What happens to leftover funds from campaign donations?

Story 530 early voting now underway in Orange County and a former school board candidate is making headlines over how she spent her leftover campaign funds. Yeah, Alicia Ferent lost her primary bid and Fox 35 learned that she donated her remaining campaign cash to her family's own church. Investigative reporter Marie Ettinger joining us live now. So Marie, is this legal? It is legal technically and I'll get into the why of it all. But But a political science professor explained to me that, yes, it's legal, but it certainly could make voters question, be a little bit off-putting. I reviewed all the money coming in and out of Alicia Farron's campaign for school board chair. It's all pretty mundane. Expenditures for signage, T-shirts, marketing consultants and social media campaigns, a few hundred bucks for a primary night watch party. In the end, she had $19,000 left over, which she gave to the Christian charity she and her husband run. It does potentially present a bad look. Maybe you're slightly skirting the ethical lines that were set up to not cross. UCF political science professor Aubrey Jewett says candidates can send their money back to donors, give it to their political party or to the state, to the office they were running for, so in this case the school board, or to a nonprofit. That that is a fairly popular choice among many candidates is to donate the money to charity or various charities. It's not as common to donate that money to a charity that you yourself started and are an officer of and helped to run. The exception to the nonprofit rule is that the political candidate cannot be a paid employee of the nonprofit they're donating to. Impact Nations lists Alicia Ferrant as the vice president and her husband, Jonathan Ferrant, as president. Tax records show she has never reported receiving an income from Impact Nations, but her husband does. The most recent available filing is from 2024. Jonathan Farratt paid himself $33,000 from his charity that year. He got $42,000 in 2023, $56,000 in 2022. Whether it's coming in from my paycheck or my spouse's paycheck is still maybe, you know, potentially going to help the household budget. So it perhaps doesn't look great to give the money to your own charity, even if you're going to be using it for a cause that the vast majority of Floridians would think is a good cause. The 2024 form also shows that was a very good year for Impact Nations. They raised around three times their average for the past several years. The charity has an orphanage and amends addiction recovery facility both in El Salvador and runs a wig donation program for kids suffering from cancer in Latin America. The nonprofit's website says they were just able to pay off their farm in El Salvador about a year ago and now want to develop the land and build rescue homes and barns. They'll have an extra $19,000 to put toward that effort. I did hear from Alicia Ferrant just a few minutes ago. She told me in a statement, quote, My supporters have been excited to hear that these funds will be going to help launch an orphanage that we've been working to open. The funds are designated specifically for the orphanage and will be used to help us prepare and welcome children who are needing a home safety and love. Live in Orlando, Marie Ettinger, Fox 35 News.