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Professor money in federal elections

People who wrote PROFESSOR in the employer or occupation field on federal campaign filings account for $4,764,599 in itemized receipts on FEC.gov. LobbyVault counts 18,270 contributions and 476 donors. The word is a job title occupying an industry slot because FEC files do not code occupations into NAICS. Campus-name employer strings (Yale, Emory, and others) are separate slugs.

Key figures

  • PROFESSOR FEC strings sum to $4,764,599.
  • 18,270 contributions came from 476 donors.
  • About $261 per gift and $10,010 per donor on a simple mean.
  • The “industry” is a job-title self-report, not NAICS.
  • University-name employers are separate slugs.

Title-as-industry: $4,764,599

Four hundred seventy-six donors produced 18,270 contributions totaling $4,764,599. Mean gift size is about $261; mean per donor is about $10,010; row density is about 38 gifts per person. Filers who put a university in employer and professor in occupation may be keyed to the campus industry instead of this title industry. This $4,764,599 is the PROFESSOR key only—rows where ingest treated that word as the industry string. Top employer in the facts is also PROFESSOR, which means many filers placed the title in the employer box or used it as both fields.

Assistant professor, adjunct, and lecturer are different strings if stored separately. Do not add them into this total. The packet contains one label.

Why occupation pages still matter

LobbyVault maintains a separate occupation index. PROFESSOR can appear in both taxonomies. This guide follows the industry packet: overlay /industries/professor/, facts as given. Occupation breakdowns remain the better map if you want title cuts across many employer names.

University industry pages capture employer strings. A complete picture of academic filers requires both indexes plus an understanding that neither is NAICS.

What 18,270 contributions do not show

They do not show discipline, tenure status, or public versus private campus. FEC forms do not collect those attributes. $4,764,599 is itemized federal receipts tagged to the PROFESSOR string.

Party, cycle, and committee type are absent from the packet. Read FEC.gov and the PROFESSOR donor table for line items.

Boundaries

The table is not a faculty union PAC, not an AAUP expenditure, and not a measure of campus political culture. It is a self-report rollup from FEC.gov via LobbyVault.

All industries lists employer names that professors also use. Occupation breakdowns list related titles. The donor table lists people in this key.

Source

Industry PROFESSOR; $4,764,599; 18,270 contributions; 476 donors; top employer PROFESSOR. Industry labels come from FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS. Data from FEC.gov via LobbyVault.

The PROFESSOR donor table lists the 476 unique donors behind 18,270 itemized contributions totaling $4,764,599. Unitemized gifts are omitted. Assistant professor, adjunct, and lecturer are other strings if stored separately. University-name industry pages capture employer strings; a professor who listed a campus as employer may not appear in this total. Occupation breakdowns remain the title-wide companion index. All industries lists campus employer names. Industry labels come from FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS. Data from FEC.gov via LobbyVault. About 38 itemized gifts per person and a per-donor mean near $10,010 follow from those counts. This page does not treat $4,764,599 as a faculty-union PAC. The packet has no cycle year and no party split. Mean gift size about $261 is total divided by 18,270 rows. The 476-donor count is matching text, not a census of U.S. faculty. Do not add unnamed campus totals into this title-string sum. Cite FEC.gov via LobbyVault for the PROFESSOR key.

Title-key receipts versus university employer keys

PROFESSOR keyed $4,764,599 from 18,270 contributions and 476 donors. About 38 itemized gifts per person and a per-donor mean near $10,010 follow from those counts. Unitemized gifts are omitted. Assistant professor, adjunct, and lecturer are other strings if stored separately. University-name industry pages capture employer strings; a professor who listed a campus as employer may not appear in this $4,764,599. The 476 unique donors are matching text, not a census of U.S. faculty. Top employer matches PROFESSOR because many filers put the title in the employer box.

Open the PROFESSOR donor table for names and committees. Occupation breakdowns remain the title-wide companion index. All industries lists campus employer names. Industry labels come from FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS. Data from FEC.gov via LobbyVault. This page does not treat $4,764,599 as a faculty-union PAC. The packet has no cycle year and no party split. Amendments can revise historical amounts. The four facts remain $4,764,599, 18,270 contributions, 476 donors, and top employer PROFESSOR. Do not add unnamed campus totals into this title-string sum. Repeat the four facts when citing this page: $4,764,599, 18,270 contributions, 476 donors, top employer PROFESSOR. Unitemized gifts remain omitted. The donor table, all industries, and occupation breakdowns are the only internal links this packet authorizes.

Questions

How much have professor-labeled filers given federally?
The PROFESSOR industry cluster totals $4,764,599 in itemized FEC contributions, from 18,270 contributions and 476 donors. Filers wrote PROFESSOR in employer or occupation. Campus employer names are separate industry slugs and are not included in this sum. 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 is professor on the industry list?
LobbyVault industries rank FEC employer/occupation self-reports. Job titles enter the same ranking as companies because FEC.gov does not attach NAICS. Top employer in these facts is PROFESSOR—the title used as the industry key. 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.
Are university pages double-counting these professors?
A row is keyed to one industry string in this rollup. Filers who listed a university as employer may appear on that university’s industry page instead of PROFESSOR. This page’s $4,764,599 is the PROFESSOR key only. Occupation breakdowns are the title-wide companion view.
How many unique professor-labeled donors are there?
LobbyVault counts 476 donors and 18,270 contributions inside this string. That is not a census of U.S. faculty. Other academic titles are other keys. 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.