Federal campaign finance law sets three things the searcher usually wants in one place: how much a person or group can give, how political action committees fit in, and what happens when someone breaks the rules. For the 2025–2026 election cycle, an individual can contribute up to $3,500 per election to a federal candidate.1Federal Election Commission. Contribution Limits for 2025-2026 A qualifying multicandidate PAC can give $5,000 per candidate per election. Super PACs face no cap at all, provided they spend independently of any campaign. Violations draw civil penalties running from $7,445 to $87,056 in 2025, and knowing violations involving $25,000 or more in a year can bring up to five years in federal prison.
How Much Individuals Can Give
The $3,500 individual-to-candidate limit applies per election, and the primary and general count separately. One donor can therefore give a single candidate $7,000 across a cycle. The cap covers cash, checks, and in-kind contributions such as donated office space or professional services at their fair market value.
Party committees have their own, higher ceilings. An individual can give up to $44,300 per year to a national party committee. National parties also keep separate accounts for convention costs, recounts and legal proceedings, and headquarters buildings; each of those accepts up to $132,900 per year from a single donor. State, district, and local party committees share a combined $10,000 annual limit from one individual.2Federal Election Commission. Contribution Limits for Party Committees
Candidates who spend their own money on their campaigns face no limit on self-funding, but every dollar still has to be reported.3Federal Election Commission. Using the Personal Funds of the Candidate
These dollar figures are not fixed. The FEC re-indexes many of them for inflation every two years against a 2001 baseline.1Federal Election Commission. Contribution Limits for 2025-2026 When a campaign accepts more than the cap from a single donor, it has 60 days to refund the excess or obtain a valid redesignation.4Federal Election Commission. Remedying an Excessive Contribution
Joint Fundraising and Bundling
Candidates, party committees, and PACs often pool their fundraising through a joint fundraising committee, which lets a single donor write one large check that gets split among the participants under a written allocation agreement disclosed publicly when the money is solicited.5Federal Election Commission. Joint Fundraising with Other Candidates and Political Committees Each slice still has to stay within the per-recipient limit, but the total on the check can be much larger than any single cap suggests.
Bundling is different. One person collects checks from many donors and delivers them together. When a registered lobbyist or lobbyist-linked PAC bundles more than $23,300 in a reporting period, the receiving campaign has to name the lobbyist and disclose the bundled total.6Federal Election Commission. Lobbyist Bundling Disclosure Threshold Increases (2025) The threshold adjusts annually for inflation. Bundling by anyone who is not a registered lobbyist carries no special disclosure requirement.
How PACs Work and What They Can Give
PAC is a general label, and the type determines both who can donate to the PAC and how much the PAC can give to a candidate.
A PAC that has been registered at least six months, taken contributions from more than 50 people, and given to at least five federal candidates qualifies as a multicandidate committee and may contribute $5,000 per candidate per election.7Federal Election Commission. Qualifying as a Multicandidate Committee PACs that have not met those thresholds are held to the same $3,500 per-election cap that applies to individuals.8Federal Election Commission. Contribution Limits
Separate Segregated Funds
Corporations, labor unions, and trade associations cannot use their general treasuries to contribute in federal elections, but they can set up a separate segregated fund. An SSF may only solicit a defined “restricted class” tied to the parent, such as executives, shareholders, or union members, and it cannot ask the public for money.9Federal Election Commission. Fundraising for a Separate Segregated Fund (SSF) The parent may pay the fund’s administrative costs from its treasury; the money going to candidates has to come from the restricted class’s own pockets.
Non-Connected PACs
A non-connected PAC has no corporate or union sponsor and can solicit the general public. These committees often form around a policy cause rather than an employer. Once one qualifies as a multicandidate committee, it operates under the $5,000-per-candidate-per-election cap.7Federal Election Commission. Qualifying as a Multicandidate Committee
Super PACs
Independent expenditure-only committees, universally called Super PACs, came out of the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC and the D.C. Circuit’s ruling in SpeechNow.org v. FEC. Together, those decisions let outside groups accept unlimited money from individuals, corporations, and unions, as long as the groups spend independently and give nothing directly to candidates.10Federal Election Commission. Citizens United v FEC
The word “independent” is doing heavy lifting. A Super PAC cannot coordinate its spending with the candidate it supports. When it does, the spending is treated as an in-kind contribution subject to the normal dollar limits, and both the PAC and the campaign are exposed to enforcement.11Federal Election Commission. Understanding Independent Expenditures Where the coordination line actually falls is one of the most litigated questions in the field.
