Philly Power Research is a group of volunteer researchers made up of teachers, journalists, analysts, advocates, and organizers working to support economic justice in the city Philadelphia.

 Welcome to the Philadelphia Campaign Finance Data Explorer

Philadelphia is a city of dichotomies. The poorest big city in America is also home to some of the wealthiest real estate, banking, and telecommunications companies in the world—not to mention universities with billions of dollars in the bank. These wealthy and powerful interests help shape the city’s political and economic agenda in many ways.

Analyzing campaign contributions can help demystify which particular individuals, companies, and interest groups are aiming to influence elected officials.

We designed the Philadelphia Campaign Finance Data Explorer to help the public better understand how money in politics shapes Philadelphia.

We have created four online “tools” that help you to explore the data in a variety of ways. Scroll down or click on the links below to go straight to the tool you want to explore.

For more analysis of the tools and the data, check out our Who Runs Philly? blog series.

Philly Campaign Finance Data Explorer

The original campaign finance explorer tool; this allows you to see how much money has been donated directly to local campaigns since 2014.

The original campaign finance explorer tool; this allows you to see how much money has been donated directly to local campaigns since 2014.

Candidate Head to Head Comparison

The Head to Head tool allows you to easily compare fundraising, bios, and endorsements for Democratic Council At-Large candidates.

The Head to Head tool allows you to easily compare fundraising for candidates.

Campaign Expenditures (2014-2018 Only)

The Campaign Expenditures tool allows you to see exactly where campaigns spend their money.

The Campaign Expenditures tool allows you to see exactly where campaigns spend their money.

Campaign Financing Map (2014-2019 Only)

The Campaign Financing Map allows you to interact with the data about where campaign donors are geographically.

The Campaign Financing Map allows you to interact with the data about where campaign donors are geographically.

Campaign Finance Data Explorer

To link directly to the Campaign Finance Data Explorer, go here.

 
 
 
 

Our dataset currently includes all contributions (monetary and in-kind) to every candidate in the 2019-2023 electoral cycles for Philadelphia municipal elected office. For years prior to 2019, donations of $50 or less are excluded. While we work hard to clean, standardize, de-duplicate, and quality check our data (see our Methodology page for more info), we make no guarantees about the data’s accuracy. We welcome any feedback or corrections.

Tips for using the tool:

  • In order to use the Sector or Contributor filters, you need to first unselect (ALL) and then you can select an option (you can also type names in to search for specific contributors). The Contributor filter only lists entities that contributed at least $1,000 for the given set of other filter parameters selected.

  • Hover your cursor over the numbers in the Top Contributors list to see short descriptions of contributors which were collaboratively researched by Philly Power Research volunteers. The colors of the numbers correspond to the sector colors shown in the center panel.

  • If you want to reset the dashboard to its original settings (which show all elected officials and candidates’ fundraising for 2022), you can click on the “reset” button, which is the third button from the left in the bottom right corner of the dashboard.

  • For more details watch the how-to video!

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Candidate Head-to-Head Comparison

To link directly to the Candidate Head-to-Head Comparison, go here.

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Campaign Expenditures Tool (2014-2018 Only)

To link directly to the Campaign Expenditure Tool, go here.

 

 
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Campaign Financing Map (2014-2019 Only)

To link directly to the interactive Campaign Financing Map, go here.

 The data in the map above includes contributions filed through 5/10/19.