Brazil's main presidential candidates have together raised more than R$ 10 million from individual donors. The figures were declared to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) through Tuesday and compiled by g1, Globo's news portal. How the money is spread varies widely from campaign to campaign.
Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) leads individual fundraising among the contenders. The declared totals are:
- Flávio Bolsonaro (PL): R$ 2.9 million
- Ronaldo Caiado (PSD): R$ 2.5 million
- Renan Santos (Missão): R$ 2.2 million
- Lula (PT): R$ 1.4 million
- Augusto Cury (Avante): R$ 562,000
- Romeu Zema (Novo): R$ 300,000
According to g1, the data reflect revenue entries already filed and can be updated as new donations are registered with electoral authorities. Direct corporate donations to campaigns have been banned in Brazil since 2015, so individual donors, candidates themselves and party funds are the legal sources of campaign money.
The same donor on rival campaigns
The largest donation received by both Flávio Bolsonaro and Lula was R$ 500,000, and it came from the same businessman: Erasmo Carlos Battistella, CEO of Be8. According to data from the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) cited by g1, the company, based in Passo Fundo, in Rio Grande do Sul state, is Brazil's largest biodiesel producer.
Flávio Bolsonaro's support came mainly from businesspeople and farmers. The Verdi family, owner of the Rodobens group, sent R$ 300,000. The CEO and the new business director of jeans maker Vicunha Têxtil, Marco Antônio Branquinho Junior and Marcel Yoshimi Imaizumi, together added R$ 225,000.
Lula's filings include people close to his government and donations in the form of services. Gospel singer and pastor Kleber Lucas declared R$ 30,000 for recording the campaign jingle and video. Campaign coordinator Marco Aurélio de Carvalho and Labor and Employment Minister Luiz Marinho also appear, alongside academics such as FGV professor Rabih Nasser and University of São Paulo doctoral student Mayra Cristina da Luz Pádua Guimarães. These contributions range from R$ 15,000 to R$ 50,000.
The largest single donation in the race
Ronaldo Caiado logged the biggest donation from an individual to any presidential candidate: R$ 2.3 million from jurist and businessman Carlos Eduardo Ferraz de Mattos Barroso, who owns a real estate registry office in the Federal District. The former governor of Goiás also received money from campaign coordinator Aldo Rebelo and from former congressman and former minister Roberto Brant, who worked on his government plan.
Renan Santos leans on online crowdfunding, which has brought in R$ 2 million. Outside the crowdfunding drives, he received R$ 50,000 from the children of former Banco Safra president José Olympio Pereira and from Danilo Julio Gatto, head of an agricultural cooperative in Unaí, Minas Gerais. Augusto Cury is his own biggest donor, with more than R$ 100,000, followed by businessman Jangiê Diniz and Wilson de Matos Silva, founder and rector of a university where Cury was once a partner. Zema received R$ 100,000 from brothers Hélio Seibel and Salo Davi Seibel, owners of the former Grupo Ligna, and R$ 200,000 from Renato Ribeiro Machado, a board member and shareholder of mining company U&M Mineração e Construção.
Rules and the deadline
Márcio Nogueira, president of the Rondônia chapter of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and a specialist in electoral law, says candidates and parties may raise funds until election day. After that, fundraising is allowed only to settle expenses already incurred. Cash donations are capped at 10% of the donor's gross income in the previous year. Goods and services may be donated up to R$ 40,000 per person; above that, the 10% ceiling applies.
The law also requires that donated goods belong to the donor, that services be performed by the donor personally and that declared values match market prices. Campaigns have until October 4, the date of the first round, to raise new money. From then on, they may collect funds only to pay bills already run up, and the TSE figures will keep changing as new entries are filed.