BUSINESS OWNER as FEC employer text: $13.4 million

An owner phrase, not an Economic Census

FEC forms store BUSINESS OWNER when that is what the filer typed. They do not apply NAICS across every small firm. The $13,380,189 total is itemized individual gifts whose grouped employer text matches the two words. It is not small-business loan volume, not a Chamber PAC, and not every principal who wrote the LLC’s legal name instead.

People who typed ENTREPRENEUR, SELF-EMPLOYED, BUSINESSMAN, EXECUTIVE, or a company name sit in other rows. LobbyVault does not recode those variants into BUSINESS OWNER.

974 donors and 22,765 lines

974 unique donors produced 22,765 BUSINESS OWNER contribution lines totaling $13,380,189. Receipts per donor run near 23. Dollars per unique person run higher than in some wider founder-style rows such as ENTREPRENEUR’s 2,517 donors. The packet does not publish a mean gift as its own FEC field.

Party share is not on the industry headline. Unitemized gifts never appear. Independent expenditures that lack this individual-employer string are outside the $13,380,189.

Owner-style siblings

ENTREPRENEUR, SELF-EMPLOYED, SELF, BUSINESSMAN, and EXECUTIVE are related self-descriptions with separate totals. BUSINESS OWNER is this two-word phrase only. A combined owners recode must list every key and accept that the same person can appear under more than one string across receipts.

Occupation pages show titles stored beside BUSINESS OWNER. Some donors pair it with SELF in the other box; those pairs are stored as typed.

Donor table

The BUSINESS OWNER donor table lists disclosed names, amounts, and recipient committees. A large gift is a public individual contribution. LobbyVault does not infer revenue, employee count, or a motive from the status phrase. The FEC field is not a secretary-of-state registration file.

Repeat names among 22,765 lines from 974 people are expected. People who own firms but typed the firm name are not in these 974 unless a receipt also carried BUSINESS OWNER.

BUSINESS OWNER’s 22,765 lines from 974 donors totaling $13,380,189 should not be added silently to ENTREPRENEUR’s 2,517 donors and $14,889,561, or to SELF-EMPLOYED, SELF, BUSINESSMAN, or EXECUTIVE. Unitemized gifts stay out. A principal who listed an LLC name is in that firm row. Occupation pages show titles beside the two-word phrase. The donor table does not certify firm registrations. Follow committees for party and office. Cite FEC.gov via LobbyVault, employer/occupation self-reports, not a Census of firms.

Source

FEC.gov via LobbyVault: $13,380,189, 22,765 contributions, 974 donors, top employer BUSINESS OWNER. The ranking uses FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS.

Compare ENTREPRENEUR, SELF-EMPLOYED, and BUSINESSMAN on the industry index. Use occupation pages for titles next to this phrase. Follow committees on the donor table for party and office.

Keep BUSINESS OWNER’s $13,380,189, 22,765 contributions, and 974 donors on this two-word phrase. ENTREPRENEUR and SELF-EMPLOYED stay on their own pages. Unitemized gifts remain omitted. Occupation breakdowns show titles stored beside BUSINESS OWNER. The donor table lists disclosed recipients; this guide does not assign party percentages. FEC.gov via LobbyVault is the source, not a firm census and not NAICS.

Owner-phrase coverage versus entrepreneur and self-employed

BUSINESS OWNER’s $13,380,189 from 974 donors and 22,765 lines is a two-word status phrase, not a Census firm count and not NAICS across every small business. ENTREPRENEUR in this batch is $14,889,561 from 2,517 donors — more unique people, similar dollars. SELF-EMPLOYED, SELF, BUSINESSMAN, and EXECUTIVE are additional self-descriptions. A principal who wrote the LLC name is in that firm row, not necessarily in the 974.

Receipts per donor run near 23. Unitemized gifts, state filings, and Chamber PAC documents that lack this individual-employer string are outside the $13,380,189. A combined owners recode must list every key and accept that the same person can appear under more than one string across receipts. LobbyVault does not recode BUSINESS OWNER into ENTREPRENEUR.

The donor table lists disclosed names and committees. A large gift is a public individual contribution, not a revenue or employee-count inference. Occupation pages show titles beside the phrase. Source: FEC.gov via LobbyVault — $13,380,189, 22,765 contributions, 974 donors — self-reported form text, not NAICS.

Questions

How much have BUSINESS OWNER-listed donors given federally?

LobbyVault attributes $13,380,189 to the BUSINESS OWNER employer string, from 22,765 contributions and 974 donors. These are itemized individual receipts, not a NAICS small-business total and not a Chamber PAC. Unitemized gifts are omitted. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

Is BUSINESS OWNER the same as ENTREPRENEUR or SELF-EMPLOYED?

No. ENTREPRENEUR and SELF-EMPLOYED are separate grouped strings with their own pages. A receipt stamped BUSINESS OWNER is counted only in the $13,380,189 here. LobbyVault does not merge owner-style phrases into one founder industry. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

Does this include every small-business principal who donated?

No. Only receipts whose grouped employer text is BUSINESS OWNER are in the total. People who wrote a company name, ENTREPRENEUR, or SELF-EMPLOYED are elsewhere. The 974 donor count is unique contributors in this string, not a Census firm count.

Why are there more contributions than donors?

The 22,765 lines include repeat gifts from the same 974 people. Recurring itemized donations raise the receipt count. The FEC field records each itemized transaction, not a once-per-person census. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.