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Clarity before your next filing.
Resolve excessive contributions with a documented process.
Three remedies. One resolution process.
Understand the available remedies, documentation requirements, and deadlines for resolving excessive contributions.
A supporter contributes $5,000 to your campaign. The individual limit is $3,500 per election, leaving $1,500 above the permissible amount.
This is among the most routine events in a well-funded campaign, and federal regulations provide three legitimate remedies. What converts a routine event into a compliance problem is time. A committee has 60 days from receipt to resolve the excess; once that window closes, the only remaining remedy is a refund.
At 9Seven Consulting, Thomas Datwyler and our team consistently see excessive contributions concentrate in the closing weeks of a cycle, when donors are contributing at the maximum and intake review is most likely to fall behind. This guide sets out how the resolution process works and where it most often breaks down.
What Constitutes Excessive Contributions
Excessive contributions are those that cause a donor to exceed the applicable limit for a particular election. Because the primary and general are treated as separate elections with separate limits, a contribution may be excessive as to one and entirely permissible as to the other. That distinction is the source of most of the confusion committees encounter.
Two obligations apply immediately, before the committee decides how to resolve the contribution.
The contribution must be deposited or returned within 10 days. A committee may not hold a questionable check while it evaluates the contribution. It must either deposit the funds within 10 days of receipt or return them to the contributor.
The funds must remain available. Once deposited, the committee must retain sufficient funds to refund the excessive portion should that become necessary. Some committees maintain a separate account for contributions under review; either approach is acceptable. Spending the funds in anticipation of a favorable resolution is not.
The committee must also document the basis for its concern that the contribution may be excessive, and that record should inform how the receipt is reported.
Three Remedies for Excessive Contributions
Redesignation to another election
Where a donor has reached the primary limit but has remaining capacity for the general election, the excess may be redesignated to that election.
Redesignation requires a signed, written statement from the contributor, obtained within 60 days of the committee's receipt of the contribution. The committee's request must also inform the contributor that they may instead receive a refund. That notice is not a courtesy; it is a condition of a valid redesignation.
The redesignated amount may not cause the contributor to exceed the limit for the receiving election. Redesignation reallocates funds into existing capacity; it does not create additional capacity.
Reattribution to another contributor
Where a contribution is drawn on a joint account, a portion may properly belong to the other account holder. Reattribution divides the contribution between them.
Each contributor must sign a written statement specifying the amount attributable to them, within the same 60-day period and subject to the same requirement that a refund be offered as an alternative.
One constraint is absolute: the funds must genuinely belong to each contributor. Making a contribution in the name of another is prohibited, and reattribution cannot be used to recharacterize a contribution that in substance came from one individual. In that circumstance, the appropriate remedy is a refund. Reattribution is available only for contributions from individuals.
Refund of the excess
A refund is always available and always compliant. It is the default remedy for excessive contributions whenever redesignation or reattribution cannot be completed within the permitted period. The committee refunds the amount exceeding the limit and reports the refund accordingly.
If 60 days elapse without the required signed documentation, the refund ceases to be an option and becomes an obligation.
Presumptive Remedies for Excessive Contributions
Committees are not always required to wait for a contributor's response. In defined circumstances, the regulations permit the committee to act first and notify the contributor afterward. These presumptive redesignations and reattributions resolve a substantial share of excessive contributions without any reply from the donor, and they are underused.
Presumptive redesignation to the general election is available where the contribution was received before the primary, the contributor did not designate it in writing for a particular election, it would be excessive as a primary contribution, and redesignation would not cause any other limit to be exceeded.
Presumptive reattribution of a joint-account contribution is available where the check bears the imprinted names of more than one account holder but is signed by only one, provided the reattribution does not cause the second account holder to exceed their own limit.
In both cases, the committee must notify the contributor within 60 days and offer a refund as an alternative, and it must retain a copy of that notice. Presumptive redesignations apply only within a single election cycle and are not available for contributions from multicandidate committees.
This is the provision Thomas Datwyler finds most often overlooked when our firm assumes responsibility for a committee's books. Committees wait for signed statements that will not arrive, the 60-day period expires, and funds the committee was entitled to retain are refunded unnecessarily.
