For the 6th Year in a Row, More of Top 500 PACs Trusted Cision PAC Management Software to file their Reports with the FEC than any other software in the industry

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Public records from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show that since 2011, Cision Government Relations (formerly Vocus Government Relations) has been the PAC Software most used by the 500 largest corporate, trade association, and membership association Political Action Committees to file their Year-End PAC compliance reports with the FEC. Cision not only leads all other vendors in the industry in the Top 500 PACs overall, but is also the industry leader within each of these core segments: Top 500 Corporate PACs, Top 100 Trade Association PACs and Top 100 Membership Association PACs.  These aren’t “alternative facts” but based on hard data downloaded from the FEC for the Year-End reports filed in 2017.

As the above chart illustrates, Cision is the most popular software (28.4%) to file with the FEC for the Top 500 PACs (by the amount of total contributions to the PAC) that filed a Year-End report with the FEC January 31, 2017.  The second is DDC Advocacy (23%) and the third is FECfile.  The “Other (<5)” represents the aggregate of all the vendors who had less than 5 PACs use their software to file with the FEC.  Aristotle was the third largest single vendor (12.4%). The other vendors (NGP, NetFile and CapWiz) had less than 3% of the Top 500 PACs.

Cision was also the most popular software with the Top 1000 Corporate, Trade Association and Membership Organization PACs to file their Year-End Report with the FEC in 2017.

In the Top 1000 PACs, Cision is still the largest “vendor software”  at 23.6% but the FEC’s free “FECfile” upload software is used by 29.4% of the Top 100 PACs.  This increase is in large part because the smaller the PAC (in terms of receipts collected during a calendar year), the more likely they are to use the free FECfile upload software than a vendor software.  DDC Advocacy remains in second with 15.9% and Aristotle a close third at 12.8%.

Cision Top Vendor Used by Corporate PACs

Cision PAC Management software is also the most used software for the Top 500 Corporate PACs.

As the above chart illustrates, Cision is the most used PAC Management software by the 500 largest Corporate PACs. Again, DDC Advocacy and Aristotle hold their positions as the #2 and #3 vendors’ software packages used in the Top Corporate 500 PAC segment.

Cision Top Vendor with Top 100 Trade Association PACs

Cision PAC Management software isn’t just popular with Corporate PACs, but is also the most popular PAC Management software used by the top 100 Trade Associations.

What about the Top 100 Membership Association PACs?

Again, Cision is the most used vendor software for the top 100 Membership Association PACs, ahead of every other vendor in the industry.

What PAC Management Software does your Organization use?

In summary, Cision is the leading vendor software used to file with the FEC both overall and in the Corporate, Trade Association and Membership Association segments respectively for 2016. So if your PAC is using Cision PAC Management software (tremendous choice and thank you!) – your organization is using the industry leader.  If your company or association isn’t using Cision PAC Management software, maybe it’s time to take a look at the industry leader. Let us know when you are ready to talk.

Notes on Methodology:

Cision downloaded the Year-End report filers for 2017 (covering 2016) and checked the vendor software used for their Year-End report.  Cision sorted PACs by the amount of receipts (Total Contributions or the FEC “tot_con”) descending order to define the “Top PACs” for the Corporate, Trade Association and Membership Association segment.  Note that for the overall statistics, Cooperatives and Labor Union PACs were also included.  Cision was the most used software in those segments as well.  Candidate Committees, Super PACs and other “non-Qualified PACs” were not included in this research.

For more information or to request the background data please contact Mark Reilly, Vice President Cision Government Relations at mark.reilly@cision.com.

About Mark Reilly

Mark Reilly is vice president of CisionPAC software. Since 1995 Mark has worked at the intersection of public affairs and technology. Providing strategic counsel for PACs, associations, candidates, corporations and issue advocacy campaigns on how to best leverage online technology to reach their goals. Before the internet, Mark worked as radio scriptwriter, a New York City public high school teacher and as a community organizer in Costa Rica. An Ann Arbor native, he now lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

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