AIPAC describes itself as grassroots on its own sworn tax return. Its Form 990 for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2025, filed on 20 August 2026, states that “AIPAC IS AN AMERICAN GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION,” and its website says it has more than 6.5 million members, a figure that is AIPAC’s own. The same return reports no membership dues, 362 employees and 42 volunteers. Federal Election Commission filings show that the 100 largest receipts to AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, carried about 59% of its $85.8 million in 2024-cycle contributions, so the ordinary meaning of grassroots, many people giving small sums and their own time, can be checked against the filings line by line.
Key Findings
- AIPAC’s Form 990 for fiscal year 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025 states that “AIPAC IS AN AMERICAN GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION,” a self-description on the organization’s own sworn, self-reported filing, which also records $122,539,124 in total revenue (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990).
- AIPAC says it has “more than 6.5 million members,” AIPAC’s own unverified figure as read on 9 November 2026; its Form 990 reports that it has members but gives no count (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, About page; American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990).
- The same Form 990 reports no membership dues on line 1b, 362 employees and 42 volunteers, and $41,222,425 of $64,643,140 in program spending under a line labelled “POLITICAL” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990).
- The AIPAC PAC transmitted $53,699,474.91 to federal candidates and committees in the 2024 cycle, largely contributions earmarked by individual donors and forwarded through the committee (Federal Election Commission, 2026, AIPAC PAC).
- The 100 largest itemized receipts to United Democracy Project in the 2024 cycle totalled $50,554,859.51, about 59% of its $85,770,677.06 in contributions; unitemized contributions totalled $819.00 (Federal Election Commission, 2026, United Democracy Project).
What does AIPAC’s own tax return say it is?
AIPAC’s Form 990 for the fiscal year 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service on 20 August 2026, states in Parts I and III: “AIPAC IS AN AMERICAN GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION THAT WORKS TO STRENGTHEN THE U.S.-ISRAEL PARTNERSHIP” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990). The word grassroots is AIPAC’s own, on a sworn and self-reported filing.
The return also records the legal form behind that description. AIPAC files as a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, formed in 1963 and tax-exempt since 1968, and contributions to it are not tax-deductible. The return reports total revenue of $122,539,124 for the year, against $156,448,717 for the prior year, a decline of about 21.7% measured on the prior year’s total. That fiscal year is called fiscal year 2025 below.
A Form 990 is the organization’s own account to the tax authority. Its figures carry the weight of a sworn return: they are what AIPAC reported about itself, and no separate body has counted them. The sentence on the return matches, word for word in lower case, the self-description on AIPAC’s public About page as read on 9 November 2026 (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, About page).
The return runs on an October to September fiscal year. The Federal Election Commission reports political committees in two-year election cycles, and the Senate lobbying register reports by calendar year, so the return’s figures appear beside those filings in the sections that follow and are never added to them.
The same return carries the lines that would record grassroots support in the ordinary sense of the word: a line for membership dues, a count of volunteers, a description of what members may decide, and a breakdown of program spending. Each of those lines is a fact AIPAC filed, and each can be set beside the word AIPAC chose for itself on the first page of the return.
Who calls AIPAC grassroots, and on what membership claim?
AIPAC’s About page, read on 9 November 2026, says the organization has “more than 6.5 million members nationwide of different faiths, backgrounds, and political affiliations” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, About page). The figure is AIPAC’s own, unverified on the page, and it appears beside the same sentence the tax return carries: “AIPAC is an American grassroots organization.”
The page describes who those members are. “AIPAC has more than 6.5 million members, including small-dollar contributors and major donors from all backgrounds, faiths and parties,” it says. To its own question, “Is AIPAC a corporate PAC?”, it answers: “No, AIPAC is a membership organization.” On funding, the page says “AIPAC is funded exclusively by Americans” and “We are not funded nor directed by, nor lobby for, the Israeli government,” statements whose surrounding record is read in a separate report on AIPAC’s relationship to a foreign government.
