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Eli Lilly and Company money in federal elections

People who listed ELI LILLY AND COMPANY on federal campaign-finance forms account for $5,010,588 in itemized receipts on FEC.gov. The cluster holds 36,214 contributions and 935 donors. That contribution count is high relative to the dollar total, which pulls the mean gift down to about $138. The industry name is the employer string as filed, not a pharmaceutical NAICS code and not a company political budget.

Key figures

  • ELI LILLY AND COMPANY FEC strings total $5,010,588.
  • 36,214 contributions from 935 donors — a high row-to-person ratio.
  • Mean gift is about $138; mean per donor about $5,359.
  • The industry label is self-reported employer text, not NAICS.
  • Other Lilly spellings are not included in this sum.

High row count, $5,010,588 in receipts

Thirty-six thousand two hundred fourteen contributions from 935 donors is about 39 itemized gifts per person in the rollup. Combined with a $138 mean gift, the pattern often reflects frequent small itemized transactions—PAC withholdings and repeat gifts—stacked under one employer spelling. The packet does not prove that mechanism; it only supplies the four aggregates: $5,010,588, 36,214 contributions, 935 donors, top employer ELI LILLY AND COMPANY.

Per-donor mean is about $5,359. That figure is a total divided by unique people, not a typical annual gift. Multi-cycle filers raise both contribution count and lifetime dollars inside the same industry slug. Cycle splits are not in the facts, so this guide does not assign the $5,010,588 to a single election.

Employer spelling on the FEC form

Filers write Eli Lilly, Lilly, or ELI LILLY AND COMPANY. LobbyVault’s industry pages keep those strings distinct when ingest treats them as different keys. This page is the ELI LILLY AND COMPANY key. Subsidiary names and “Lilly USA” variants, if present in the database, would appear as other industry rows. Do not add those missing variants into this $5,010,588.

Occupation fields on the same forms (scientist, sales, attorney) are a separate dimension. The occupation index is the place to cut by job title. This industry page cuts by the employer string only. Top employer matching the industry label means that string dominates the bucket.

What an industry total cannot answer

The rollup does not identify which federal committees received the 36,214 gifts, whether they were designated to candidates or PACs, or how they split by party. It does not measure lobbying. It does not count employees. It reports FEC itemized amounts tagged to one self-reported employer line.

Pharmaceutical policy debates sit outside this dataset. The public record here is dollar volume and counts for one text label on FEC.gov.

Using the donor table with this guide

Open the ELI LILLY AND COMPANY donor table for names, dates, and recipients. Use all industries to see nearby employer spellings. Use occupation breakdowns for title-level cuts. Those three links are the only internal paths this packet authorizes.

Re-check FEC.gov for amendments. Snapshot totals can move when committees file refunds or recode employer text. This guide restates the packet: $5,010,588, 36,214 contributions, 935 donors.

Method

Industry labels come from FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS. Data from FEC.gov via LobbyVault. No other dollar amounts appear on this page because no other dollar amounts appear in the packet facts.

Line-level recipients for the 36,214 itemized gifts live on the ELI LILLY AND COMPANY donor table and on FEC.gov, not in this four-number rollup. Unitemized receipts are omitted from $5,010,588. Nine hundred thirty-five unique donors is matching text, not a global employee census. Subsidiary spellings remain other keys if ingest stored them separately. Occupation breakdowns show scientist, sales, and attorney titles that co-occur with this employer string. All industries lists neighboring manufacturer labels. Industry labels come from FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS. Data from FEC.gov via LobbyVault. This page does not split PAC withholdings from candidate gifts because the packet does not. Do not treat $5,010,588 as a corporate treasury figure. Keep the 36,214 contribution count attached to this exact employer key. Amendments on FEC.gov can revise the snapshot after the fact. Mean gift size about $138 is total divided by those 36,214 rows.

Itemized employer lines and what stays off this page

ELI LILLY AND COMPANY keyed $5,010,588 in itemized federal receipts, 36,214 contributions, and 935 donors. The high row count relative to dollars (mean gift about $138) is a property of those four numbers, not a finding about payroll PAC design, even if that mechanism often produces similar shapes. This guide does not assert a PAC share because the packet does not split committee types. Unitemized receipts are omitted. Subsidiary names, Lilly USA, and Eli Lilly without AND COMPANY remain other keys if ingest stored them separately. Adding those unknown totals would invent a company-wide figure.

Pharmaceutical NAICS codes are not applied. The public record here is FEC free text. Researchers who need recipients should use the ELI LILLY AND COMPANY donor table and the underlying FEC.gov line items. Occupation breakdowns surface scientist, sales, and attorney titles that co-occur with this employer string. All industries lists neighboring manufacturer spellings. Cite $5,010,588 only for this exact employer/occupation key. The 935-donor count is unique people inside the cluster, not a global employee census. Top employer in the facts is ELI LILLY AND COMPANY, matching the industry label.

Questions

How much federal campaign money is tagged to Eli Lilly and Company filers?
LobbyVault’s ELI LILLY AND COMPANY industry cluster sums to $5,010,588 in itemized FEC contributions, from 36,214 contributions and 935 donors. The label is the employer/occupation text on the filing, not a NAICS pharmaceutical sector total. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer/occupation string as indexed on LobbyVault from FEC.gov. Unitemized gifts, state filings, and lobbying reports are omitted and are not added to the itemized total cited here.
Why are there 36,214 contributions but only 935 donors?
Each itemized gift is its own FEC row. Repeat donors and frequent small itemized gifts raise contribution count without adding new people. Here 36,214 contributions map to 935 unique donors inside the ELI LILLY AND COMPANY string. That is about 39 transactions per donor as a simple ratio.
Is this Eli Lilly’s corporate political spending?
The facts do not describe a corporate treasury outlay. They sum $5,010,588 in itemized receipts whose employer text matches ELI LILLY AND COMPANY. Contributor names and committee types are on the donor table and on FEC.gov, not in this four-number packet.
Does the FEC classify this as pharmaceuticals under NAICS?
No. Individual contribution files store employer as free text. LobbyVault groups that text. ELI LILLY AND COMPANY is the string. Other Lilly spellings, if ingested separately, are other industry pages. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer/occupation string as indexed on LobbyVault from FEC.gov. Unitemized gifts, state filings, and lobbying reports are omitted and are not added to the itemized total cited here.

Industry labels come from FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS. Data from FEC.gov via LobbyVault.