It’s a good start for Sanders, who finds himself behind front-runner Hillary Clinton. 2016 Bernie's official haul: $15.2 million

Bernie Sanders didn’t come close to raising the most money in the second quarter of this year.

But he’s the envy of the entire field of Republican and Democratic candidates when it comes to his grass-roots donor base.


More than 76 percent of the Vermont senator’s donations were $200 or less, amounting to just under $10.5 million of the $13.7 his campaign raised through the end of June. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton — despite raising an eye-popping $47.5 million in that time period — got just $8 million from donations of $200 or less, making up less than 17 percent of her haul.

The candidate closest to Sanders in small-dollar percentage is Republican retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a conservative favorite who has galvanized the grass roots despite little campaign infrastructure. About 67 percent of his $8.5 million came from donations of $200 or less; the next highest for any reported candidate thus far is below 50 percent. Just 3 percent of donations to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, for example, were $200 or less.

The small-dollar donations show the significant grass-roots influence in Sanders’ liberal insurgency, which has attracted huge crowds around the country and has him rising in the polls against Clinton. And they demonstrate another contrast with Clinton, whose campaign had tried in recent days to play up its small-dollar donor base by asking for $1 donations before the June 30 filing deadline and boasting that 91 percent of the donations were $100 or less.

Part of this, of course, is that Sanders is getting very few big-dollar donations. He received just $3.3 million in donations over $200 — a figure dwarfed by another grass-roots darling, Republican Ron Paul, this time four years ago. Paul received roughly $23 million in both donations above and below $200 for a $45.4 million July posting.

Sanders’ total figure — which comes to $15.2 million, counting the $1.5 million transfer from his Senate campaign committee — still pales in comparison to Barack Obama’s first campaign, which raised nearly $33 million over the same period eight years ago.

But it provides another data point that Sanders’ long-shot bid has enthusiasm and it’s a sign that his ambitious social media and digital fundraising effort, aimed at small-dollar contributors, has paid off handsomely so far.

His campaign announced Wednesday that it had received 390,730 donations from 284,062 individuals, with an average contribution of just over $35.

Sanders also spent more than $3 million in the quarter — a large amount for an insurgent campaign and one that outpaces what many candidates on both sides raised in total.

The candidate’s filing shows that the campaign spent $1,265,000 on “digital consulting and ad buy” from Revolution Messaging, the group helping to lead the senator’s digital fundraising and social media effort and led by several digital strategists for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. Sanders — an ardent campaign finance reform supporter who has shown little interest in fundraising and refuses to have a super PAC — has placed a significant emphasis on small-dollar online contributions and social media.

The Sanders campaign spent $60,000 on a voter file from the Iowa Democratic Party, the first installment of a regular payment plan.

It paid nearly $81,000 to Democratic consulting firm Devine Mulvey Longabaugh, two of whose three principals — Tad Devine and Mark Longabaugh — serve as senior campaign advisers.

It also spent more than $380,000 on printing — not to mention $822.46 for an in-kind contribution of ice cream to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry’s for refreshments at his launch in Burlington.

Sanders finds himself well ahead of other challengers such as former governors Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Martin O’Malley of Maryland, who told donors that he had raised roughly $2 million in his first month.

Sanders announced his campaign on April 30. Below is a breakout of the campaign’s finances as of the end of June:

Total raised: $15,247,353.43

Total spent: $3,085,615.76

Total cash on hand: $ 12,161,737.67

Total debt: $0