Political donations by Bowdoin faculty and staff have fallen significantly this federal election cycle compared to the 2020 election cycle, according to an Orient analysis of data from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). The same trend was found for members of the College’s Board of Trustees.

Total employee donations recorded by the FEC decreased $81,649 from $112,293 in 2019–2020 to $30,644 in 2023–2024. Trustee donations decreased 41 percent from $167,642 in 2019–2020 to $97,902 in 2023–2024.

Assistant Professor of Government Ángel Saavedra Cisneros, whose research focuses on political behavior and racial and ethnic politics, provided insight into donations trends this election cycle. According to Saavedra Cisneros, one factor that may have contributed to the decline in employee and trustee donations this year is the increased awareness of students looking into donation records. He also noted that people may have less money to donate to political campaigns after donating to recent causes.

“Since we had the last election, there’s been a lot of need for donations,” he said. “So, people have donated to people in Ukraine, people have donated to victims of flooding, of hurricanes. We have the crisis in Gaza, and so maybe people are a little stretched.”

Saavedra Cisneros explained that people likely had less to do and more disposable income during the last election cycle in the context of the pandemic and lower inflation levels. In particular, he noted less travel, stimulus checks and lower gas costs as contributors to increased disposable income.

Lastly, Saavedra Cisneros explained that disillusionment with the current political system and the amount and frequency of partisan demands for donations may also be factors.

“A lot of people would donate because they wanted to get ‘big money’ out of politics,” Saavedra Cisneros said. “But there’s so much money in politics now that maybe people are thinking, ‘I’d rather spend this money giving it to my local high school soccer team’ or something like that.”

Saavedra Cisneros added that he is against people giving money to campaigns.

“I come from a different system, so in many countries, you don’t get private donations,” he said. “In many countries, the government provides for the electoral contest, and campaigns are shorter, so people are less wary of the campaign.”

Bowdoin employees and trustees overwhelmingly donate to Democratic candidates and left-leaning political action committees (PACs). In 2020, 98 percent of donations went toward liberal candidates or causes and two percent went toward conservative causes. This distribution remained roughly the same in 2024 with 96.7 percent of donations going to the left, 2.5 percent to the right and just under one percent independent.

Saavedra Cisneros noted that the position of Democrats this election cycle in comparison to 2020 may be another factor to help explain why donations coming from mostly left-leaning donors are down. After former President Donald Trump’s term in office, he explained, Democrats could have had more anger fueling their donations. He explained that people might be more anxious this election cycle than fired up.

“When people are angry, we expect them to go and donate and vote and march things,” he said. “But when people are anxious or fearful, then they kind of back off from this. Then, they think more and are not as quick to react and do something.”

Many donations went to the PAC ActBlue, which supports various Democratic campaigns. Saavedra Cisneros noted that some people may be more ideologically inclined and support PACs or Super PACs aimed at a specific cause, while others may donate directly to a candidate if they specifically support that candidate or oppose their opponent. Furthermore, partisans may be more likely to support the Democratic or Republican National Committees directly.

Additionally, Saavedra Cisneros noticed a trend this election year in the normalization of big spending from high-profile people and organizations. He explained that some forms of spending this election, like Elon Musk’s million dollar giveaways, are pushing the bounds of what is considered legal spending.

“I think this is another trend where people are no longer as surprised by the insane amounts of money that people are donating,” he said. “It is huge-interest people with hundreds of millions, billions of dollars, who are willing to spend it.”

According to Saavedra Cisneros, total campaign donations are set to be at an all-time high.

“It’s going to be an insane amount of money,” he said.