The most important part of fundraising is making sure that you’re abiding by applicable campaign finance laws. Here we’ll provide a broad overview of North Carolina campaign finance laws. Nothing can replace the advice of an experienced lawyer or treasurer, so take this as it’s intended: a starting resource for further investigation, not the end-all of the intricacies of campaign finance.

1. Know who to ask for help. When in doubt, contact the people who do this for a living: your County and/or the North Carolina State Election Board. They will either know the answer or direct you to someone who does.

2. Research what laws apply to you. You are running as a candidate at the municipal (e.g. Town Council), county (e.g. County Planning Board), state (e.g. NC State House), or federal (e.g. US House) level. There are different rules at every level,  so be aware of them. This determines your main regulatory body throughout the campaign.

3. Find a good treasurer. Every candidate committee must have a treasurer, and it can be anyone but your spouse. The treasurer is responsible for maintaining your financial records and filing required reports with the Board of Elections. Your treasurer must be trained by a Board of Elections course within three months of his/her appointment and once every four years after that.

4. Know when you have to file forms. North Carolina has deadlines for filing forms for your candidacy as well as filing campaign finance reports throughout the year. (As a fun fact, the filing fee is 1% of the annual salary of the office for which you are running; for the State House or Senate, that’s $207.) Know these dates. Don’t be late.

With these general tips established, below are the answers to some common questions that candidates have. Remember–once more!–that this is general information not intended to replace the experience of a good lawyer or treasurer, and that different rules may apply to you if you are running for local or county office. Legal caveats aside, hopefully this will help.

What counts as a contribution? Contributions are more than just money, and this is important to remember before getting discounted web design from your brother’s firm and a donated billboard from your best friend’s PR company. The State Board of Election’s definition includes “loans, pledges, gifts, proceeds or sales of services, in-kind transfers, use of any supplies, office machinery, vehicles, aircraft, office space or related services, good, or personal or real property.” Even if it doesn’t have an exact dollar value like a direct contribution, it has a market value, and you’ll be required to account for it.

How much can people donate? A candidate may accept up to $4000 in the primary and $4000 in the general election from one individual. Intriguingly, you, your spouse, your parents, and your sibling can donate however much they would like. Also exempt from donation limits are the executive committees of any national, state, district, or county political party.

What information do I have to report for contributions? You have to report the name, address, and occupational information for anyone who donates more than $50 to you in an election cycle. That means that once a $10 monthly donor crosses the $50 limit you must disclose his/her information in your next campaign finance report. A copy of required campaign finance reports is available online.

What can I spend money on? North Carolina has now limited campaign committee expenditures to eight categories: (1) expenditures resulting from the campaign; (2) expenditures resulting from holding public office; (3) charitable organizations (Section 170(c) of the federal tax code) provided your family doesn’t work there; (4) contributions to national, state, district, or county political parties or caucuses of a political party; (5) contributions to another candidate or candidate’s campaign committee; (6) return of contribution to a donor; (7) penalties due to the Board of Elections); or (8) payment to the Escheat Fund.

In general, you must track the name and address of your payee, the amount and date of your payment, and the purpose of the payment (e.g. rent or office supplies). On an interesting note, all campaign expenditures over $50 may not be paid in cash.

If you plan to spend less than $3000 over the course of your campaign, you may qualify to not file campaign finance reports with the Board of Elections, although you must still keep accurate records and receipts should the Board of Elections ask to see them.

Online Resources
The links below should help you get started in learning more specific information about the rules that will apply to you as you run for office. When in doubt, contact an expert–the stakes are too high to do otherwise.

• NC State Board of Elections (see Campaign Finance and Candidate Filing in particular)
• Campaign reporting software provided free by the NC State Board of Elections
• List of NC County Board of Elections with contact information
• Searchable database of NC political committee campaign finance reports

Tags: campaign fundraising, Campaign Tips, political fundraising

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 7:51 am and is filed under Campaign Tips, Fundraising to Win, Know the Rules, Winning Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.