The membership claim has an official counterpart. The Federal Election Commission’s registration record for AIPAC’s political action committee, committee ID C00797670, lists its organization type as “Membership Organization” and its connected organization as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Federal Election Commission, 2026, AIPAC PAC). AIPAC’s Form 990 likewise reports in Part VI that the organization has members (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990). On its own return and on a federal registration, then, AIPAC has a membership base, and it is AIPAC that names that base grassroots.
The page defines no term for “member.” It names small-dollar contributors and major donors among the members, which places giving money inside the meaning of membership, but it states no threshold, no dues and no period of membership. The page also says “We help pro-Israel candidates get their message out by supporting their campaigns,” and that AIPAC supports “pro-Israel candidates on both sides of the aisle” and opposes “anti-Israel candidates on both sides.”
Web copy changes without notice. The wording above is the page as read on 9 November 2026, and the 6.5 million figure is carried throughout as AIPAC’s own statement of its size.
Does any public record count AIPAC’s 6.5 million members?
AIPAC’s Form 990 for fiscal year 2025 reports that the organization has members but gives no number, and the closest counts in the federal record, such as the 55,871 contribution disbursements on the AIPAC PAC’s 2023 to 2024 Schedule B, count transactions rather than people (Federal Election Commission, 2026, AIPAC PAC). None of the three federal records publishes a count of AIPAC’s members.
The Form 990 records members as a category. Part VI answers yes to whether the organization has members, and Schedule O describes their rights, but the return gives no total. Its Schedule B, the list of contributors, is restricted in the public copy, so the return gives no donor count either (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990).
The Federal Election Commission record counts money as it moves. The 55,871 figure is the number of line-23 disbursements the AIPAC PAC reported for 2023 to 2024: contributions to federal candidates, committees and other political committees. One donor can appear on many lines and one recipient on many more, so the number measures transactions, not donors and not recipients. Earmarked receipts may be itemized whatever their size, which means the count of itemized lines and the size of the unitemized total are not, on their own, measures of how many people gave.
The Senate Office of Public Records’ register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act records a different universe again: the registrant, its client, its lobbyists, the issues lobbied and the reported amount for each quarter. It has no membership field (United States Senate, Office of Public Records, 2026).
Each of these records answers a narrower question than membership. The return answers whether members exist and what they may do. The election filings answer how much money moved and in how many transactions. The lobbying register answers who lobbied and for whom. The 6.5 million figure therefore rests on AIPAC’s statement alone, read on 9 November 2026, and the filings that would carry a number of people carry none.
Do AIPAC’s members pay dues?
AIPAC’s Form 990 for fiscal year 2025 reports no membership dues on line 1b, the line the return provides for them; its contributions and grants of $113,407,711 are all reported on the “all other contributions” line (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990).
The return records the money that reaches AIPAC as gifts, not as dues.
Contributions and grants made up about 92.5% of the year’s $122,539,124 in total revenue. Of the $113,407,711, $12,229,383 was noncash, or about 10.8% of contributions. Program service revenue, money earned from the organization’s own activities, was $2,918,046, about 2.4% of total revenue.
The contributions line fell from $149,353,800 in the prior fiscal year to $113,407,711, a decline of $35,946,089, or about 24.1% of the prior year’s figure. The return gives no breakdown of that change by donor size.
AIPAC’s About page names “small-dollar contributors and major donors” among its members (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, About page). The return shows where the money from both groups lands: on a single contributions line, with nothing reported as dues. The Schedule B donor list is restricted in the public copy, so the return cannot show how the $113,407,711 divides between small and large gifts, or how many people gave it.
The membership described on the website and the money described on the return therefore meet on one line of the filing. Members, as AIPAC defines them, include people who give; the return records what was given and records no payment made as a condition of belonging.
What say do members have in governing AIPAC?
