Deprecation Notice
The advanced search feature, as well as the Influence Explorer API are approaching end of life, and will be retired on December 31st, 2015. Please refer to our deprecation notice for more details.
API
Register for an API key at Sunlight Data Services. This key can be used to access all of the Sunlight Labs data APIs.
Campaign Contributions
End Point
JSON response format:
http://transparencydata.com/api/1.0/contributions.json
CSV response format:
http://transparencydata.com/api/1.0/contributions.csv
Excel response format:
http://transparencydata.com/api/1.0/contributions.xls
Parameters
- amount
The amount of the contribution in US dollars in one of the following formats:
Example Description 500 exactly 500 dollars >|500 greater than or equal to 500 <|500 less than or equal to 500 - contributor_ft
- Full-text search on name of individual, PAC, organization, or employer.
- contributor_state
- Two-letter abbreviation of state from which the contribution was made.
- cycle
A YYYY formatted year, 1990 - 2010.
Example Description 2006 the 2006 cycle 2006|2008 2006 OR 2008 cycle - date
date of the contribution in ISO date format
Example Description 2006-08-06 exactly on August 6, 2006 ><|2006-08-06|2006-09-12 between August 6, 2006 and September 12, 2006 - employer_ft
- DEPRECATED please use organization_ft
- for_against
When organizations run ads against a candidate, they are counted as independent expenditures with the candidate as the recipient. This parameter can be used to filter contributions meant for the candidate and those meant to be against the candidate.
Options Description for contributions made in support of the candidate against contributions made against the candidate - organization_ft
- full-text search on employer, organization, and parent organization
- recipient_ft
- full-text search on name of PAC or candidate receiving the contribution
- recipient_state
- two-letter abbreviation of state in which the candidate receiving the contribution is running
- seat
type of office being sought
Options Description federal:senate US Senate federal:house US House of Representatives federal:president US President state:upper upper chamber of state legislature state:lower lower chamber of state legislature state:governor state governor Multiple values must be separated by a pipe character.
Example Description federal:senate only the US Senate federal:senate|federal:house US Senate OR US House - transaction_namespace
filters on federal or state contributions
Options Description urn:fec:transaction federal contributions urn:nimsp:transaction state contributions
Examples
Contributions from the states of Maryland and Virginia to Barbara Mikulski during the 2008 campaign cycle as JSON:
/api/1.0/contributions.json?apikey=<key>&contributor_state=md|va&recipient_ft=mikulski&cycle=2008
Contributions from Alaskans to upper and lower state legislature candidates in 2002 as CSV:
/api/1.0/contributions.csv?apikey=<key>&contributor_state=ak&date=><|2002-01-01|2002-12-31&seat=state:upper|state:lower
