Client Services Archives

Are You Maximizing the Effectiveness of Your PAC Data?

passpacs on May 29, 2026

Are You Maximizing the Effectiveness of your PAC Data with epacInfo® Management Reports?

In today’s fast-paced, data-driven political landscape, efficiently managing and engaging the right individuals is essential to your Political Action Committee’s success. One of the most valuable tools available to your organization is epacInfo®’s management reporting functionality.

These powerful reports provide detailed insights into your eligible class and current PAC participants, helping your organization make smarter, data-backed decisions. By leveraging this information, PACs can strengthen fundraising efforts, improve donor engagement, and build more effective outreach strategies.

epacInfo®’s management reports can track critical data points including donor activity, contribution amounts, enrollment percentages, and participation trends. epacInfo® delivers accurate, timely reporting with minimal administrative time and effort.

Benefits of epacInfo® Management Reports

Refine Donor Segmentation

Management reports provide a clear view of who is contributing, how much they are giving, and how frequently they donate. This allows PACs to better segment donors based on contribution patterns, consistency, and engagement levels. By identifying top contributors and potential high-value donors, your organization can personalize outreach efforts and focus on the individuals most likely to support your PAC’s mission.

Maintain Clean, High-Quality Data

Collaborating with payroll and HR teams to ensure accurate and timely data feeds is critical to maximizing the value of your data and reports. Accurate data ensures you have the most up-to-date information on active contributors and individuals who may have stopped giving. This visibility gives PAC managers the opportunity to engage valuable supporters and reconnect with former contributors. Accurate, high-quality data also helps ensure compliance while providing reliable insights into donor behavior and participation trends.

Improve Fundraising Strategies

By analyzing receipt management reports, PACs can uncover valuable trends in donor behavior. Are contributions increasing after a specific campaign? Are certain groups more likely to engage during key political events? These insights allow organizations to adjust fundraising strategies in real time, optimize outreach efforts, and maximize overall participation and donations.

Build Stronger Donor Relationships

Management reports also help PACs better understand ongoing donor engagement. Identifying repeat contributors or supporters who may need additional outreach enables organizations to strengthen relationships and foster long-term loyalty. With better visibility into donor activity, your team can prioritize meaningful communication and deliver targeted messaging that resonates with your audience.

Conclusion

Incorporating receipt management reports into your PAC’s fundraising and engagement strategy will help maximize your results. With the power of epacInfo® reporting, PACs can more effectively target the eligible class, increase participation, strengthen donor relationships, and maintain compliance with confidence. In today’s competitive political fundraising environment, actionable data is the key to smarter outreach and greater success.

To learn more about the data management and reporting capabilities of epacManager®, contact Megan Allen at mallen@pass1.com to schedule a demo today.

Need Voter Education Resources for Your Employees and Members?

passpacs on March 26, 2026

PASS’ new system, MyElectionInfo, has everything you need!

PASS’ MyElectionInfo just launched and will simplify access to election details, elected officials, candidate listings, and essential voter resources for all employees and members. MyElectionInfo streamlines access to election information to support informed engagement. The page brings together information that is often scattered across multiple sources into a single, intuitive user experience.

At PASS, every update we release or enhancement we create is guided by one core principle: delivering meaningful improvements that make our clients’ work easier, more informed, and more efficient.

As we continue to evolve our products, we are focused on creating tools that grow with our clients’ needs including customizable dashboards and informational resources like MyElectionsInfo. At PASS, our goal is always to deliver technology and services that empower PACs to operate more effectively and strengthen administrative, compliance, and reporting workflows.

Smart Systems. Seamless Compliance. Stronger PACs.
That’s the standard we strive toward, today and in every enhancement we develop.

For more information on PASS’ newest offering, MyElectionInfo, please contact Megan Allen at mallen@pass1.com.

One of my donors overcontributed to the PAC! What do I do?

passpacs on June 24, 2025

Keeping your large donors from contributing more than the $5,000 maximum can be a challenge because contributors want to max out at exactly $5,000. If they contribute by credit card, it’s not a problem. If, however, they contribute by recurring payroll deductions, the bi-weekly or monthly split never works out to exactly $5,000 for the year. They will either be $0.08 under $5k or $0.06 over the limit.

PASS Receipt Analysts and Compliance Managers are monitoring your large donors to ensure they stay within the limits.

Toward the end of the year, they will suggest you ask the payroll department to manually adjust the deduction amount for the last pay date. The downside of this approach is that someone has to remember to ask Payroll to restore the deduction back to the original amount after January 1.

The PASS Receipts team is also paying attention to any payroll dates that may fall on January 1, which typically means they get pushed back to December 31 because of the holiday. This can cause an overage because the individual would have received 27 pay checks in one year. Don’t worry. PASS’ Receipts team can alert you to this at the start of the year as we track actual pay period dates for our clients.

Many payroll systems can place a $5000 cap on PAC contributions. Systems with this capability will not only adjust the contribution on that last pay date as needed, they will also resume taking the original amount on the first pay date of the new year. Does your payroll system have this functionality? Talk to your Payroll department to find out.

