Hosting a candidate in your living room without breaking the law

Campaign finance trouble rarely shows up dressed as a villain. It shows up as four dozen cookies. Suppose a neighbor opens her home, bakes the cookies, orders trays of sandwiches from the shop she owns, and invites the whole street to meet the candidate. Every instinct in the room is generous and patriotic. And a few of those generous acts could, depending on the details, run into a rule that the host never heard of.

The house party is the oldest fundraiser in politics for a good reason. It works. It puts a candidate in front of twenty-five people who might never attend a banquet, it lets them ask a real question, and it turns a friendly host's credibility into a donor list. It is also the easiest place to make a legal mistake, because the whole point is that it feels informal. This checklist keeps the warmth and removes the risk. For each item there is a reason, because a rule you understand is a rule you keep.

One caution before the list. I am not your lawyer, and the details differ for federal, state and local candidates. For any federal candidate, the Federal Election Commission at fec.gov publishes the limits and the reporting rules, and it has plain-language guidance for exactly this kind of event. For a state or local race, the answer is on the website of your state's election or campaign finance agency, or a phone call to it. Ask, get the answer in writing if you can, and confirm before the invitations go out.

Why the living room beats the banquet hall

Here is the best case against the house party, stated fairly: it is a lot of work for a small number of people, and a candidate's time is the scarcest resource in the campaign. A mailer reaches thousands. A phone bank reaches hundreds. Why spend an evening on twenty-five?

Because the people in a living room are not an audience, they are a network. Each guest knows twenty others. A guest who liked what she heard becomes a donor, a volunteer, a yard sign and a reference. And the host has already done the hardest thing in fundraising: she has vouched for the candidate to people who trust her. A cold call has to earn that trust from scratch. The house party borrows it.

Here is the arithmetic in a hypothetical. A host invites 40 people and 25 come, an attendance rate of 25 divided by 40, or 62.5 percent. If 20 of the 25 give an average of $80, the evening raises 20 times 80, or $1,600, plus a handful of volunteers and a list of new names. The numbers are an illustration, not a forecast. But a candidate who raises $1,600 from one evening has beaten many a mailer.

Checklist 1: The host and the date

• The host is an individual, not a company. Reason: under federal law, corporations cannot make contributions to federal candidates, and a company that pays for the event is making one. The host's home and the host's own money keep it simple.
• Choose a date and time that suit the guests, not the host. A weekday evening, 6:30 or 7:00, works for most people. Reason: a poor date turns a good guest list into an empty room.
• Pick the space for the crowd. A living room that holds twenty-five comfortably will feel full at thirty. Reason: a packed room feels like a success, and an empty hall feels like a failure.
• Do not use a government building, a school or a workplace. Reason: many jurisdictions bar political fundraising on government property, and an employer's premises raise questions about who is paying for the space.
• Talk to the campaign about the date first. Reason: the candidate's calendar is the real constraint, and the campaign knows which legal and reporting items have to be in place first.

Checklist 2: The guest list

• Invite people the host knows personally. Reason: a warm invitation from a neighbor is worth far more than a form letter.
• Invite more people than you want in the room. Some will have other plans, as the example above shows, where 25 out of 40 is 62.5 percent. Use your host's own experience of how many say yes. Reason: you are filling a room, not matching a headcount.
• Do not invite foreign nationals who are not lawfully allowed to give. Federal law bars contributions and donations from foreign nationals, and the FEC's guidance explains who counts. Reason: a candidate who accepts such a gift can be forced to refund it, and it creates an avoidable headline.
• Keep government employees in mind. Federal employees are limited by the Hatch Act in what political fundraising they may do, and the Office of Special Counsel can tell them what is allowed. Reason: a guest should not be put at risk of losing a job by attending an event.
• Include a few non-donors on purpose. A neighbor who is curious but not ready to give will still meet the candidate. Reason: not every guest is a donor, and the aim is to widen the circle.

Checklist 3: The invitation

• Say plainly what the event is. "Please join us to meet Pat Rivera, candidate for county commissioner, at our home on Thursday, June 25." (Hypothetical candidate and date.) Reason: guests should never be surprised by the purpose.
• Say it is a fundraiser if it is one, and suggest an amount. "A suggested contribution of $50 per person." Reason: honest invitations are the best invitations, and guests do not like a surprise ask.
• Include the disclaimer your jurisdiction requires. If the campaign prints or sends the invitation, it usually must say who paid for it. If the host sends an informal note to friends, the rules can be different. Reason: disclaimer rules vary, so ask.
• Add the line that gifts are not tax-deductible. Contributions to political campaigns are not deductible as charitable gifts. Reason: it is true and it prevents a misunderstanding.
• Ask for an RSVP, and a headcount you can use to buy food. Reason: the host should not guess.

Checklist 4: Food, drink and the in-kind rule

This is where the cookies come in. A good host feeds the guests, and the law has a specific answer for how much she may spend.