AIPAC’s Form 990 Schedule O states: “MEMBERS SHALL BE ENTITLED TO ELECT ONE MEMBER TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND/OR VOTE ON THE ORGANIZATION’S ACTION PRINCIPLES BY CASTING THEIR VOTES AT AN ANNUAL MEETING OF MEMBERS” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990). That passage is the return’s full description of what members decide.
The same Schedule O adds: “THERE ARE NO CLASSES OF MEMBERSHIP IN AIPAC.” Every member, on the return’s description, holds the same rights.
Part I of the same return reports 39 voting members of the governing body, 38 of them independent. Set beside Schedule O, the filing describes a board of 39 voting members and a membership entitled to elect one board member, to vote on action principles, or both, as the “AND/OR” in the filed text allows.
AIPAC’s About page describes the same structure from the other side. “AIPAC’s decisions are made by its Board of Directors, all of whom are American citizens,” it says, in the same answer that describes AIPAC as “a membership organization” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, About page).
The quoted Schedule O passage gives no count of members who vote at an annual meeting, no record of a vote taken, and no text of the action principles themselves. It records an entitlement, not its use. Part VI’s answer that the organization has members, and Schedule O’s description of their rights, are the two places on the return where members appear as participants in governance rather than as a category.
The filed governance terms and the website’s statement sit side by side without conflict: the return says what members may elect and vote on, and the website says where decisions are made. Both are AIPAC’s own descriptions of itself, one sworn to the tax authority and one posted for the public, and both were read in their 2026 versions.
How many staff and volunteers does AIPAC report?
AIPAC’s Form 990 for fiscal year 2025 reports 362 employees and 42 volunteers in Part I (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990).
The volunteer number is an estimate the form permits rather than a headcount, and the employee number is the organization’s paid workforce for the fiscal year.
The lobbying side of that staff appears on a separate public record. The Senate Office of Public Records’ lobbying register lists AIPAC as registrant 2718, self-described as “Lobby focused on U.S. Middle East foreign policy,” and on each of its four 2025 quarterly reports AIPAC files as its own client: item 7 carries the “Self” box beside the same name as the registrant (United States Senate, Office of Public Records, 2026). No outside-firm compensation is reported for 2025, so the entire reported amount is in-house.
OpenSecrets’ tabulation of those filings records 10 named lobbyists on AIPAC’s 2025 client profile, with $0, or 0.0%, paid to outside firms (OpenSecrets, 2026). The aggregator’s quarterly figures for AIPAC reproduce the Senate register’s four reports to the dollar.
The categories are not exclusive. Named lobbyists are drawn from the organization’s own staff, since no outside firm is reported, and board members are counted separately from employees on the return. The chart compares the size of each reported group, not shares of one workforce.
These figures record who is employed, who volunteers and who is registered to lobby. They carry no measure of influence, access or effect, and none of them describes what the 362 employees or 42 volunteers do in a given week. What the return does record is the scale of each group as AIPAC reported it for the same fiscal year in which it described itself as grassroots.
Where does AIPAC’s program spending go?
AIPAC’s Form 990 for fiscal year 2025 reports $41,222,425 of its $64,643,140 in program service spending, about 63.8%, under a line the organization labels “POLITICAL” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990).
The remainder divides between information and member education and lobbying.
The return describes the political line in three parts: direct contributions to members of Congress and candidates “THROUGH THE AIPAC PAC,” contributions to super PACs, and “AN ON-LINE PORTAL TO MEMBERS WHO WISH TO CONTRIBUTE DIRECTLY TO MOCS AND CANDIDATES.” MOCs are members of Congress. The portal is the one place on the return where members appear as an audience for a program.
Information and member education accounted for $16,099,860, about 24.9% of program spending. Lobbying accounted for $7,320,855, about 11.3%. The three lines sum to the $64,643,140 total and do not overlap, so together they are the whole of the program spending the return reports.
