MapLight Releases New Tool to Search, Analyze U.S. Federal Campaign Contributions, API Also Available
Our team is excited to announce the launch of a new tool on MapLight.org that enables users to search and analyze campaign finance records for federal candidates. Our new Campaign Contribution Search allows users to quickly and easily search for campaign contributions to all candidates for federal office from the 2008 election to the present and download the results for free.
The new tool also allows users to search for multiple donors and multiple candidates simultaneously, and automatically view contributions from the same organization grouped under the same name (for example: contributions reported from “General Electric Inc” and “GE” are combined as “General Electric”). Data tables available for download break down the data by party, employer, contributor zip code, transaction date, and other categories that allow users to perform sophisticated analyses.
Key Features
MapLight’s new search tool allows users to:
- Quickly and easily search for campaign contributions to all candidates for federal office from the 2008 election to the present;
- Search for multiple donors and multiple candidates simultaneously;
- View contributions from the same organization grouped together (for example: contributions reported from “General Electric Inc” and “GE” are combined as “General Electric”); and
- Download the data for free for more detailed analyses.
Direct to Contribution Search
API
The Campaign Contribution Search also includes an API for web developers, which allows users to search for contributions byhttps://maplight.org/data_guide/maplight-contribution-search-api/ candidate; election cycle; text search of contributor name and contributor employer; and name-standardized organizations for major contributors curated by MapLight’s data team. The API is free for public, noncommercial use with paid licenses available for commercial and private use.
Similar Resources
A chart outlining the different features of free online tools (Federal Election Commission, MapLight, Open Secrets National Institute on Money in State Politics) to search for federal campaign contribution data is available here.
Direct to Contribution Search
See Also: More MapLight Research/Data Tools
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Data Files, News, Patrons and Users
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.