In addition to regular quarterly or monthly disclosure reports, presidential candidates who seek matching funds must submit information about matchable contributions to the FEC for review. During the 2008 campaign, the Commission will place these files on our Internet site. The files are provided as Excel and PDF files. Before receiving matching funds candidates must also provide a letter of agreement stating that they accept the conditions for receiving matching grants, which include recordkeeping requirements, submitting to an audit by the FEC, etc. These letters are included here as .pdf files.

Contributions from individuals where the aggregate amount contributed by the individual is $250 or less are eligible to be matched on a dollar for dollar basis from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. This Fund includes proceeds from the voluntary check-off of $3 per person from income tax returns of eligible taxpayers. Candidates may submit any contribution from an individual (including those where the contribution amount is more than $250) in order to receive matching funds for the first $250 of the contribution. Some contributions included in these files, therefore, will also be included as detailed entries in the regular financial disclosure reports submitted by the campaigns.

All submissions are reviewed by the Commission to be sure that supporting documentation is in order and that there are no errors in the file before federal funds are certified to be paid. As a result, some contributions may be rejected and campaigns may resubmit rejected contributions if additional supporting material is provided. This means that specific contributions may appear more than once in the files of a particular candidate, so considerable care is required when interpreting these data.

Finally, note that 2 U.S.C. Section 438a(4) states that "… any information copied from such reports or statements may not be sold or used by any person for the purpose of soliciting contributions or for commercial purposes. . .".