Correction, Oct. 19: Our original story on the funding of the Republican and Democratic conventions, posted yesterday, had several inaccuracies based on a misreading of reports filed with the FEC. We regret the errors, and have corrected them in the updated version below.

The story of the money behind this year’s political conventions hews very closely to the funding narrative of the entire election cycle: the Republicans had a huge advantage, led by generous donations from individuals, and the Democrats turned to a coalition of traditional supporters — but when that failed, they turned to corporate donors and a sizable loan to cover their costs.

Both parties looked to regional backers to foot large parts of the bill for the respective conventions. A number of well-heeled Tampa-area individuals and companies picked up much of the tab for the Republican Convention in August, while North Carolina-based Duke Energy guaranteed a large loan from Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank Of America that was the single largest source of financial support behind the Democratic Convention in that city in early September.

In total, the 2012 Tampa Bay Host Committee raised $55.8 million and spent about $52.4 million, while the Committee for Charlotte 2012 pulled together a much more modest $35 million and spent $33.4 million. The Democrats also created a second committee, called New American City, for the express purpose of soliciting corporate donations to be used for activities outside the convention hall. This committee raised about $20 million and spent $19.5 million. The two Democratic convention committees owe a combined $7.4 million to Bank of America and $500,000 to Mechanics & Farmer’s Bank, all from a line of credit guaranteed by Duke Energy. These loans are due to be repaid by Feb. 2013.

Democratic officials had earlier pledged not to accept corporate cash for their convention, and said the New American City money would be spent on events outside the convention hall. But the $5 million fee to rent the convention hall was paid from this pot of mostly corporate cash.

If a big loan was key to the Democrat’s event, extremely wealthy individuals, in particular Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson , made it unnecessary for Republicans to go into debt. Adelson gave $5 million, while Bill Edwards, a Tampa area resident, gave $4.6 million through two of his companies, Marketing Solution Publications and Mortgage Investor’s Corp. Several big hedge fund players also topped the list of individual donors — Paul Singer of Elliott Management, who has donated millions to conservative super PACs, gave $1 million, as did Robert Mercer of Renaissance Technologies, also a large donor to conservative super PACs. Paulson & Company, the hedge fund run by John Paulson , gave another $1 million. James S. Davis , the chairman of shoe company New Balance , also donated $1 million.

The Republican convention also received a $1 million donation from David Koch , one of the billionaires liberals love to hate, but the Democratic convention got $310,000 from the Tides Foundation, which is partially funded by liberal billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

Regional support played a role for both conventions. Besides the loans guaranteed by Duke Energy, the company’s chairman and CEO James Rogers personally gave another $339,000 to the Democrats. Florida Power and Light gave $1 million to the Republican event, while the New York Yankees gave $150,000 — not a surprise considering the Steinbrenner family’s connection to Tampa.

Unions gave $5.9 million to the Charlotte committee, and several American Indian tribes also made notable appearances, with four tribes combining to give $400,000 to the Democratic event. One of those tribes, the Chickasaw Nation , also gave $100,000 to the Republican convention, and the Seminole Tribe gave $350,000 to the GOP as well.

Many of the same large corporations that gave money or in-kind donations to the Democrats also gave similar amounts, or more, to the Republicans, with publicly traded corporations topping the list of donors to the Republican event: AT&T gave $3 million (not counting in-kind donations for telephone service), Microsoft gave almost $1.6 million and United Health Care Services gave $522,000. Bank of America also gave $1 million to the Tampa event and another $150,000 in in-kind donations. The Republican convention also got a significant boost from the oil and gas industry — the American Petroleum Institute gave $2 million, while America’s Natural Gas Alliance chipped in $400,000.

Missing from the Republican convention’s list of donations: small checks. The committee collected just $1,200 in unitemized contributions (donations of $200 or less) and just six donations from people giving between $200 and $500. In total, the Republicans had 304 itemized donations (including in-kind donations).

The Democrats, on the other hand, relied heavily on small donors, bringing them a bit closer to the “People’s Convention” they said was their goal. The Charlotte committee listed $866,000 in unitemized contributions, and had 1,558 donors who gave between $200 and $500, more than five times the total number of donors to the Republican convention.