Founder political contributions from California

Founder plus California as an FEC join

The occupation field FOUNDER and the state field CA define this tie. Matching rows sum to $41,622,256, 5,530 contributions, and 379 donors. Without the state filter, Founder totals $62,143,456, 18,800 contributions, and 1,729 donors. California’s dollar share is about 67%. Its contribution share is about 29% (5,530 of 18,800). Its donor share is about 22% (379 of 1,729).

Dollars concentrate in California more than headcount does. That pattern can reflect larger itemized gifts, more repeat giving among the 379 California donors, or both. The aggregates on this page do not separate those mechanisms. They only locate the intersection of two FEC columns.

The Founder–California join is easiest to misread as a claim about startups because the title sounds like a company origin story. FEC receipts do not encode incorporation, funding rounds, or whether the filer still holds that title. They encode occupation FOUNDER and state CA on itemized individual contributions: $41,622,256, 5,530 contributions, 379 donors. The occupation without CA is $62,143,456, 18,800 contributions, 1,729 donors. About 67% of the labeled dollars, about 29% of the labeled contributions, and about 22% of the labeled donors are in this California cell. Those percentages describe overlap of two columns. They do not describe venture activity, and they do not describe which committees received the 5,530 gifts. The Founder hub and the California hub remain the places to see each column without the other.

What the Founder occupation total includes

FOUNDER is a self-reported title. It can cover company founders, nonprofit founders, and people who use the word loosely. The national figures—1,729 donors, 18,800 contributions, $62,143,456—are the labeled grouping. CO-FOUNDER or FOUNDER/CEO, if typed that way, would not be in this occupation total unless they were normalized into the same slug, which this packet does not claim.

Eighteen thousand eight hundred contributions from 1,729 donors shows repeated itemization nationwide. California’s 5,530 contributions from 379 donors is the state-shaped piece of that activity, not a list of California companies.

California donor-state receipts in this occupation

The CA filter yields $41,622,256 from 5,530 contributions and 379 donors. Donor state is the address on the itemized record. Recipients may be committees in any state. This join does not allocate the $41,622,256 to California House, Senate, or presidential committees.

California’s state hub mixes every occupation. This page holds only Founder. Software engineers, investors, and other California occupation ties are separate joins with their own dollar figures.

What not to infer from the 67% share

A majority of Founder-coded dollars from California does not mean California caused Founder giving, and it does not mean founders as a class funded a particular party. Occupation and state are reported together on receipts; the join is descriptive. It is not causation.

Coverage is itemized individual contributions from FEC.gov. Independent expenditures and unitemized money are out of scope. Occupation labels are filer-entered.

Occupation hub, state hub, and other ties

Founder donations carries the $62,143,456 national occupation total. California campaign finance carries all CA-coded itemized individual activity. All occupations and all FEC ties group neighboring occupation-state pages so this pair can be read beside other California titles without merging their facts.

Three hundred seventy-nine California Founder-coded donors are 22% of 1,729 nationally. Their 5,530 contributions are 29% of 18,800. Their $41,622,256 is 67% of $62,143,456. Dollar share leads people share in this geography. That is the join, not a startup census.

Founder as a title, California as an address field

FOUNDER on an FEC receipt is whatever the contributor typed. CA is the donor-state code. Together they produce $41,622,256 from 5,530 contributions and 379 donors. The occupation hub without CA is $62,143,456 from 18,800 contributions and 1,729 donors. Neither hub, read alone, is this relationship. Neither field names the recipient committee or the cycle.

Itemized individual contributions from FEC.gov only. Independent expenditures are excluded. Founder donations and California campaign finance hold the unjoined sides. All occupations and all FEC ties index other Founder-state filters against the same $62,143,456 occupation total without mixing those state totals into the 379 California donors on this page.

Questions

How much have Founder donors in California given?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing occupation Founder and state California total $41,622,256, from 5,530 contributions and 379 donors. Nationwide, Founder-coded receipts are $62,143,456 from 18,800 contributions and 1,729 donors. California is about 67% of those dollars.

Does Founder mean startup founders in California?

The occupation string is FOUNDER as entered on itemized filings. FEC aggregates do not verify company status, incorporation, or industry. The 379 California donors and 1,729 national donors are people whose records used that label, not a count of venture-backed firms.

What share of Founder contributions come from California?

About 29% of Founder-coded contributions (5,530 of 18,800) and about 22% of Founder-coded donors (379 of 1,729) are in this California join, alongside about 67% of the dollars ($41,622,256 of $62,143,456). The dollar share exceeds the donor share in these aggregates.

Is this money given to California candidates?

Not necessarily. CA is the donor state on the contribution. The $41,622,256 can be received by any FEC-filing committee. This page does not break receipts by office or by in-state versus out-of-state committees. The California join is $41,622,256 from 5,530 contributions and 379 donors.