SankeyMATIC Gallery: FEC Reports

Visualizing money flows

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FEC Disclosure Form: Friends of David Jolly

For the period 01/01/2014 through 02/19/2014

Source: http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00551572/909954/

This example was chosen fairly randomly* from recent FEC disclosure reports.

The original report's figures:
(the ones used in the diagram's input are in bold)

DETAILED SUMMARY PAGE

Of Receipts And Disbursements

	Column A This Period
I. RECEIPTS
11. Contributions (other than loans) From:
(a) Individuals/Persons Other than Political Committees
(i) Itemized	274894.72
(ii) Unitemized	27577.00
(iii) Total Of Contributions From Individuals	302471.72
(b) Political Party Commitees	10000.00
(c) Other Political Committees (such as PACS)	226100.00
(d) The Candidate	0.00
(e) Total Contributions (11(a)(iii) + (b) + (c))	538571.72
12. Transfers From Other Authorized Committees	99965.00
13. Loans
(a) Made Or Guaranteed By The Candidate	0.00
(b) All Other Loans	0.00
(c) Total Loans ((a) + (b))	0.00
14. Offsets to Operating Expenditures (Refunds, Rebates, etc)	0.00
15. Other Receipts	0.00
16. Total Receipts (11(e) + 12 + 13(c) + 14 + 15)	638536.72
II. DISBURSEMENTS
17. Operating Expenditures	529301.90
18. Transfers to Other Authorized Committees	0.00
19. Loan Repayments:
(a) Of Loans Made or Guaranteed by the Candidate	0.00
(b) Of All Other Loans	0.00
(c) Total Loan Repayments ((a) + (b))	0.00
20. Refunds of Contributions To:
(a) Individuals/Persons Other Than Political Committees	0.00
(b) Political Party Committees	0.00
(c) Other Political Committees (such as PACs)	0.00
(d) Total Contribution Refunds (28(a) + (b) + (c))	0.00
21. Other Disbursements	0.00
22. Total Disbursements (17 + 18 + 19(c) + 20(d) + 21)	529301.90
III. CASH SUMMARY
23. Cash On Hand At Beginning Of Reporting Period	72954.53
24. Total Receipts This Period (line 16)	638536.72
25. Subtotal (23 + 24)	711491.25
26. Total Disbursements This Period (line 22)	529301.90
27. Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period (25 - 26)	182189.35

Converted to SankeyMATIC input:
(plus some coloring)
Individuals [302471.72] Total Contributions Other Political Committees [226100] Total Contributions Political Party Committees [10000] Total Contributions Total Contributions [538571.72] Total Receipts Transfers From Other Committees [99965] Total Receipts Total Receipts [638536.72] Total Funds Prior Cash On Hand [72954.53] Total Funds Total Funds [529301.90] Operating Expenditures Total Funds [182189.35] 2/19/14 Cash On Hand :Prior Cash On Hand #090 >> :2/19/14 Cash On Hand #090 << :Operating Expenditures #636 <<

Notes:

Observe that the Total Funds amount in the graph matches the source data (line 25) but was never specified in the inputs. Its total was derived from the flows into and out of it (and since the total flows out matched the flows in, no warning was displayed).
The above diagram is the result of dragging some nodes around before exporting.

The default rendering of the data is not organized quite as well:

My advice: If a diagram can be made clearer by adjusting some nodes' positions, by all means do so.
There is even more data from this report that can be added into the diagram, but it begins to get very wide—if you want to fit the diagram in a reasonable horizontal space, you have to sacrifice the amounts in the labels, shrink the labels, and/or do a lot of abbreviating.

Below is a more extensive version of the diagram, with some abbreviated & smaller labels.

This version incorporates the breakdown of contributions from Individuals (itemized vs. unitemized) and also some of the information provided in Schedule C and Schedule D about Debts and Obligations owed by the Committee.

The Un-obligated Cash-On-Hand figure (at bottom right) was derived by subtracting the “Debts and Obligations Owed BY the Committee” (line 10 on the original report) from the “Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period” (line 27). Suggestions for a better label are welcome.

(If the Debts & Obligations had been greater than the Cash on Hand, my personal solution would be to add a new flow for the difference from a node named “Unfunded Obligations” and probably color the flow reddishly.)

FEC Report Sankey Diagram with more details

The SankeyMATIC input to produce the above (plus some post-rendering node-dragging):

* (I borrowed the link from one of Derek Willis' tweets.)

See the Manual for more specific examples, or
return to the Gallery home page, or
go forth and try out a diagram of your own.