Transparency
Methodology
BuyAligned reports publicly disclosed political-finance data so you can see where the companies you buy from send their political dollars. This page explains, in plain language, where the data comes from and how every number on the site is produced.
“This site reports publicly disclosed political-finance data. Inclusion of a company, candidate, committee, or transaction does not imply wrongdoing, endorsement, or a political position.”
Federal only. BuyAligned tracks political money disclosed to the FEC — federal candidates, parties, and PACs. It does not include state- or local-level contributions (e.g., ballot measures, state candidates), which are disclosed to separate state agencies and are out of scope here.
Where the data comes from
The primary source is the Federal Election Commission (FEC) — publicly available campaign-finance filings. Lobbying totals come from the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) database. The architecture is built so live FEC data can be refreshed on the FEC's public filing schedule without rebuilding the frontend.
How companies are identified
Companies appear under many names in government data (e.g., “Apple”, “Apple Inc.”, “Apple Computer”). We maintain a normalized name and an alias list per company. A company profile associates the relevant names with one canonical company, but we do not automatically assume every entity containing a company's name belongs to that company.
Verification status
Each association carries a verification_status: Verified (confirmed), Probable (likely but not confirmed), or Unverified. Associations can be manually verified before being treated as definitive.
How PACs are associated with companies
A political committee is linked to a company only when the filing identifies it as the company's affiliated PAC (committee type “Corporate PAC” with an affiliated organization). Super PACs and trade associations are shown as related organizations only when there is reliable evidence of affiliation.
Corporate / PAC money vs. employee money
Corporate / PAC money is money directly attributable to the company or its registered political committee. BuyAligned does not display individual-contributor (Schedule A) data: the FEC prohibits using individual contributor information for commercial purposes, so it is excluded entirely. Only committee/PAC and lobbying spending is shown.
Outside spending
Independent expenditures and other spending by political committees that is not coordinated with a candidate. We only attribute outside spending to a company when it comes from a committee reliably affiliated with that company.
How party affiliation is determined
Party is taken from the recipient candidate's or committee's official filing. Where the underlying transaction does not provide a party, it is labeled Unknown — we do not infer or impute a party.
How totals are calculated
Totals are the sum of individual disclosed transactions within the selected election cycle. We do not estimate or model missing data. Each category (corporate/PAC, outside spending, lobbying) is totaled and displayed separately.
What is and isn't included
Included: federal campaign contributions, PAC-to-candidate and PAC-to-party contributions, independent expenditures, and federal lobbying. Not yet included: state-level campaign finance, 527 organizations, and some non-filer committees. These can be added later.
How often the database is updated
The database refreshes on the FEC's public filing schedule, so figures stay current with the latest disclosed filings.