Under the federal rules, an individual who volunteers on behalf of a candidate may use her home for a fundraising event, and the value of the invitations, the food and the beverages she provides is not treated as a contribution to the campaign, so long as the cost stays below a ceiling set in the FEC's regulations. The details, including the dollar ceiling and what counts as "usual and normal" for this kind of event, are on fec.gov. State rules differ, and some states are stricter. Look up the ceiling before you order, because it changes how you plan the menu.

• Look up the ceiling for host spending on fec.gov (for a federal race) or with the state agency (for a state race). Reason: it is the number that decides whether your appetizers are a courtesy or a contribution.
• Keep the menu modest. Light food, a few drinks, no champagne tower. Reason: you are paying for guests to meet the candidate, not for a feast.
• Keep receipts for what the host buys. Reason: if the cost is close to the ceiling, you will need the record.
• Do not charge guests for the food and call it a gift to the campaign. Collect contributions as contributions, separate from any reimbursement for the meal. Reason: mixing the two makes the books unreadable.
• Alcohol needs a thought. Serving drinks at a private home is common, but if you sell tickets or a caterer serves, state liquor laws can apply. Reason: ask first.
• Skip raffles and games of chance unless the campaign has checked the state's gambling laws. Reason: a raffle can be a legal problem on its own.

Checklist 5: Who pays for what

The cleanest rule is this: the host pays for the food and drink within the allowed amount, and the campaign pays for everything else.

• The campaign pays for rented chairs, tents, sound equipment and printed materials. Reason: these are campaign costs, and a donated rental can be an in-kind contribution that has to be reported.
• Vendors bill at their normal rates. A discount from a company can be treated as a corporate in-kind contribution. Reason: a favor from a business is still a gift.
• If the host's spending passes the ceiling, the excess may count as a contribution from the host, or the campaign should pay it. Reason: the host's own contribution limit is separate and she should not accidentally use it up.
• No reimbursing guests for their gifts. Federal law bars making a contribution in the name of another person. Reason: the person who writes the check must be the person who pays it. This is the one rule in the list that can become a serious offense, and it is easy to avoid.

Checklist 6: Collecting checks and information

• Make checks payable to the campaign committee, exactly as it is named. Not the candidate, not the host. Reason: the committee is the legal recipient.
• Bring contribution cards for each guest to fill in: full name, address, occupation and employer, and a line to confirm that the gift is from the guest's own funds. Reason: federal reporting requires the committee to ask for this information for contributions above the itemization threshold, which the FEC lists, and many states require something similar.
• Prefer checks and cards to cash. Federal law limits cash contributions to a small amount, and cash is hard to document. Reason: a paper trail protects the donor and the campaign.
• Hand every check to the treasurer promptly. The campaign should deposit it within the time the rules allow, and for federal committees that is a matter of days. Reason: checks in a purse are a risk.
• Know the contribution limits for your race and look them up at the FEC or your state agency. Limits change over time. Reason: a check above the limit has to be refunded.
• Give the campaign the whole record, including the guest sign-in sheet. Reason: the follow-up depends on it.

Checklist 7: The program

A house party should be short, focused and fun. Here is a sample schedule, hypothetical, for an evening that starts at 6:30:

Check: 30 plus 5 plus 15 plus 20 plus 5 plus 30 equals 105 minutes, which ends at 8:15.

• Keep the candidate's remarks to fifteen minutes. Reason: a speech that runs long loses the room, and the questions are the best part.
• Leave real time for questions. Guests remember the answers more than the speech. Reason: a candidate who answers plainly earns trust.
• The host makes the ask. A friend asking a friend is more effective than a candidate asking for cash. "If you like what you heard, there are cards on the table. I'd be grateful if you would help." Reason: the host's credibility is what makes it work.
• Have a volunteer sign-up sheet beside the contribution cards. Reason: some guests will give time and not money, and time is worth a lot.

Checklist 8: The follow-up

• Thank every guest within a day, by note or email, and thank the host in person. Reason: it is the courtesy that brings them back.
• Send a note to guests who gave nothing, with a way to volunteer. Reason: a donor next time may be a non-donor tonight.
• Record every contribution accurately and give the treasurer the complete file within a day or two. Reason: the treasurer is responsible for the reports, and accuracy starts at the door.
• Debrief with the host. What worked, what did not, who else should be invited next time. Reason: the second party is always better than the first.
• Ask the host for two more names, people who might host a party of their own. Reason: house parties multiply.

For more on how to ask for money in person and by phone, see the fundraising call sheet, how a first-time candidate asks for money. The legal framework in full is in How campaign finance law works, and why you should check the FEC for the numbers, and the reports you will eventually file are explained in how to read a campaign finance report the way an auditor would. The budget for the whole campaign, including the costs of events like this one, is in a campaign budget worksheet for the candidate with no money and no staff.

The bottom line

• A house party works because it borrows the host's credibility, and that is worth more than a banquet for the same effort.
• Look up the host-spending ceiling and the contribution limits at the FEC (or your state agency) before the invitations go out, and keep the menu inside them.
• Make checks payable to the committee, collect the donor information on a card, and never let one person reimburse another's gift.
• Keep the evening short, leave room for questions, and let the host make the ask.
• Thank everyone within a day, hand the treasurer a clean record, and book the next party before the guests have found their coats.