To add to your peace of mind, PASS’ epacInfo software has reports that show Year to Date contributions for all contributors as well as reports that will show a payroll variance from one pay period to the next. Keeping a close eye on donation changes is important to monitoring your PAC income and making sure deductions are not inadvertently stopped after the start of a new year or other change.

Tracking PAC receipts is an important step in maintaining donor compliance and monitoring the health of your PAC. PASS can help! Contact your Compliance Manager to get more information on the PASS process for keeping your contributions compliant. And, if you would like to know more about epacInfo reports that allow you to track your receipt information, please reach out to your Compliance Manager and learn reporting options to get the data you need with just a couple of clicks. PASS will keep your PAC on track!

Is Your PAC Losing Money?

passpacs on May 29, 2025

Has this ever happened to you? You finished a PAC solicitation and your projected new revenue figures were impressive. Sadly, that revenue never materializes because payroll deductions were either not started or were set up with the wrong amounts.

PASS’ epacInfo® software offers payroll comparison reports. This helps ensure all new deductions start at the correct amount. PASS will also program a report with new and updated enrollments and send it directly to your payroll department.

The new enrollments are uploaded to your payroll system, reducing the chance of mistakes.

Many clients depend on PASS to prepare and send new or updated pledge information to their payroll teams. In 2024, PASS sent out 1,800 enrollment reports, that’s 150 reports per month.

Additionally, epacInfo® offers enrollment comparison reports to identify PAC pledges that haven’t started. With epacInfo®, you can report deduction mistakes to your payroll team. This powerful tool helps you easily track new and updated PAC contributions.

The process is straightforward. PASS works directly with your payroll team to discuss file specifications, formats, and schedules. On the scheduled date, you and your payroll team will receive the customized file. Files are send via password-protected email or through our Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).

The PASS IT team will work closely with you to customize solutions that meet your company’s unique needs. Don’t let your fundraising efforts go to waste! Contact PASS to automate your enrollment process and ask about which epacInfo® reports are available to track your PAC activity.

Should You Worry About Pay to Play?

passpacs on April 29, 2025

Companies that operate in regulated industries or have state and local government contracts may be subject to “pay-to-play” rules when making political contributions. Pay-to-play (PTP) laws exist at the federal, state, local, and agency levels, and are designed to prevent corruption or undue influence in politics, particularly when it comes to political contributions. PTP laws may apply to political contributions made by executives, employees, and in some cases, their family members.

PASS offers comprehensive PTP compliance services for our clients. We leverage in-house and external resources to identify potential PTP issues a political contribution may trigger, and we help guide clients on the key focus areas.

Pay to Play is one of the many services where the PASS Compliance Team

collaborates closely with our clients to ensure all relevant entities,

including affiliated ones, are considered when assessing government contracts.

Does your organization contract with, or plan to contract with, governmental bodies? If so, it is crucial to understand the specific PTP laws in that jurisdiction. By staying informed, you can avoid jeopardizing existing and future contracts or facing fines and penalties. Contact your PASS Compliance Manager today to discuss our PTP services.

Why Does PASS have a Team Dedicated to Receipts Processing?

passpacs on March 19, 2025

At PASS, we understand the importance of personalized support when it comes to PAC administration and compliance. That’s why our clients work closely with a dedicated Compliance Manager (CM) for day-to-day guidance. What’s even better? Each Compliance Manager is backed by a specialized member of our Receipts Analysis team, ensuring top-notch support every step of the way.

Our team of receipts professionals are dedicated to processing PAC receipts

and making sure all PAC contributions comply with

federal and state campaign finance laws.

Additionally, the team makes sure all the funds that should have been deposited in the PAC bank account were deposited in the PAC bank account, and they follow up with Payroll departments as needed to track down missing funds or funding overages.

To make sure client data is safe and is imported correctly, the Receipts Manager receives the payroll data from the client via secure transmission. The Receipt Manager uploads the payroll data to epacInfo®, PASS’ PAC management software, following a documented procedure. Once the data is imported and verified, the file is audited by a Quality Assurance Manager using a documented process that is detailed in an audit report. The audit report accompanies the notice to the CM that the data is available to be used for compliance reporting. Following the data import, Clients can also view their payroll information and use the management reporting module in epacInfo® to run analytics and create internal PAC reports.

Separating the receipt process from the compliance reporting function allows for greater attention to detail to help ensure PAC data is 100% correct when filing reports with federal and state election law agencies. The PASS team is always looking for ways to make sure client data is accurate and compliant with campaign finance laws. For more information about how we process and keep your data safe and ensure accuracy, contact PASS today!

Inflation Erodes PAC Contributions

passpacs on February 20, 2025

Campaign contribution limits are restrictions set by regulatory bodies that dictate the maximum amount of money individuals or organizations can donate to political campaigns. These limits are designed to prevent corruption, ensure fair competition, and promote transparency in the electoral process.

As the cost of living and operating expenses rise due to inflation,

the value of a fixed contribution limit has been diminished.