The return’s lobbying line and the Senate register’s lobbying figure are separate measures. The register records $3,757,105 for calendar year 2025 under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (United States Senate, Office of Public Records, 2026), while the return records $7,320,855 for an October to September fiscal year under the tax code’s categories. The two cover different periods and follow different definitions, and neither is a correction of the other.
The political line is likewise distinct from the election filings that follow. It reports what AIPAC itself spent in its fiscal year; the Federal Election Commission totals report what its PAC and its super PAC received and disbursed over two-year cycles. Those are different entities under different statutes, and their figures are set side by side, never added together.
How does member money reach candidates through AIPAC’s PAC?
The Federal Election Commission record shows the AIPAC PAC transmitted $53,699,474.91 to federal candidates and committees in the 2024 cycle, largely contributions earmarked by individual donors that the committee forwards as a conduit, meaning a donor names the recipient and the PAC passes the money on (Federal Election Commission, 2026, AIPAC PAC).
The largest of those disbursements are described on the filing as “EARMARK OF [contributor name]. TRANSMITTED BY CHECK/EFT,” with recipients including candidate committees and the national party committees. Individual contributions to the PAC in the 2024 cycle were $54,887,799.21, of which $54,806,260.30 was itemized and $81,538.91 unitemized. Because earmarked receipts may be itemized whatever their size, the small unitemized amount is not a measure of how many small donors gave.
The PAC’s own direct giving is a separate and much smaller channel. OpenSecrets’ tabulation of FEC data released 6 February 2025 counts $3,037,900 in direct contributions to federal candidates in the 2023 to 2024 cycle, 36.62% to Democrats and 63.02% to Republicans, reaching 347 House candidates and 20 Senate candidates (OpenSecrets, 2025). Those direct gifts are capped at $5,000 per candidate per election for a multicandidate committee under 52 U.S.C. 30116. The $53.7 million and the $3.0 million are not in conflict: the first includes every earmark the PAC forwarded and contributions to party and other committees, while the second counts only the PAC’s own gifts to candidates.
The earmark channel matches the mechanism AIPAC’s Form 990 describes as “AN ON-LINE PORTAL TO MEMBERS WHO WISH TO CONTRIBUTE DIRECTLY TO MOCS AND CANDIDATES” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990).
The PAC made its first filing on 15 December 2021, and its 2022 cycle receipts were $18,566,318.64. Receipts for the open 2026 cycle stood at $57,771,930.54 on 14 October 2026, within about $100,000 of the full 2024 cycle, and they move with every monthly report.
How concentrated are the donors to AIPAC’s super PAC?
The Federal Election Commission record shows the 100 largest itemized receipts to United Democracy Project in the 2024 cycle, each $100,000 or more, made up about 59% of the super PAC’s contributions (Federal Election Commission, 2026, United Democracy Project).
Those receipts totalled $50,554,859.51, against the super PAC’s $85,770,677.06 in contributions (Federal Election Commission, 2026, United Democracy Project).
The share is of contribution dollars carried by 100 receipts, not of donors.
United Democracy Project registered with the FEC as a “Super PAC (Independent Expenditure-Only)” and listed 1,361 itemized receipts for the 2024 cycle. A single donor can account for more than one receipt, so the 100 largest receipts are not the same as the 100 largest donors, and the 59% does not state how many people supplied that money.
Unitemized contributions, the line that records donors whose gifts aggregate $200 or less in a cycle, totalled $819.00 in the 2024 cycle. In the 2026 cycle to 14 October 2026, against $108,620,919.70 in contributions, the unitemized line stood at $12.00. These lines measure the small-donor share of the super PAC’s money. They measure nothing about AIPAC’s membership, which belongs to a different entity filing under a different statute.
AIPAC itself is among the super PAC’s funders. Its Form 990 Schedule C reports $38,304,939 in political expenditures, of which $25,000,000 was internal funds paid to United Democracy Project, and states: “IN 2025, AIPAC MADE A $25 MILLION CONTRIBUTION TO UDP” (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990). That payment appears on the super PAC’s own filings as a receipt, so it is one sum recorded twice from two sides, not two sums. AIPAC’s figure covers its October to September fiscal year and the super PAC’s figures cover election cycles, so neither total is added to the other.
