Four out of every five dollars, or $269.5 million, raised by tax-exempt groups, most of which claim to be “social welfare organizations,” go to pro-Republican and conservative groups. These political nonprofits have become a key source of indirect support for Republican candidates. As Figure 2 shows, spending by conservative nonprofits has grown from $2.5 million in 2000 to $269.5 million in 2012. Liberal nonprofit spending has gone from $21.9 million in 2000 to $58.5 million in 2012.

Image Political Nonprofits Spending by Viewpoint Credit... OpenSecrets.org

The Democrats’ advantage with small donors is most apparent in presidential elections. In 2012, Obama raised $232.2 million from contributors of $200 or less, nearly three times the $79.8 million in small contributions made to Mitt Romney.

While far outpacing Romney among small donors, Obama also crushed Romney in the competition for larger donors of $200 to $5,000, $489.7 million to $366.3 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which produces OpenSecrets.org. Contributions of $200 to $5,000 may seem modest in comparison to the multimillion-dollar contributions to super PACs, but the men and women who give $200 to $5,000 are much wealthier than average Americans: A 2004 survey among donors of $200 or more, 35 percent had incomes in excess of $250,000, compared to just 2 percent of the entire population.

Overall, the Obama campaign spent $683.6 million in 2012, $250.3 million more than the Romney campaign’s $433.3 million.

Romney was able to keep pace with Obama only by raking in $418.6 million in support from super PACs and independent committees, $287.3 million more than Obama’s super PACs and independent committee support of $131.3 million, as shown in Figure 3. Restore Our Future, a super PAC, spent $142.1 million in support of Romney. It received contributions of $30 million from Sheldon Adelson, an international casino operator, and his wife, Miriam, and $9 million from Bob Perry, a Houston developer. Obama’s main super PAC, Priorities USA, raised $65.2 million, with the largest contributions, $2 million each, from Irwin Jacobs, former chairman of Qualcomm; James Simons, of Renaissance Technologies; Jeffrey Katzenberg, of DreamWorks Animation SKG; and Fred Eychaner, of the Newsweb Corporation.

When all the money is added up, including support from the national parties, a total of $1.1 billion was spent on behalf of Obama and $1.2 billion on behalf of Romney.