The FEC string SELF: $673.6M in itemized gifts

A truncated workplace answer

Contribution forms leave little space. Some donors type SELF instead of a trade, a shop name, or SELF-EMPLOYED. Committees report the characters they received. LobbyVault therefore ranks SELF as its own industry key even though a reader might call it an abbreviation of self-employment.

The $673.6M total must not be added, on this page, to the hyphenated or spaced self-employed rows. Doing that in a notebook is optional. The FEC file keeps the strings apart, and so does LobbyVault.

Receipt volume under a four-letter label

117,055 donors generated 3,006,850 SELF contribution lines. The receipt-to-donor gap is wide, consistent with repeat itemized giving. The aggregate does not say whether those donors also appear under CONSULTANT, CONTRACTOR, or a DBA name in other years.

SELF sits near ATTORNEY in headline dollars ($673.6M versus the attorney row's own total) but the underlying populations are different self-descriptions. Dollar proximity in a ranked table is not a social similarity score.

What the donor table contains

The SELF donor table lists disclosed names attached to this four-letter string. A large line is a public contribution. It is not proof the donor owns a business, and it is not a LobbyVault claim about tax status.

If employer is SELF and occupation is something more specific (writer, farmer, physician), occupation pages are the place to see that second field. This industry row does not flatten occupation into the $673.6M figure beyond the SELF grouping. Four letters are what fit. The $673.6M total is 117,055 donors and 3,006,850 lines tagged SELF. Expanding SELF into self-employed is a researcher recode that would still miss named shops. This page does not expand the letters.

Do not collapse SELF into the self-employed rows

SELF-EMPLOYED (hyphen) and SELF EMPLOYED (space) are neighboring labels with their own donor tables. Searchers who want 'people without a boss' are looking at three FEC spellings plus CONTRACTOR and CONSULTANT. None of those is NAICS.

Best-effort 'information requested' rows are a fourth problem: missing data, not self-employment. Dollar proximity to ATTORNEY is a ranked-table coincidence. The underlying self-descriptions differ. Do not write a combined professional story from neighboring headlines.

Source

FEC.gov via LobbyVault: $673.6M, 3,006,850 contributions, 117,055 donors, top employer SELF. Unitemized and non-federal activity are out of scope.

Party composition is not part of this industry total. Use committee pages for recipient detail. Occupation pages are the recovery path when occupation names a trade and employer is SELF. Harvest may still key this industry row on SELF. Search both views. Cite $673.6M as the four-letter string from FEC.gov via LobbyVault, not a NAICS sector.

Why a four-letter employer field still ranks

Forms truncate. SELF is what some donors fit in the box. The $673.6M total, 3,006,850 contribution lines, and 117,055 donors attach to those four letters only. Unitemized gifts, state races, and receipts that name a shop or SELF-EMPLOYED are outside this row. LobbyVault does not expand SELF into a tax status. Occupation pages are the place to see whether the second field named a trade.

Collapsing SELF into the hyphenated or spaced self-employed rows would mix three FEC keys and still miss CONTRACTOR. This page does not do that. Open the SELF donor table for names and committees. Dollar proximity to ATTORNEY in a ranked list is not a professional similarity score. SELF remains self-reported FEC text, not a NAICS industry. Source: FEC.gov via LobbyVault. SELF is what fit in the box: $673.6M, 117,055 donors, 3,006,850 lines. Expanding those four letters into self-employed still misses named shops and still mixes three FEC keys if you also pull the hyphenated and spaced rows. This page does not expand the letters. Dollar proximity to ATTORNEY (the ATTORNEY total) is a ranked-table coincidence, not a professional similarity score. Occupation pages recover a trade in the second field when employer is SELF. Harvest may still key the industry row on SELF. Unitemized gifts and state races are omitted. Cite $673.6M from FEC.gov via LobbyVault, not a NAICS sector. Four letters produced $673.6M, 117,055 donors, and 3,006,850 lines. That is not an argument to expand SELF into the hyphenated and spaced self-employed rows without a methods note, and even that recode misses named shops. Dollar proximity to ATTORNEY at the ATTORNEY total is a ranking coincidence. Occupation pages recover a trade in the second field. Harvest may still key the industry row on SELF. Unitemized gifts stay out. FEC.gov via LobbyVault stores the four letters, not a NAICS sector.

Questions

How much federal money is labeled SELF on FEC forms?

The SELF string totals $673.6M in itemized individual receipts on LobbyVault, from 3,006,850 contributions and 117,055 donors. SELF-EMPLOYED and SELF EMPLOYED are different strings with different totals. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

Is SELF just shorthand for self-employed?

Sometimes a donor meant that, but the FEC stores literal text. LobbyVault does not recode SELF into SELF-EMPLOYED. The $673.6M figure is only the four-letter value. It is not a NAICS sector. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

How many unique SELF donors are there?

LobbyVault counts 117,055 donors and 3,006,850 contribution lines. Repeat gifts explain the larger receipt count. The donor figure is not a Census count of sole proprietors. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

Does this include people who named their own company?

Usually no. A typed company name becomes a different industry key. SELF is the rows where that word is the grouped label. Check occupation pages if the second field is more specific. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.