Brazil’s Workers’ Party, known by the abbreviation PT, collected approximately $2,030 through individual donations of about $2.28 after launching a crowdfunding campaign to help cover expenses from the 2026 presidential elections. The initiative set a target of roughly $1.23 million but had reached only 0.16% of that goal by Monday, Nov. 9, according to information reported by Lauro Jardim’s column in the newspaper O Globo.
The campaign recorded 890 individual contributions, each set at 13 Brazilian reais, equivalent to about $2.28. The amount was selected as a reference to the number associated with the PT on the ballot. Donations were made through Pix, Brazil’s electronic payment system, as the party sought to encourage supporters to contribute toward election-related expenses.
The amounts in this article are approximate U.S. dollar conversions, calculated at an exchange rate of 5.70 Brazilian reais per dollar. The reported total of 11,570 reais therefore converts to about $2,030. The campaign’s goal of 7 million reais is approximately $1.23 million. Because the source figures and conversions are rounded, dollar amounts are presented as estimates.
The donation drive was launched after an election in which the PT received approximately $107.9 million from Brazil’s Special Campaign Financing Fund. That was the second-largest allocation among the parties, according to the information in the report. The Liberal Party, or PL, received the largest share, approximately $154.6 million, corresponding to 881 million reais.
The public campaign-fund allocations provide context for the crowdfunding appeal, but they are not the same as the total amount reported for the presidential candidacy. Data from Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, known by the initials TSE, show that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign recorded expenses of approximately $16.3 million. That spending was below the permitted presidential-election limit of about $23.3 million.
The campaign’s total reported receipts were approximately $22.6 million, equivalent to about 129 million reais. Of that amount, approximately $21.6 million came from the election fund allocated to the PT. The source also reported approximately $228,000 from the party fund and about $719,000 in contributions from supporters. Those contributions were deposited directly into the campaign account and reported to the Electoral Court under campaign-accounting rules.
The reported amounts are rounded, so the individual categories do not necessarily add up exactly to the stated total. The reported figures of approximately $21.6 million from the election fund, $228,000 from the party fund and $719,000 from supporters together amount to about $22.5 million. The overall total was reported as approximately $22.6 million. The small difference is consistent with the use of rounded figures in the source.
The new crowdfunding effort is separate from those campaign receipts and is aimed at helping the party settle expenses associated with the election. The figures provided do not specify the individual bills or the exact accounting relationship between the current fundraising target and the candidacy’s reported expenses. They establish that the party set a target, received a stated number of small donations and had collected only a small fraction of the target by the latest update cited.
Crowdfunding has been used by the PT in previous presidential election cycles. In 2018, when Lula’s candidacy was blocked by Brazil’s Electoral Court, the fundraising effort collected 1.5 million reais, or approximately $263,000. In the 2022 elections, the amount raised through the strategy reached 6.8 million reais, equivalent to about $1.19 million.
The source says Brazil’s Electoral Court has permitted online crowdfunding for election fundraising since 2017. In this context, the online campaign provides a way for supporters to make contributions through a platform rather than relying exclusively on allocations from public party and campaign funds. The current drive’s donations are described as transfers through Pix, and the reported supporter contributions to the presidential campaign were deposited into its electoral account and declared to the court.
The 2026 campaign’s 13-real donation amount links the individual contribution to the PT’s ballot number. At the stated conversion rate, each donation is about $2.28. The 890 reported contributions at that amount yield approximately 11,570 reais, or about $2,030, matching the reported collection total after conversion.
The campaign’s progress figure also indicates the scale of the shortfall at the time of the update. A collection of 0.16% of a goal of 7 million reais represents a small portion of the planned target, while the reported total of 11,570 reais remained well below that goal. The figures describe the campaign’s status as of Monday, Nov. 9; the information provided does not state whether the total later changed or whether the target was reached.
The PT is therefore seeking additional contributions to move closer to its approximately $1.23 million target. The earlier crowdfunding totals offer a point of comparison: the party raised about $263,000 in 2018 and about $1.19 million in 2022 through similar efforts. The current campaign had collected about $2,030 by the reported deadline, based on 890 contributions of 13 reais each.
The campaign takes place alongside reported election-finance figures that include public allocations, party funds and supporter contributions. The TSE figures cited for Lula’s candidacy distinguish between total receipts and expenses, while the separate crowdfunding appeal is described as an effort to pay election-related bills. The report does not provide further details about the timing or itemization of those expenses. Its central figures are the fundraising target, the amount collected by Nov. 9 and the number and size of the individual donations.
