Microsoft political money — 2008 cycle

Microsoft as stored employer text, 2008 as cycle

Employer and occupation groupings sit on one axis; election cycles sit on the other. Rows that match both — Microsoft and 2008 — sum to $1,585,213. 1,998 itemized contributions and 602 unique donors produced it. The total is not an official organization disbursement and does not name recipients. Independent expenditures and committee transfers live in other FEC tables.

Neither the Microsoft hub nor the 2008 election cycle hub is this number; each hub drops one of the two keys. Six hundred two donors and 1,998 lines in 2008 sit under the one-word Microsoft brand. MICROSOFT CORPORATION is a longer legal-name key with its own cycle cell. LobbyVault does not merge those neighbors into this short string. MICROSOFT CORPORATION, MICROSOFT CORP, MSFT, and other software-employer spellings sit in other keys if filers typed them that way. This page is the stored string MICROSOFT.

5.3% of the Microsoft roll

The grouping’s stored total across cycles is $30,011,546 ($30.0 million). The 2008 slice of $1,585,213 is about 5.3% of that running sum. Other even-year windows hold the remaining 94.7% ($28,426,333). Treating 2008 as the Microsoft FEC story would ignore that remainder.

Treat $30,011,546 as the denominator for the 5.3% share. It is not market capitalization, not revenue, and not proof of a multi-year political program. The industry hub is the year index for this string. This tie keeps 2008 from being folded silently into $30,011,546.

1,998 contributions from 602 donors

Dividing $1,585,213 by 1,998 contributions yields about $793 per itemized gift. Dividing by 602 donors yields about $2,633 per donor. Contributions per donor average about 3.3. Those means describe the arithmetic on the packet. They are not medians and not a party split.

602 unique donors are contributor identities, not a headcount of employees, licensees, or members. Retirees and household members who reuse a workplace or title can appear. Repeat gifts raise the contribution count faster than the donor count. The overlay for Microsoft 2008 holds the rows.

2008 as the cycle dimension

The 2008 election cycle hub includes every stored employer for that window. Microsoft is one cell in that matrix. This packet does not publish a cycle-wide denominator, so no national share is stated. Open the 2008 election cycle to drop the employer filter and Microsoft to drop the year. 2008 is a presidential even-year window on FEC.gov; that calendar label does not explain $1,585,213.

Gifts from both years of the two-year FEC window sit in the $1,585,213 cell because the cycle is a two-year tag, not a single Tuesday. That mechanical fact is easy to forget when a searcher wants an election-night number. The overlay is where dates become visible. This join publishes the cycle total, the 1,998 contributions, the 602 unique donors, and the 5.3% share of $30,011,546.

What the Commission does not verify

Itemized individual receipts are the universe. Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and PAC disbursements sit outside $1,585,213. Federal awards in other databases are different datasets. Sharing an employer string and a calendar year does not turn these gifts into contracts or grants. The page is not Microsoft PAC disbursements and not a software NAICS total.

Correlation between an employer or occupation string and a cycle year is not causation. The records show a text match, a date window, 602 donors, and 1,998 contributions. Payroll-style repeat gifts can raise the line count faster than the unique-donor count. The Commission does not certify that the 602 identities were on Microsoft’s 2008 W-2 file. Alumni who still wrote the brand share the cell with people who listed it as current employer. All FEC ties lists other two-dimension pages.

Citing Microsoft and 2008 together

Start with $1,585,213, then Microsoft 2008 for rows, then the industry hub or the 2008 election cycle if a filter needs to come off. Citation template: Microsoft, 2008, $1,585,213, 1,998 contributions, 602 donors, 5.3% of $30,011,546, source FEC.gov. Keep neighboring spellings and occupation titles out of the total unless they grouped to this exact string MICROSOFT.

The 5.3% share, the 602-donor count, and the $793 mean gift belong to this intersection. Carry them onto a successor label or a sibling occupation word and they stop being facts from this packet. This prose is a packet snapshot. If a later extract disagrees, FEC.gov and the live overlay control.

Questions

How much did Microsoft donors give in 2008?

FEC.gov aggregates show $1,585,213 in itemized individual contributions for the Microsoft grouping in the 2008 cycle, across 1,998 contributions and 602 donors. That sum is not a PAC total and not the $30,011,546 all-cycle figure.

What share of Microsoft FEC money is 2008?

The grouping’s all-cycle total is $30,011,546. The 2008 cell of $1,585,213 is about 5.3% of that figure. Other cycles hold the remaining 94.7% ($28,426,333) on the industry hub. The overlay lists itemized rows for this cell; the Microsoft hub holds other cycles; the 2008 election cycle hub holds other employer strings from the same window.

Is $1,585,213 the Microsoft PAC total for 2008?

No. $1,585,213 is itemized individual contributions whose employer field grouped to Microsoft in the 2008 cycle. It is not committee disbursements, not independent expenditures, and not a verified employee census. 1,998 contributions came from 602 donors. The overlay lists itemized rows for this cell; the Microsoft hub holds other cycles; the 2008 election cycle hub holds other employer strings from the same window.

Where is the overlay for the Microsoft 2008 join?

Open Microsoft 2008 for the cycle overlay, Microsoft for the grouping hub, and the 2008 election cycle for the year without this employer filter. All FEC ties lists other two-dimension pages. This JSON file names the join; the overlay holds the itemized rows.