Methodology & data sources

Pachand is built on the same public Federal Election Commission records campaigns file. This page explains what we ingest, how often it updates, and what we deliberately do not expose.

Primary sources

  • FEC Open API & e-file systems — committee registrations, financial reports (F3, F3P, F3X), Schedule A contribution aggregates, and independent expenditure filings for watchlisted committees.
  • U.S. Census Bureau — optional ZIP-level demographic context for map overlays (aggregate geography only).

Official FEC reference: fec.gov/data. Pachand is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated on behalf of the FEC, any campaign, or any government agency.

Update cadence

  • Filing alerts — watchlisted committees are polled on a recurring schedule; new electronic filings trigger email and Slack notifications with human-readable summaries.
  • Financial totals — cash-on-hand and receipts align with the most recent FEC report period, using authoritative last_cash_on_hand_end_period where available.
  • Donor ZIP aggregates — Schedule A inflows are rolled up to five-digit ZIP codes for heatmap display. Rows without a usable U.S. ZIP are ingested for totals but excluded from map geography. See the Schedule A & ZIP guide.
  • Independent expenditures IE filings for watchlisted candidates sync on an hourly schedule.

Privacy & compliance

Pachand displays contribution geography at the ZIP-code level only, using aggregate totals. We do not show individual donor names, addresses, employers, or occupations, and itemized contributor exports are not available.

Users must not use the service to solicit contributions or for commercial uses involving FEC contributor information, consistent with 11 CFR § 104.15. See Legal & Privacy for full terms.

Scope

Pachand covers federal committees filed with the FEC. State and local campaign finance agencies are out of scope for v1.Pachand is an intelligence desk for operatives — not compliance filing software, CRM, or accounting.

Ready for your command desk?

Pachand is invite-only during v1. Request access or sign up with your code.