Promoting Small Donor Democracy

On Friday, March 8th, CED released its latest report, Promoting Small Donor Democracy: The Value of Public Matching Programs in New York City. The report, by campaign finance expert Anthony Corrado, finds that a multiple match on small-dollar contributions can increase donor diversity and enhance citizen participation in campaign finance.

Key highlights of the report include:

• Voluntary public campaign financing programs that offer a multiple-dollar public match on small individual contributions would stimulate broader voter participation.
• These programs would provide candidates with a strong incentive to seek out large numbers of donors who give lower individual donations (often called small donors), and would give small donors a greater sense of empowerment and encourage them to become more involved in the financing of political campaigns.
• They would also give candidates an alternative means of accruing the resources needed to wage competitive campaigns, thereby reducing the relative influence of larger donors and private contributions linked to special interests.