With the general election less than a month away, many are already seeing an increase in advertising for political candidates and campaigns.

These political advertisements aren’t just to get the candidates’ faces and talking points around the community, but also to encourage citizens to contribute financially to their campaigns.

Candidates running in the general election in November are required to report their finances to the Federal Election Commission for the third quarter of the year on Oct. 15, according to the FEC.

If a candidate hasn’t raised or spent $5,000 for their campaign, they aren’t legally required to file a report.

The reports allow the public to look at these records and see how their elected officials, and challengers, are receiving money and how they are using that money to run for office.

“The vast majority of the money either is coming from individual donors, political action committees or self-funding,” said Andrew Mayersohn, committees researcher for Open Secrets, a nonpartisan Washington-based nonprofit organization that specializes in tracking money in American politics.

Individual donors can be U.S. citizens or green card holders, and are allowed to donate up to $3,500 per candidate per election, according to a FEC chart about contribution limits.

“The vast majority of the money that federal campaigns raise comes from individual donors, usually pretty rich donors making large contributions,” Mayersohn said. “Thanks to the internet, raising lots of money from small donors is more viable than it used to be.”

If the candidate is running in both the primary and general election, donors can give up to $3,500 for each of those elections for a total cap of $7,000, Mayersohn said.

“In recent cycles in particular, individual donors have really dominated because the amount that an individual can donate to a federal campaign is indexed to inflation,” Mayersohn said.

Between 2002 and 2026, there has been a $2,500 increase in how much individuals are allowed to donate to a candidate campaign, according to FEC archive of contribution limits.

Candidates can donate an unlimited amount of money to themselves, as long as it’s income in their name, such as salary income, assets, personal gift received before cycle or dividend from stocks.

“The third big bucket, aside from individuals and political action committees, I guess, would be self-funding,” Mayersohn said. “You know, when rich people run for office and loan or donate themselves millions of dollars to support their own campaign.”

Not only can a candidate use personal funds, they can also take out personal loans. A candidate can use the raised campaign contributions to repay a personal loan made to their campaign, or they can forgive a loan if it is their own personal loan, according to the FEC.