Political Spending
In order to help local groups fundraise, it’s necessary that the funds are donated to Indivisible Project, our national organization, and then granted by us to your local group for your permissible activities. Indivisible Project is a nonprofit corporation that is recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organization. For that reason, money granted through this program can only be spent on activities that are legally permissible for a 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation.
Download a One Pager on Political Spending
Independent political spending on federal elections is permitted but require pre-approval. A link to the political spending pre-approval form is above.
What counts as political spending?
For federal reporting purposes, partisan political spending includes any activity conducted to influence an election. For example, ads that explicitly seek to support or oppose a candidate for federal office, or voter outreach that explicitly supports or opposes a candidate. You may notice a theme here: supporting or opposing a candidate for public office. Supporting a specific party in an election, even without focusing on an individual candidate, may also be considered partisan political activity. Partisan political activity will often trigger campaign finance obligations (i.e., reporting), which is why you must seek pre-approval for that spending. Indivisible will use the info you provide using the form link above to file campaign finance reports as necessary with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Sometimes this reporting must happen within 24 hours of an expenditure, so it is important that you seek pre-approval as early as possible.
Political spending with this card must be independent, and direct contributions to campaigns are prohibited.
This card cannot be used to make direct financial contributions or offer other direct financial support to a candidate, political party, or PAC. This includes spending that is done in coordination with candidates, political parties, or PACs. Spending will be considered coordinated if it is made with knowledge of a campaign or political party’s plans, projects, activities, or needs. If you are not sure whether a particular spend would be considered coordinated, please reach out to us as soon as possible.
There are also restrictions on what kind of fundraising requests can be made in relation to political spending. For that reason, it is important that you do not ask people to donate money so that it can be spent on a specific election. If you have specific questions about fundraising language related to elections that you wish to use, please reach out for more guidance.
Political spending on state or local races is prohibited.
The card cannot be used for any political activity directed towards influencing the outcome of state or local races. Indivisible cannot provide support for legally-mandated reporting associated with these races.
Additional Requirements for Printed Materials
All printed materials must include the following disclaimer, as required by the FEC:
Paid for by Indivisible Project (indivisible.org). Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Disclaimer formatting requirements:
- Must be clearly readable - ideally 12 point font with a reasonable degree of color contrast (e.g. black text on a white background, or the same degree of contrast of the background color and the color of the largest text);
- Must be set apart in a separate box and the frame of the box should be the same color as the text so it stands out;
- More information and examples can be found here. The brochure is pretty old but the information is still valid!