighted that “84% Of All Donations Received Through The End Of March Were $250 Or Less,” which seems to suggest a groundswell of grassroots support for the former governor. While the percentage the campaign cites is correct, it doesn’t illustrate the role small donors play in the campaign’s overall fundraising. A closer look at the numbers reveals that in fact, a majority of Romney’s money has come from people who donated the maximum amount of $2,500 — 64 percent through March, according to the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI).
What the “84 percent” figure really means is that roughly 8 out of 10 checks received by the Romney campaign were $250 or less, not that 84% of the campaign’s total fundraising came from checks of that size. The press release says these donations have totaled $11.6, or 13 percent of the nearly $87 million the campaign has raised so far. But even that doesn’t tell the whole story, since it can include donors who have cumulatively given more than $250 in smaller increments — for instance, 2,500 checks in the amount of $1. The CFI weeds out these repeat contributors once they cross certain donation thresholds. We had the CFI crunch the numbers for $250 and they found just 11 percent of Romney’s cash has come from contributions of $250 or less. When you compare this to his rival, the CFI found 49 percent of the president’s fundraising has come from donors who gave $250 or less.
It’s important to note that $250 is a somewhat arbitrary figure. Reports typically refer to “small donors” as those who have given $200 or less, as those contributions are filed as “unitemized” with the FEC. The Romney campaign’s April FEC file shows his campaign pulled in $9.1 million from small donations through March 31, which is 10.5 percent of its total fundraising (according to the CFI, that falls to just under 9 percent if you exclude repeat donors who have cumulatively have given more than $200). On the other hand, Obama for America’s latest filing shows $85 million, or 57.9% of his total haul so far, has come from small donor contributions (44 percent by the CFI calculation).









