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      Volunteer activity for party committees

Volunteer activity for party committees An individual may volunteer uncompensated personal services to a party committee without making a contribution. Volunteer activity is not reportable. Note, however, that if volunteers are paid for their services by someone other than the party committee, the activity is no longer considered volunteering, and the payments result in in-kind contributions to the party committee. Generally, if an individual provides services to a party committee during paid working hours (other than incidental or isolated activity which is discussed in more detail), the employer makes a contribution to the committee.
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      Receiving legal and accounting services as a party committee
            
             Food and beverage vendor discounts
            
             Advances of personal funds
 Volunteer’s living expenses
          
            Activities in home, church, community room
          
            Food, drink, invitations at home event
          
            Corporate/labor volunteers
          
            Uncompensated internet activity
          
            Travel
          
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            Legal citations
 Volunteer’s living expenses

  
  
    While volunteering, an individual may pay for normal subsistence expenses (meals and lodging) without making a contribution. These payments are not reportable.
 Activities in home, church, community room

  
  
    Individuals, in the course of volunteering personal services, may use their homes — or the recreation room of the apartment complex where they live — for activities to support a party committee without making a contribution. Volunteers may also use a church or community room for party-support activities as long as the facility is regularly used for noncommercial purposes by members of the community without regard to political affiliation. (A nominal fee paid by the individual for the use of a recreation or community room is not a contribution and is not reportable.)
 Food, drink, invitations at home event

  
  
    Individuals may volunteer to hold fundraising receptions or other types of party-support activities in their homes or in churches or community rooms. An individual may purchase food, beverages and invitations for the event without making a contribution as long as such spending does not exceed $2,000 per calendar year on behalf of all political committees of the same party. (A married couple may together spend up to $4,000 per year.) Any amount spent in excess of $2,000 per person, however, must be reported by the party committee as an in-kind contribution. (Otherwise, the activity is not reportable.) Note that any expenses paid by a nonresident co-host of an activity are considered in-kind contributions to the party committee benefiting from the event.
 Corporate/labor volunteers

  
  
    An employee, stockholder or member of a corporation or labor organization may make occasional, isolated or incidental use of the organization’s facilities for volunteer work on behalf of a party committee (or candidate), subject to the rules and practices of the organization. However, the volunteer may have to reimburse the corporation or labor organization in some cases.
 Uncompensated internet activity

  
  
    An individual or group of individuals may engage in Internet activity for the purpose of influencing a federal election without making an expenditure or a contribution. The activity must be uncompensated, and the exemption does not include payments for email lists. The individual or group need not own the computer(s) used for the activity and is permitted to pay a nominal fee for the use of another person’s website without the amount paid being considered a contribution.
 Travel

  
  
    Unreimbursed travel expensesThe rules described apply only to an individual’s payments for his or her own travel expenses; if an individual uses personal funds to pay the travel expenses of another, an in-kind contribution results.$2,000 transportation exemptionAn individual working for a party committee (including a paid staff member or a volunteer) may voluntarily spend up to $2,000 for unreimbursed transportation expenses on behalf of all political committees of the same party without making a contribution. Payments for transportation expenses that exceed $2,000 per year, however, are considered contributions—unless they are reimbursed by the party committee in a timely manner.
      
      Reimbursed travel expensesWhen an individual working on behalf of the party committee pays transportation and subsistence expenses while traveling, no contribution will result if the committee reimburses the individual within the following time limits:If the expense was paid with cash or a personal check, within 30 days from the date the expense was incurred.If the expense was paid with a credit card, within 60 days of the closing date on the credit card billing statement where the charge first appears.Outside of these time limits, the payments are in-kind contributions.
 Continue learning
 Legal citations Regulations 11 CFR 100.54Compensation for personal services 11 CFR 100.74Uncompensated services by volunteers 11 CFR 100.75Use of a volunteer's real or personal property 11 CFR 100.77Invitations, food, and beverages 11 CFR 100.79Unreimbursed payment for transportation and subsistence expenses 11 CFR 100.94Uncompensated Internet activity by individuals that is not a contribution 11 CFR 114.9(a)Use of corporate facilities for individual volunteer by stockholders and employees 11 CFR 114.9(b)Use of labor organization facilities for individual volunteer activity by officials, members, and employees
 Advisory opinions AO 1980-63Costs of a fundraiser hosted in an individual's home


This information is not intended to replace the law or to change its meaning, nor does this information create or confer any rights for or on any person or bind the Federal Election Commission or the public. The reader is encouraged also to consult the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (52 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.), Commission regulations (Title 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations), Commission advisory opinions and applicable court decisions.


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