This creates a challenge for candidates to raise the necessary funds to run competitive campaigns and effectively communicate their message to voters.

To address this issue, regulatory bodies should periodically review and adjust contribution limits to account for inflation. By indexing contribution limits to inflation or periodically reviewing and adjusting them based on economic conditions, policymakers can help ensure that campaign finance regulations remain effective and equitable.

The Federal Election Commission is an example of a regulatory agency that has indexed personal and non-multicandidate PAC contributions to inflation but has not applied those same indexing rules to multicandidate PACs. The limits for multicandidate committees have been $5,000 per candidate and per election since 1976. Keeping contribution limits equitable is a big step in ensuring fair electoral competition, ensuring a diverse slate of candidates, and promoting transparency in our electoral process.

The campaign finance experts at PASS help PACs navigate federal and state election contribution limits, laws, and reporting requirements to ensure 100% compliance.

Search Your PAC Data with Ease and Accuracy

passpacs on January 21, 2025

PASS utilizes SQL Server to power our epacInfo® software. The SQL Full-Text Index is unlike traditional SQL queries, which match exact phrases or keywords. Full-Text Index enables users to perform more complex searches, including fuzzy searches, stemming, out-of-order words search, and wildcard search.

This capability proves invaluable for applications requiring advanced search functionality, such as PAC Disbursement maps and our PAC Match Charity Search tool that allows user to search over a million charities with high efficiency and flexibility.

Here are some tips and examples of how they can be applied:

“Color” vs. “Colour”: If a user searches for “color,” but the database contains entries with the term spelled as “colour,” a fuzzy search could still return relevant results.
“Organization” vs. “Organisation”: Similar to the previous example, a fuzzy search can handle variations in spelling such as “organization” and “organisation” to ensure relevant entries are retrieved regardless of the spelling used.
Verb tense variations: Searching for “run” should return results for “running” and “ran.””
Plural Forms: Fuzzy search can handle pluralization variations. For example, searching for “cat” could retrieve results containing “cats.” Another example: searching for “child” returns both “child” and “children.”
Out of order words search: There is no need to enter words in the right order. Searching for “sacred heart Boston” would yield “BOSTON ACADEMY OF THE SACRED HEART INC.”
Wildcard Search: searching for “india* child edu* found*” returns INDIAS CHILDREN AND AGED RELIEF AND EDUCAITON FOUNDATION,” which contains a typo. This is a good way to get around misspelled charity names in the IRS database (there are plenty of them, believe it or not).

The SQL technology is built into PASS’ epacInfo® software and is available to all epac users. Clients with websites utilizing PAC Match and Candidate Contribution maps also benefit. For more information about how your PAC can benefit from using a PASS PAC website and our PAC match services, contact Mary O’Reilly (moreilly@pass1.com).

My Company is Offering Charity Match! How Do I Choose a Charity?

passpacs on December 19, 2024

Do you love animals, would you like to support organizations that help children, are you a veteran or a family member of a veteran, or do you want to help a local charity?

With the Charity Match program, you can give to 501c3 organizations that are meaningful to you.

There are a lot of popular national charities such as St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Habitat for Humanity, American National Red Cross, and American Cancer Society. Looking to donate locally? If you have a favorite charity and it passes your company’s vetting process, then you can support them through your company’s matching gift and/or PAC Match programs.

The PASS Charity Match Team ensures that all organizations selected as part of a matching gift or PAC match program are 501c3 charitable organizations and do not appear on the US Department of Treasury OFAC sanctions list.

The team will vet for additional charitable giving requirements your organization may have.

If you need help choosing a charity, the Charity Navigator website– where you can look up charities by their name or by their cause – can be helpful. The charity you choose is up to you! The PASS Charity Match team is here to facilitate the contribution and make sure it reaches the charity, and the charity knows you chose them.

Starting a New PAC

passpacs on November 27, 2024

It seems like starting a new PAC will be helpful for your corporation. You will have the opportunity to help influence legislation that affects your industry. The Government Affairs team agrees it’s a brilliant idea!

Some things to consider and questions to ask before starting a PAC:

How will you fund the PAC?

The solicitable class of a corporation includes executive and administrative personnel, stockholders and family members of those groups. Is our solicitable class likely to participate? What is our plan for asking them to give?

What is your plan for the PAC?

Is our industry heavily regulated by the government? Is there specific legislation affecting our industry? Is any other organization/association representing our interests?

Who will manage the PAC?

Is it best to keep the management in-house or do we need outside help? Is our budget such that we can afford additional staff and/or consultants?

Managing the PAC is not terribly complicated, but it is time consuming and requires experience. Federal Election Commission regulations have very specific timelines, reporting schedules, and reporting deadlines.

Having a person on staff with FEC experience or hiring an outside vendor is important to keeping your PAC on course and legal.

PASS has been keeping PACs on Track and legal for 40 years, and the compliance experts at PASS are an extension of your team.

Think your start-up PAC is too small for a PAC compliance consultant, give us a call to find out just how cost-effective PASS’ services can be.