Lifeblood of the Party: Motivations for Political Donations in Canada

ABSTRACT Monetary donations from individuals have become the lifeblood of electoral and partisan politics in Canada, yet we know remarkably little about who these donors are, what motivates them to give, and whether their interactions are primarily with national or local party organizations. This article reports findings from a survey of donors to federal-level political parties in Canada. Our analysis identifies two distinct sets of motivations for donating to parties and candidates: political and transactional. We find that donors are more likely to report stronger political motivations than transactional ones. In general, donors expressing high political motivations tended to be older and less wealthy, but we also note that the strength of the political motivation does not relate to specific donor behaviors.