FEC Campaign Finance Contributions Scraper

FEC Campaign Finance Contributions Scraper

Scrape FEC campaign finance contributions by contributor, committee, location, employer, or date, up to a million per run. Every contribution comes with its amount, date, donor details, and committee ID. No login or API key required beyond a free FEC key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The FEC's official API needs a key, pagination handling, and rate-limit management. This reads the public contribution records directly, filtered by contributor name, committee, location, employer, occupation, date, or amount, and returns each match in one fixed schema.

Who uses it	What they scrape FEC for
Journalists	Investigating who funds a particular candidate or committee
Political researchers	Mapping donor networks across states and industries
Nonprofits and watchdogs	Tracking contributions that exceed legal limits or come from prohibited sources
Campaign strategists	Analyzing opponent donor bases to find persuasion targets
Academic researchers	Building datasets for studies on money in politics

What it does

This Actor collects FEC campaign finance contributions by contributor, committee, location, employment, date, or amount, and returns each one as a flat row.

• 🔍 Contributor search: filter by name, city, state, ZIP, employer, or occupation, with partial matches supported.
• 🏛️ Committee search: pull all contributions to a specific FEC committee ID.
• 📅 Date and amount filters: narrow by receipt date range, minimum or maximum contribution amount, or two-year election cycle.
• 📊 Flat output: every contribution is one row with donor, committee, amount, and date fields, ready for analysis.
• 🔑 Free API key: use the demo key for testing or get your own free key from FEC for higher limits.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with FEC data

📰 Investigate a candidate's donors.

A journalist enters a committee ID and a date range to get every contribution over $200, then cross-references employer names to find industry patterns.

🗺️ Map donor geography.

A political researcher filters by state and ZIP code to see which neighborhoods give the most to a particular campaign.

🏢 Track corporate influence.

A watchdog group searches by employer name to identify all contributions from employees of a specific company.

📊 Build an academic dataset.

A graduate student pulls all contributions for a two-year election cycle and exports to CSV for regression analysis.

🎯 Find persuasion targets.

A campaign strategist scrapes donors to an opponent's committee and filters by amount to identify high-value potential supporters.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No FEC API coding	The Actor handles pagination, rate limits, and retries for you
One flat schema	Every contribution is a single row with consistent fields, no nested JSON
Up to a million rows	Paid users can scrape up to 1,000,000 contributions per run
Export anywhere	CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, ready for spreadsheets, databases, or BI tools

How it compares

No other Store actor targets FEC the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	FEC Campaign Finance Contributions Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When FEC changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from contributor name, committee ID, location, employer, occupation, date range, amount range, or election cycle, alone or together, and filters run as each contribution is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "apiKey": "DEMO_KEY",
  "maxItems": 10,
  "contributorName": "Smith"
}

A larger pull:

{
  "apiKey": "DEMO_KEY",
  "maxItems": 200,
  "contributorName": "Smith"
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0075 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.75
1,000 results	$7.50
10,000 results	$75.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the FEC Campaign Finance Contributions Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to FEC through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/fec-campaign-finance-contributions-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that you have entered at least one search parameter, such as contributor name or committee ID. Also verify that your filters are not too restrictive. Try removing some filters or broadening your search terms.

Why am I getting an authentication error?

Make sure your API key is correct. If you are using DEMO_KEY, note that it has limited functionality and may be rate-limited. Get a free key from https://api.open.fec.gov/developers/ for better performance.

Why is my run limited to 100 items?

Free users are limited to 100 contributions per run. To scrape more, upgrade to a paid plan and set maxItems to a higher value or leave it empty for unlimited.

Why are some contributions missing?

The FEC API may not return all contributions if they are very recent or if the data has not been fully processed. Try adjusting your date range or waiting a few days and running again.

How do I export to Excel?

When you run the Actor, select 'Excel' as the output format. The Actor will generate an .xlsx file that you can download from the run's output tab.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an FEC API key?	Yes, the Actor requires an FEC OpenFEC API key. You can use the demo key DEMO_KEY for limited testing, but for production use you should get a free key from https://api.open.fec.gov/developers/.
What is the maximum number of contributions I can scrape?	Free users are limited to 100 contributions per run. Paid users can scrape up to 1,000,000 contributions per run, or leave the max items field empty for unlimited scraping.
Can I search by contributor name?	Yes, the contributorName field supports partial matches. For example, entering 'Smith' will return all contributors whose name contains 'Smith'.
How do I find a committee ID?	You can browse committees at https://www.fec.gov/data/browse-data/?tab=committees. The committee ID is a code like C00034157.
Can I filter by date?	Yes, use minDate and maxDate in YYYY-MM-DD format to filter by receipt date range. You can also filter by two-year transaction period, such as 2024 for the 2023-2024 cycle.
Can I filter by contribution amount?	Yes, use minAmount and maxAmount to filter by contribution amount in USD. Both are optional and can be used together.
What output formats are supported?	The Actor can export data to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML. You choose the format when you run the Actor.
Does the Actor handle pagination automatically?	Yes, the Actor automatically handles pagination and rate limits, so you don't need to write any code.
Can I search by employer or occupation?	Yes, the contributorEmployer and contributorOccupation fields support partial matches. For example, entering 'Google' will return all contributions from Google employees.
Is there a limit on how many filters I can combine?	No, you can combine any number of filters. The Actor will apply all of them to narrow down the results.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Federal Election Commission. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.