What pastor donors give in federal races

A clergy title under $4.8M

$4,832,587 is the occupation-level dollar total. 31,656 is the itemization count. 1,315 is the donor-record count. Mean contribution size is about $153. Mean dollars per donor record are about $3,675. Repeat giving is about 24 itemizations per donor record.

31,656 lines from 1,315 records is a high-frequency pattern. The per-line mean of about $153 is modest: dollars accumulated in many schedules. Those means are arithmetic, not medians. The packet has no gift-size distribution, no denomination field, and no party split.

1,315 donor records is a wide pool for a one-word clergy title. Quote all three facts so $4.8M is not read as a handful of large gifts or as a mass of tiny ones.

Pastor is not minister and not priest

MINISTER, PRIEST, CLERGY, and REVEREND — if those strings exist as separate keys — are not rolled into this total unless the bulk extract normalized them to PASTOR. This page cites only $4,832,587, 31,656 contributions, and 1,315 donors.

FEC Form 3 and Form 3X collect occupation as free text on itemized Schedule A. FEC.gov publishes what committees reported. There is no denominational credential check. LobbyVault groups rows whose occupation field equals PASTOR after indexing.

What 1,315 donor records can and cannot show

1,315 donor records used PASTOR on at least one matching itemization. That is not a census of working pastors. Retired clergy, bi-vocational pastors, and forms filled with a spouse’s title can appear. Address variants can also split one human into more than one donor record.

A person who listed PASTOR on some gifts and MINISTER on others will appear in both occupation totals for the respective lines. Occupation is stored per transaction. The 24-line repeat rate is a property of matching text, not proof that 1,315 unique people each gave 24 times.

Keep employer industry tables separate

Industry pages group employer-side categories. A pastor at a congregation and one at a nonprofit share this occupation string if they typed PASTOR. Adding $4,832,587 to a religion-related industry total double-counts overlapping itemizations. Use one filter at a time unless you are tracing a single row.

Open the PASTOR occupation page for the indexed line list. Use the occupations index to place this string next to neighboring labels. Independent expenditures are not contributions and are not inside $4,832,587.

How to cite PASTOR on FEC schedules

A usable public-record citation names the exact string: PASTOR itemizations in FEC bulk data indexed on LobbyVault sum to $4,832,587 on 31,656 contributions from 1,315 donor records. Add that the figure is itemized occupation money. Unitemized receipts never carry an occupation code, so they never enter the total.

Source: FEC Form 3/3X schedules published on FEC.gov. The facts do not encode party or denomination. Recipient committees are a different join. Do not treat the total as a census of working pastors. Compact millions ($4.8M) are the same headline amount as $4,832,587, rounded to one decimal place.

PASTOR as typed clergy text

PASTOR in this extract is $4,832,587 on 31,656 itemizations from 1,315 donor records, or $4.8M in compact millions. Those dollars are itemized activity on FEC Form 3 and Form 3X schedules indexed on LobbyVault from FEC.gov bulk data. Unitemized receipts never carry an occupation code, so they never enter the total. Refunds and memo entries follow FEC presentation in the underlying schedules; this guide does not invent a fourth occupation-level fact.

Arithmetic means on this key are about $153 per contribution and about $3,675 per donor record, with roughly 24 itemizations per donor record. Means are not medians. MINISTER and PRIEST remain other occupation pages unless the extract normalized them to PASTOR. Combining those keys without naming each source total changes the unit from one FEC string to a homemade cluster.

Industry pages group employer-side categories and should not be added to $4,832,587. A public-record citation that stays inside the packet is: occupation equals PASTOR, dollars equal $4,832,587, contributions equal 31,656, donors equal 1,315. Candidate and committee pages hold the recipient side. LobbyVault does not infer motive from the occupation column.

Researchers who need cycle cuts, employer text, or recipient lists should leave this guide and open the live occupation hub. This file restates harvested packet facts only. Keep the contribution count and the donor-record count in any sentence that quotes the dollars, so readers can see the shape of PASTOR. Exact-string matching is the method. Anything else is a different query.

Questions

How much have pastor donors given in FEC records?

Itemizations that list PASTOR sum to $4,832,587, or $4.8M, across 31,656 contributions and 1,315 donor records in the LobbyVault index of FEC bulk data. The total is an exact-string occupation filter. Occupation is self-reported free text on FEC Form 3 and Form 3X schedules. Unitemized receipts never enter this occupation total.

Are ministers included in the PASTOR total?

Only if they typed PASTOR. MINISTER is a separate occupation string unless the bulk extract normalized it here. This page covers PASTOR: $4,832,587, 31,656 contributions, and 1,315 donors. Occupation is donor-typed on Form 3 and Form 3X. LobbyVault indexes exact strings from FEC.gov bulk data.

Does listing PASTOR prove an ordained role?

No. Occupation is self-reported free text. The FEC record does not verify ordination or a denominational credential. Quote 31,656 contributions and 1,315 donor records with the dollars. Source: FEC.gov Form 3/3X itemizations indexed on LobbyVault. Unitemized receipts never enter this occupation total.

Where do I review individual pastor gifts?

The PASTOR occupation page lists indexed itemizations. Verify amounts on FEC.gov. The occupation total is $4,832,587. Confirm surprising amounts on the committee report at FEC.gov. Occupation matching is exact-string only. Unitemized receipts never enter this occupation total. Industry pages group employers, not this occupation string.