How every figure on this site is counted.

What's in scope

The tracker indexes itemized donations to AIPAC and a defined list of AIPAC-affiliated PACs and 501(c)(4) entities, sourced from public FEC and IRS filings. “Tracked” means: itemized in a public filing and ingested into our current dataset. A subset is attributed back to a corporate brand via the donor’s public role on the date of the filing; the rest is itemized individual giving with no corporate attribution.

Recipients we count

• American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) directly.
• United Democracy Project (UDP).
• Pro-Israel America PAC.
• Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund.
• Single-candidate funds where AIPAC has filed a public endorsement and where the donation is itemized to that fund on a Schedule A line.

We do not include J Street PAC (counter-aligned) or generic party committees (DCCC/NRCC) where the line-level attribution to AIPAC cannot be established from the filing alone.

Attribution rules

A donation is attributed to a corporate entity when:

1. The donor is the corporate PAC (e.g. Lockheed Martin Employees PAC).
2. The donor is a named executive whose role at the company at the date of contribution is verifiable via SEC filings, LinkedIn-confirmed tenure, or a press archive.
3. The donor is a 501(c)(4) entity whose IRS Schedule B identifies the company as a major contributor.

Thresholds and rounding

Individual donations under $200 are excluded from per-row display (the FEC does not require itemization below this threshold). Aggregate cycle figures include all itemized rows. Display rounding is to the nearest dollar; underlying records preserve cents.

Sources

• FEC Form 3 / Schedule A · primary corporate PAC filings
• FEC Form 3X · party / nonconnected PAC filings
• IRS 990 / Schedule B · 501(c)(4) major contributor schedules
• OpenSecrets.org · cross-reference for organizational profiles
• SEC EDGAR · 10-K political activity disclosures
• State PAC registries · CA SOS, NY SBOE, TX Ethics, FL DOS, et al.

Right of reply

Every company and named executive has a right of reply. Submit a written response via /contact and we will include it in this page’s changelog alongside the relevant figures. Replies are not edited for content.

Corrections policy

When we get something wrong, we say so. Accepted corrections are summarised in this page’s changelog with the original figure, the corrected figure, the date, and a link to the underlying filing that motivated the change. A dedicated public corrections log is on the roadmap.

Refresh cadence

New filings are ingested within 24 hours of FEC publication. Cycle aggregates and treemap figures recompute on every ingest.

What's deliberately out of scope

• Foreign corporate giving routed through US-registered subsidiaries (under review).
• Dark-money channels that do not file with the FEC or IRS.
• Any contribution we cannot link to a primary public filing.

Versioning

This methodology is currently at v0.1, the initial public release. A public changelog will be published alongside the first material revision; until then, treat this document as the source of truth and check back for updates.