How to read this page
Field names below are the concepts every 10DLC filing carries; individual platforms label them slightly differently on screen. The values are the ones we select when we file, cross-checked against the registration systems' own documentation, and they exist to answer the question the rest of the internet skips: not what 10DLC is, but what you actually pick.
The five fields that decide everything
Five selections cascade through the entire filing: organization type, organization subtype, business structure, business industry, and use case. The first one does the most work. A political organization type routes the committee toward Campaign Verify and the political use case; a nonprofit organization type routes a 501(c) toward automatic IRS verification instead. Everything else inherits from that fork.
| Client | Org type | Subtype | Structure / industry | Use case | Campaign Verify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate committee (527) | Political | Candidate committee | Non-profit Corporation / Not-for-Profit | Political | Token required |
| PAC (527) | Political | PAC | Non-profit Corporation / Not-for-Profit | Political | Token required |
| Super PAC (527) | Political | Super PAC | Non-profit Corporation / Not-for-Profit | Political | Token required |
| Party committee (527) | Political | Party | Non-profit Corporation / Not-for-Profit | Political | Token required |
| Other 527 organization | Political | Other 527 organization | Non-profit Corporation / Not-for-Profit | Political | Token required |
| 501(c)(4) advocacy, political messaging | Nonprofit | Social welfare | Non-profit Corporation / Not-for-Profit | Political | No token, auto IRS verification |
| 501(c)(5) union / 501(c)(6) trade assoc., political messaging | Nonprofit | Closest matching subtype | Non-profit Corporation / Not-for-Profit | Political | No token, auto IRS verification |
| 501(c)(3) charity | Nonprofit | Charity | Non-profit Corporation / Not-for-Profit | Charity | Not eligible |
| Government entity or elected office | Non-political | Government entity / elected official | Non-profit Corporation / Government | Standard (Emergency eligible) | Not applicable |
Field reference
Legal name
The name exactly as it appears in federal records: the IRS tax-exempt listing for 501(c)s, or the IRS 527 filing for political organizations, falling back to the text of the EIN confirmation letter. Never a DBA, an abbreviation, a candidate's name styled differently than the committee filing, and never the consultant's or platform's name. A name that does not match the EIN's records is the classic silent brand failure.
EIN
The committee's own EIN, matching the legal name above. Two traps: an EIN issued in the last 90 days may not have propagated into the databases vetting checks, so brand-new committees can fail automated vetting through no fault of the filing, and a sibling organization's EIN is never a substitute. An org incorporated as both a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(4) needs a separate brand per EIN, with political traffic on the (c)(4)'s.
Organization type and subtype
The fork described above. Political committees select the political type, then the subtype that names what they are: candidate committee, PAC, super PAC, party, or other 527 organization. 501(c) organizations select the nonprofit type and their closest subtype. Government offices select the non-political government path; a campaign never does, even for an incumbent, because the committee and the office are different entities.
Business structure
Non-profit Corporation, for every political and nonprofit sender. There is no sole proprietor path for political messaging and no reason to select a for-profit structure for a 527. This selection is also what makes a Campaign Verify token importable later, so getting it wrong stalls the political use case twice over.
Business industry
Not-for-Profit for committees and 501(c)s; Government for verified government entities. The industry field is about tax classification, not subject matter, so nothing tempting like "media" or "professional services" is ever right for a committee.
Website
A live site on the committee's own domain, carrying the disclosures reviewers check: the privacy policy with its no-third-party-sharing language and the terms page with program name, frequency, rates, and opt-out instructions. What those pages must contain has its own guide.
Address
The organization's registered address, as filed. Not a treasurer's home, not the consultant's office. Address mismatches drag verification scores down without producing a clean rejection you can act on.
Use case
Political, for 527s with an imported Campaign Verify token and for auto-verified 501(c)(4), (c)(5), and (c)(6) organizations doing political or advocacy messaging. Charity for 501(c)(3)s, whose civic engagement work runs there rather than on the political use case. The political use case is not selectable for a 527 until the token is imported, which is why the token comes first in every timeline we publish.