Methodology and limitations
The evidence was drawn from primary and official records, an organization’s own published statement, and an aggregator, each labelled by type. Primary records: AIPAC’s Form 990 for 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025, EIN 53-0217164, filed 20 August 2026 and read from the public IRS e-file record on 9 November 2026, a sworn but self-reported filing; the Federal Election Commission’s committee records, cycle totals and itemized schedules for the AIPAC PAC (C00797670) and United Democracy Project (C00799031), read 9 November 2026; the Senate Office of Public Records’ register of AIPAC’s four 2025 LD-2 reports, read 19 August 2026; and the contribution limits in 52 U.S.C. 30116. Organization’s own statement: AIPAC’s About page, read 9 November 2026, cited only as AIPAC’s claim. Aggregator: OpenSecrets’ tabulations of Senate lobbying filings (read 19 August 2026) and of FEC data released 6 February 2025.
The records run on three calendars: the Form 990 on an October to September fiscal year, FEC totals on two-year cycles, and the lobbying register on calendar years. They also cover three channels under three statutes: lobbying, PAC contributions and super PAC independent expenditures. No figure from one record is summed with another. The 2026 cycle is open; its figures carry the 14 October 2026 coverage date.
Several limits follow from the records themselves. The Form 990 and the LD-2 reports are self-declared; an LD-2 is a good-faith estimate certified by the filer, and the form asks for rounding to the nearest $10,000 while AIPAC’s reported quarterly amounts, such as $963,135, are unrounded. The volunteer count is an estimate. The Form 990’s donor schedule is restricted in the public copy. FEC itemized lines count transactions, and the 59% share was computed from the 100 largest of 1,361 itemized 2024-cycle receipts to United Democracy Project. Individuals named on itemized filings are private individuals and appear only in aggregate.
Conclusion
So is AIPAC a grassroots organization? On its own sworn return and on its own website, it is: the word is AIPAC’s, filed with the Internal Revenue Service for fiscal year 2025 and posted on the About page read on 9 November 2026.
The lines of those same filings draw a precise portrait. AIPAC claims more than 6.5 million members, a figure that is AIPAC’s own and appears in no federal record; the return reports no dues on line 1b and entitles members to elect one director to a board of 39 voting members or to vote on action principles. It reports 362 employees beside 42 volunteers, files as its own lobbying client, and places 63.8% of its program spending on a line it calls “POLITICAL.” Its PAC transmitted $53.7 million in the 2024 cycle, largely as donors’ earmarks, and its super PAC took about 59% of that cycle’s contributions in 100 receipts against $819 in unitemized gifts.
The word can name two things: the breadth of people behind an organization, or the breadth of hands its money passes through. The filings record the money to the cent, in transactions large and small, and record AIPAC’s members only as a category with rights and without a number. When an organization’s own sworn description is the only record of how many people stand behind it, what does the public label grassroots now certify, and who is in a position to check it?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AIPAC itself a political action committee?
No. AIPAC files with the IRS as a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990). Its connected committee, registered with the Federal Election Commission as a “Lobbyist/Registrant PAC” under committee ID C00797670, made its first filing on 15 December 2021 (Federal Election Commission, 2026, AIPAC PAC).
Are donations to AIPAC tax-deductible?
No. AIPAC’s Form 990 records it as a section 501(c)(4) organization, formed in 1963 and tax-exempt since 1968, and contributions to it are not tax-deductible (American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026, Form 990). The organization is exempt from income tax on that basis while its donors receive no deduction.
Does the AIPAC PAC spend money independently on campaigns?
The FEC record shows the AIPAC PAC reported $0 in independent expenditures in the 2024 cycle and in the 2026 cycle to 14 October 2026 (Federal Election Commission, 2026, AIPAC PAC). Independent spending runs through United Democracy Project, a separately registered committee.
