Fredreka Schouten

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Just days before the Republican Party’s national convention opens in Cleveland, organizers remain $6 million short of their $64 million fundraising goal for the four-day political extravaganza.

The Cleveland host committee has collected $51 million in cash and another $7 million through in-kind donations as it grapples with boycott calls by activist groups, the loss of taxpayer funding for the event and deep skepticism about Donald Trump, the GOP’s nominee-in-waiting, from some of the party’s leading figures.

The controversy over Trump’s unorthodox candidacy has had “some effect” on fundraising, said David Gilbert, president and CEO of the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee Inc., the nonprofit group responsible for underwriting the convention, which opens Monday.

But, he said, “it’s really hard to put a dollar amount on what the effect of the nominee is. People don’t give us a detailed explanation of why I’m giving or why I am not.”

Several prominent firms, ranging from Coca-Cola to Hewlett Packard and Apple, have either decided not to sponsor the convention or to reduce their traditional convention giving amid calls by activists to boycott the event over Trump’s tough rhetoric about women, immigrants and others. Officials with Color of Change PAC, one of the organizations leading the anti-Trump effort, say 15 companies have scaled back or refused to provide financial support for next week’s gathering.

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In an interview with USA TODAY, Gilbert downplayed the fundraising gap, noting that the Cleveland host committee already has exceeded what previous conventions collected.

He said the last 10% or so of these budgets often is raised in the final weeks of the conventions. “While it would have been great to say a week ago, a month ago, two months ago, that we had every penny raised, past history shows we are in pretty good shape,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said the group has carefully managed its expenses and will “make sure every obligation is fulfilled,” even as it aggressively seeks more last-minute funding from companies and individuals. He would not identify those potential donors.

The 2012 Republican and Democratic conventions each received $18 million in public funds four years ago and collected about $57 million and $37 million, respectively, from other sources, federal records show.

The Democrats’ total included $13 million in loans. In the face of the Democratic convention’s fundraising struggles that year, utility giant Duke Energy decided to forgive a $10 million line of credit it provided to event organizers.

How will Cleveland make up any gaps? “We don’t have a line of credit, per se,” Gilbert said. “But we have set up, early on, a way to make sure that, no matter what, nobody is going to be left with any unpaid bills.”

He said he was “not prepared to talk about” the host committee’s backup plan.

The Democratic National Convention, scheduled for July 25-28 in Philadelphia, has only about $1.3 million left to raise, boosted by a $10 million infusion this week of state funds, former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell said Wednesday. Rendell is chairman of the Democratic host committee.

"I'm pretty confident we'll get there in the next week, and I think we might even have a little bit of a cushion," he told USA TODAY. "I've spent most of my waking hours in the last six weeks, fundraising."

Host committee spokeswoman Anna Adams-Sarthou said the Philadelphia group has collected a total of $71 million to date, through a combination of cash, "confirmed commitments" and in-kind contributions.

The Cleveland and Philadelphia organizers do not have to publicly release details on their fundraising and spending until 60 days after the events.

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