Data for this story came from the Federal Election Commission. The Federal Election Campaign Act requires that the FEC make all campaign finance disclosure reports available to the public. 

Wellesley College employees donated predominantly to Democratic political campaigns this past year, yet sums lagged significantly behind what they gave in the past two elections.

Employees donated a total of $64,778.78 in 2024 to various political campaigns, political action committees (PACs) and candidates, according to publically available data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as of Oct. 29, 2024. The average contribution per employee was $51.95. 

99.69% of funds, or $64,582.73, were donated to Democratic campaigns or Democrat-affiliated organizations. College employees only donated $195.05, or 0.03% of contributions to Republican campaigns or Republican-affiliated organizations.

ActBlue, a fundraising platform and PAC aligned with Democratic candidates across the nation, received $24,270.01. Many of these contributions were earmarked for various Democratic campaigns, with many people contributing to Democratic congressional candidates in various races across the country. 

Harris for President and the Harris Victory Fund, two campaigns directly tied to Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, received $27,699.37 collectively. 

Democratic Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown’s campaign received $2,175, making it the fifth most contributed campaign. The incumbent three-term senator ultimately lost to former car dealer Bernie Moreno, flipping the seat to the Republican Party.
From President Biden’s abrupt exit and Harris’ late rise to power to two assassination attempts against Trump, this year’s election experienced several reversals of political momentum.
The News finds that the number of donations per day spiked during three pivotal moments. 

On June 30, there were a total of 34 donations. This comes after Biden’s disappointing debate performance on June 27, which prompted the Democrats to urge Biden to drop out of the race. 

The next spike came on July 21, when President Biden withdrew from the race, the number of donations increased to 64. On Aug. 22, the last day of the Democratic National Convention when Harris officially accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, the numbers hit a record high of 77. 

The 2024 election cycle saw Democrats outraised Republicans by nearly twice as much, as of October 2024. According to ABC, the Harris campaign along with the DNC and state Democratic Party committees raised $652 million within the span of July to September in comparison to the Trump campaign and GOP’s $340 million within the same period. The Harris campaign and the Democrat’s raised over a billion over the course of her less than four month campaign period. 

Surprisingly, campaign contributions from Wellesley employees in 2024 trail significantly behind past presidential election years. 

In 2016, members of the College community contributed a total of $144,006.41 to political campaigns. It is possible that much of this could be attributed to on-campus excitement toward the prospect of Hillary Clinton ’69 making history to be the first female president of the United States.

In 2020, members of the College community contributed a total of $131,992.07, still more than double the amount contributed this year. Both the 2016 and 2020 figures do not consider money contributed after Election Day. The significant decrease in contributions for 2024 possibly reflects the parallel decrease in voter turnout in 2024.

Wellesley also trails behind peer institutions in the amount of total dollars contributed. For example, Barnard College leads among historical women’s colleges, contributing $37,076.38 more than Wellesley. Williams College, another elite liberal arts school, $16,709.67. The difference in contributions between Wellesley and other schools raises questions as to the differences in political culture among these schools.

The Wellesley News reached out to the top donors . They either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comments.