page_title: Federal political financing in Canada
section_title: Cost of fundraising
hierarchical_section_title: Federal political financing in Canada / Private funding / Cost of fundraising
caption_attribution_description: English: Party-level fundraising costs vs. party-level contributions raised at top 3 Canadian federal parties in 2009
context_page_description: The financing of federal political entities in Canada is regulated under the Canada Elections Act. A combination of public and private funds finances the activities of these entities during and outside of elections.
context_section_description: In order to solicit political monetary contributions, fundraising is a major focus for many parties that involves hiring fundraising experts, and employing sophisticated database systems, email lists, newsletters, and telemarketing.
  The Conservative Party, for example, is reported to make phone calls or send letters to about 200,000 people a month, and conducts surveys to collect and feed information on the views of individuals into its database referred to as CIMS, an acronym for "Constituent Information Management System". The information stored in the database is then used to customize mailings and phone calls for each targeted donor to appeal to them specifically on issues that they are known to react more strongly to.
  Other associated overhead for fundraising include legal consultation, processing, accounting, auditing, and reporting costs.
  (Sources: Elections Canada, Globe and Mail)
  In 2009, the overhead cost of fundraising for the top three parties exceeded the net private funds they raised. They spent a combined $11.2 million on fundraising at the party level (riding-level expenses not included), according to their 2009 annual party returns, to raise approximately $10.3 million in net private funds.
caption: Party-level fundraising costs vs. party-level contributions raised at top three Canadian federal parties in 2009 (source: Elections Canada[4])
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