Documentation Requirements
A redesignation or reattribution that cannot be substantiated is, for compliance purposes, one that did not occur. For each, the committee must retain one of the following:
A copy of the postmarked envelope bearing the contributor's name and return address
A copy of the signed statement, date-stamped upon receipt
A copy of the written statement dated by the contributor
For presumptive remedies, the committee must retain a copy of the notice sent to the contributor, including the refund offer.
All such records must be kept for three years after the report disclosing the transaction is filed.
Why Excessive Contributions Warrant Leadership Attention
Candidates and committee leadership rarely process contributions themselves. Excessive contributions nonetheless warrant their attention for four reasons.
The deadline passes without notice. Nothing occurs on day 61. There is no alert. The excess simply becomes a mandatory refund — and if the funds have already been spent, the committee faces a second problem.
The issue is public. Excessive contributions appear on the committee's public reports and are among the easiest items for journalists and opposition researchers to identify. A pattern of them suggests a committee that is not monitoring its own finances.
It generates regulatory correspondence. Unresolved excessive contributions are a common basis for a Request for Additional Information, which carries a 35-day response period that cannot be extended.
It can escalate to enforcement. Failure to refund, redesignate or reattribute within the permitted period has been referred to the Commission's Office of General Counsel — in one matter involving more than $52,000 in excessive contributions from twenty individuals within a single cycle. Such matters typically begin as routine and become costly only because no one acted in time.
The Current Timing Risk for Excessive Contributions
Contributions received this week will reach their 60-day deadline in late November. Those deadlines fall after the election, when campaigns are winding down, staff are departing and intake review has often ceased.
That gap is where excessive contributions most frequently go unresolved. The contributions arrive during the most demanding period of the cycle; the deadlines fall during the least attended.
Committees raising at volume between now and November 3 should ensure that responsibility for this review continues through the end of the year, not merely through election day.
How 9Seven Consulting Manages Excessive Contributions
Donor vetting and excessive contributions review are integral to every engagement Thomas Datwyler oversees. Thomas Datwyler designed the process our team applies to every client: contributions are reviewed against the limits as they are received rather than at reporting time; contributions approaching a limit are flagged before they exceed it; redesignation and reattribution requests are issued promptly; presumptive remedies are applied where available; and every 60-day deadline is tracked to completion, including those that mature after election day.
The objective is that most of these issues never reach committee leadership. They are resolved at intake — the difference between a brief exchange with a donor and an amended report months later.
9Seven Consulting was founded in 2013 by Thomas Datwyler, former controller of a $52 million presidential campaign. The firm has served more than 400 political committees, filed more than 4,000 FEC reports and reconciled more than 7,500 bank statements. Committees receiving maximum contributions without contemporaneous review against the limits should address that gap now rather than in December.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are excessive contributions?
Excessive contributions are contributions that exceed a donor’s legal limit for a particular election. Because the primary and general are separate elections with separate limits, a contribution may be excessive as to one and permissible as to the other.
How long does a committee have to resolve an excessive contribution?
Sixty days from the committee’s receipt of the contribution. After that period, the excessive portion must be refunded.
What is the difference between redesignation and reattribution?
Redesignation reallocates the excess to a different election for the same contributor. Reattribution reallocates it to a different contributor, typically the other holder of a joint account.
Must a refund be offered even when the contributor prefers to redesignate?
Yes. Every request for redesignation or reattribution must inform the contributor that a refund is available instead. Omitting that notice invalidates the remedy.
Is a refund always an acceptable resolution?
Yes. A refund is always available and always compliant. It represents a loss only where redesignation or reattribution would have allowed the committee to retain funds the contributor was entitled to give.
Who should be responsible for monitoring contribution limits?
A compliance professional reviewing contributions as they are received rather than at filing time. Thomas Datwyler and our team at 9Seven Consulting provide donor vetting and contribution limit review for campaigns, PACs, party committees and nonprofits.
This article is general information about federal campaign finance reporting. It is not legal advice.
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