Hillary Clinton tops Donald Trump in August fundraising totals

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Both presidential campaigns made large fundraising hauls in August, with Hillary Clinton bringing in $143 million, the high-water mark for any candidate in the election. Donald Trump raised $90 million, a figure first reported Wednesday.

Both candidates have unfurled multi-pronged fundraising operations, seeking donations for themselves, mostly via modest individual contributions online, and from wealthy donors who are asked to give to joint fundraising committees the campaigns share with their national parties that can accept much larger sums.

Of Clinton's $143 million, about $62 million went directly to her campaign account, Hillary for America. The remainder, $81 million, went to one of two joint fundraising accounts Clinton shares with the Democratic National Committee and several state Democratic Party accounts.

Clinton campaign manager Robbie Mook said the campaign entered September with about $68 million cash-on-hand.

Clinton's team announced the fundraising numbers voluntarily last week.

As for Trump, his campaign did not formally release his August fundraising numbers. CNN reported the $90 million figure, but did not specify in its report how much went to Trump directly and how much went to the joint fundraising account he shares with the Republican National Committee and several state Republican Party accounts.

The specifics of Trump's August fundraising efforts, including how much cash he had in the bank at the beginning of September, will be made public later this month after he files mandatory campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission.

Both campaigns maintain the joint fundraising accounts as a way to bundle contributions from wealthy donors into one sum that vastly outpaces the individual campaign contribution limit of $2.700. The joint accounts can accept donations well into the six figures.

Both campaigns have also invested in online fundraising tools to help bolster individual, small-dollar contributions. Politico reports Trump's campaign has relied more heavily on those costly online fundraising boosters than Clinton. The campaigns employ online fundraising companies to place display ads on high-traffic sites that solicit donations. If an individual uses one of those portals to donate to the campaign, the fundraising company gets a cut, meaning the campaigns can bank only a portion of those dollars. Because Trump is reportedly relying more heavily on such methods, that would mean his campaign is banking a smaller percentage of online donations than Clinton.

The amount paid to fundraising boosters is not immediately subtracted from the donation, so it is not known how much the candidates are actually banking as of when they report monthly fundraising totals.

Donations made by supporters who navigate directly to their candidate's official website or whose donations are solicited through fundraising appeals made directly by the campaigns are banked in full by the candidates.