Is United Democracy Project a separate committee from AIPAC?
The FEC registration lists United Democracy Project as an “Unauthorized” committee that first filed on 3 January 2022, at 712 H St NE, Washington DC, while the AIPAC PAC lists 251 H St NW (Federal Election Commission, 2026, United Democracy Project; Federal Election Commission, 2026, AIPAC PAC). Its independent expenditures were $26,118,700.49 in the 2022 cycle, $37,859,810.12 in the 2024 cycle and $53,603,927.44 in the 2026 cycle to 14 October 2026; by statute they are uncoordinated with campaigns, and the filings record direction and amount, not effect.
Is AIPAC’s reported lobbying figure the amount it spent?
The Senate register shows AIPAC reported $3,757,105 for 2025 on line 12 of its LD-2 reports, which the form heads as lobbying “INCOME,” and left line 13, the line for an organization’s lobbying “EXPENSE,” blank (United States Senate, Office of Public Records, 2026). The reported figure is a self-declared good-faith estimate certified by the filer, and it is a separate measure from the $7,320,855 lobbying line on AIPAC’s fiscal-year Form 990, which covers a different period under different definitions.
How has AIPAC’s reported lobbying changed since 2021?
The Senate register shows AIPAC’s reported annual totals at $2,757,247 in 2021, slightly lower at $2,723,081 in 2022, then rising to $3,059,885 in 2023, $3,324,268 in 2024 and $3,757,105 in 2025, each year on four quarterly reports (United States Senate, Office of Public Records, 2026). The 2025 total is about 36.3% above the 2021 total. The register records what was filed, not what the lobbying achieved.
How does AIPAC’s lobbying total compare with the largest lobbying clients?
OpenSecrets’ ranked table of the 20 largest federal lobbying clients for calendar year 2025 runs from the US Chamber of Commerce at $72.2 million to NCTA The Internet & Television Assn at $13.5 million, and AIPAC does not appear in it (OpenSecrets, 2026). AIPAC’s $3,757,105 is about 28% of the twentieth-ranked client’s total and roughly 0.07% of the approximately $5.1 billion the same site reports for all federal lobbying that year.
Sources
- American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026. About AIPAC: frequently asked questions. AIPAC website, read 9 November 2026. https://www.aipac.org/about. Organization’s own statement (self-reported, unverified).
- American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 2026. Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, fiscal year 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025, EIN 53-0217164, filed 20 August 2026. Internal Revenue Service public e-file record, e-file object 202622329349301312, via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/530217164. Official or primary record (sworn, self-reported filing).
- Federal Election Commission, 2026. AIPAC PAC committee record and financial totals, 2022 to 2026 cycles, committee ID C00797670, including Schedule B itemized disbursements. Federal Election Commission. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00797670/. Official or primary record.
- Federal Election Commission, 2026. United Democracy Project committee record and financial totals, 2022 to 2026 cycles, committee ID C00799031, including Schedule A itemized receipts. Federal Election Commission. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00799031/. Official or primary record.
- OpenSecrets, 2025. AIPAC PAC contributions to federal candidates, 2023-2024 cycle, FEC committee C00797670, based on FEC data released 6 February 2025. OpenSecrets. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/american-israel-public-affairs-cmte/C00797670/candidate-recipients/2024. Campaign-finance aggregator tabulating official filings.
- OpenSecrets, 2026. Top lobbying clients, calendar year 2025, and AIPAC client profile, 2025. OpenSecrets, read 19 August 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-clients?year=2025. Lobbying aggregator tabulating Senate Office of Public Records filings.
- United States Senate, Office of Public Records, 2026. Lobbying Disclosure Act register: American Israel Public Affairs Committee registrant record (Senate ID 2718-12) and 2025 quarterly LD-2 reports. United States Senate, read 19 August 2026. https://lda.senate.gov/. Official or primary record (filings as filed, self-declared).