By committee type
Once the organization type is political, the jurisdiction drives a second set of fields: a locality type, a committee classification, and sometimes an election date. This is the part every generic 10DLC guide skips, and it is where committee filings actually differ from one another.
| Committee | Locality | Classification | Extra fields | Election date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US House / Senate / presidential campaign | Federal | House / Senate / Presidential | FEC ID | Required |
| Federally registered PAC or party | Federal | Qualified PAC / qualified party | FEC ID | Not required |
| Statewide or state legislative campaign | State | Candidate | Required | |
| City, county, or school board campaign | Local | Candidate | City or county named | Required |
| State or local PAC | State / Local | PAC | Not required | |
| State or local party committee | State / Local | Party | Not required | |
| Ballot measure committee | State / Local | Ballot measure | Required | |
| Tribal committee | Tribal | Tribal location | Per filing |
- The FEC ID exists only on the federal path. State and local committees are identified by their classification, jurisdiction, and, for local races, the named city or county.
- The election date is required exactly where a ballot exists: candidate and ballot measure committees. PACs and parties never file one.
- For state, local, and tribal Campaign Verify verifications, the committee EIN on the token is cross-referenced against the EIN on the brand and must match exactly.
- The election milestone named anywhere in the filing must be a real, upcoming one. Reviewers cross-check dates, and a passed primary cited as upcoming is itself a defect.
The campaign filing itself
After the identity fields comes the campaign stage: the use case, a three-to-five sentence description of who sends, who receives, and why, the opt-in story, and sample messages. It is reviewed for consistency above all, and the field-level rules live in the quick start's campaign filing section. Three field-value rules worth restating here because they cause the cheapest rejections in the system:
- The embedded-link and embedded-phone checkboxes must match the samples. Declaring links with none in any sample, or the reverse, is an automatic mismatch rejection.
- Sample links stay on the committee's own domain. Public URL shorteners are a named rejection cause.
- Samples use bracketed placeholders for names and links, lead with the sender's identity, and end with opt-out language. Real scripts that follow these rules are collected in our political text message examples post.
For scripts that already follow the sample rules, see political text message examples.
Questions partners ask
What business type does a political campaign select for 10DLC?
Non-profit Corporation. Every political committee, from a town council campaign to a super PAC, registers its business structure as a non-profit corporation with the business industry set to not-for-profit. There is no for-profit or sole proprietor path for political messaging.
What industry do I select for a PAC or candidate committee?
Not-for-Profit. The industry field describes how the registration systems classify the entity, not what it does day to day. Political committees are 527 tax-exempt organizations, so they classify as not-for-profit alongside 501(c) nonprofits. Selecting anything else contradicts the entity's federal tax records.
Does a city council or school board campaign need an FEC ID?
No. An FEC ID is required only for federal committees: House, Senate, and presidential campaigns and federally registered PACs and parties. A municipal campaign files with a state or local locality type, a committee classification of candidate, the city or county it runs in, and its election date.
Does a 501(c)(4) select the political use case?
Yes, when its messaging is political or advocacy work. A 501(c)(4), (c)(5), or (c)(6) unlocks the political use case automatically through IRS tax-status verification at brand registration, with no Campaign Verify token. If its texting is not political, it registers a standard use case instead.
What happens if a 527 files without a Campaign Verify token?
The political use case never appears as an option. 527 status is not detected automatically anywhere in the registration flow; the imported token is the proof. A committee that files without one can only register standard use cases, which means bottom-tier sending limits and exposure for misregistered political traffic.
When is an election date required in the filing?
For the committees actually facing a ballot: federal House, Senate, and presidential candidate committees, state and local candidate committees, and ballot measure committees. PACs and party committees do not file an election date, because they are not themselves on the ballot.