A Boundary Worth Naming: 501(c) Groups
Some of the largest election-related spending does not come from PACs at all. Nonprofits organized under section 501(c)(4) or 501(c)(6) of the tax code can run political ads so long as politics is not their primary purpose, and, unlike Super PACs, they generally do not have to disclose their donors. The FEC requires disclosure of donors who gave specifically to fund an independent expenditure, but unrestricted gifts to the organization usually fall outside that rule. That is the source of what is commonly called “dark money,” and it sits alongside the PAC system rather than inside it.
Who Cannot Give at All
Some categories of donors are barred from federal elections entirely:
- Foreign nationals. Anyone who is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident cannot contribute, donate, or make independent expenditures in any federal, state, or local election. Soliciting or accepting the money is equally illegal.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 Code 30121 – Contributions and Donations by Foreign Nationals
- Federal government contractors. A person or company under a federal contract, or negotiating one, cannot give to a federal candidate, party, or PAC. The ban runs from the start of negotiations through completion of performance.13Federal Election Commission. Federal Government Contractors
- Corporations and labor unions using treasury funds. Direct contributions or expenditures from general treasury accounts are prohibited. Corporations and unions may still set up an SSF and, after Citizens United, may spend without limit through Super PACs.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 Code 30118 – Contributions or Expenditures by National Banks, Corporations, or Labor Organizations
LLCs and partnerships sit in a category that catches business owners off guard. A partnership contribution is attributed to both the partnership and the individual partners who participated, and the partnership has to give the recipient a written breakdown by partner and amount. An LLC is treated as a corporation or a partnership based on its IRS election. If it chose corporate tax treatment, it falls under the corporate contribution ban and cannot give at all. If it chose partnership treatment or made no election, the partnership rules apply and the money is attributed to individual members.15Federal Election Commission. Partnership and LLC Contributions
Penalties for Breaking the Rules
Most enforcement is civil. The FEC’s adjusted civil penalty range for 2025 runs from $7,445 to $87,056 per violation, with the final number depending on severity and negotiation with the commission.16Federal Election Commission. Commission Adjusts Civil Penalties for 2025 A separate administrative fine program handles late or missing disclosure reports, with penalties calculated from the report’s sensitivity, the dollars at stake, and any prior violations by the same committee.17Federal Election Commission. Calculating Administrative Fines
Criminal penalties apply when someone knowingly and willfully violates the law. Violations involving $25,000 or more in a calendar year carry up to five years in prison. Violations in the $2,000 to $25,000 range carry up to one year. Straw-donor schemes, in which one person makes a contribution in another person’s name, draw enhanced penalties: fines of at least 300 percent of the amount involved, potentially up to 1,000 percent, on top of possible imprisonment.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 Code 30109 – Enforcement
The FEC handles civil enforcement directly and refers criminal matters to the Department of Justice.
Disclosure Is the Backbone
Contribution limits work only because the money is traceable, and most enforcement starts with a disclosure filing. Political committees file regular financial reports with the FEC, and any individual whose contributions to a candidate committee cross $200 during an election cycle must be identified by name, mailing address, occupation, and employer.19Federal Election Commission. Individual Contributions For PACs and party committees, the $200 itemization threshold runs per calendar year.20Federal Election Commission. Sale or Use of Contributor Information
Filing cadences vary. House and Senate campaigns file quarterly, plus pre-election and post-general-election reports in election years. Presidential campaigns that have raised or spent at least $100,000 switch to monthly filings during the general election year.21Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 Code 30104 – Reporting Requirements All of it lands in the FEC’s searchable public database, which is how journalists, opposing campaigns, and watchdogs typically surface the violations that lead to enforcement.
Every political ad also has to carry a “clear and conspicuous” disclaimer naming who paid for it, whether the ad runs in print, on television or radio, or as a paid digital placement.22Federal Election Commission. Advertising and Disclaimers Ads not authorized by a candidate have to say so and identify the paying organization with a full name and a way to reach it.