Candidates running under Small Donor Elections must agree to a number of provisions before having their small donations matched. They must report all of their donations and expenses publicly. They can only accept donations of $350 or less*, and only from individuals and not special interests (with the exception being that candidates can accept up to $500 per donor in seed funding from any source up to a $5,000 campaign total, and up to $10,000 total in in-kind donations from organizations that pool small contributions or in the form of activities that make our democracy stronger). Only small contributions from Portlanders are matched, so candidates have an incentive to spend more time talking with and listening to community members.
If you visit OpenElectionsPortland.org, you can review:
- How much the candidates have raised
- The percentage of their donations that are small (less than $25), medium ($25-$100), and large ($100-$250).
- Where their donations are coming from
- How much they have received in matching funds
We are the first small-donor matching program in the nation to have this kind of public website. Please take the time to dig into the data and check out OpenElectionsPortland.org.