(1) Contribution shall mean a payment, gift, subscription, assessment, expenditure, contract, payment for services, dues, advance, forbearance, loan, donation, pledge or promise of money or anything of ascertainable monetary value to a person, made for the purpose of influencing the nomination or election of a candidate, or for the qualification, passage, or defeat of a ballot question. An offer or tender of a contribution is not a contribution if expressly and unconditionally rejected or returned.

(2) Contribution shall include the purchase of tickets or payment of an attendance fee for events such as dinners, luncheons, rallies, testimonials, and similar fundraising events; an individual's own money or property other than the individual's homestead used on behalf of that individual's candidacy; and the granting of discounts or rebates by broadcast media and newspapers not extended on an equal basis to all candidates for the same office.

(3) Contribution shall not include:

(a) Volunteer personal services provided without compensation, or payments of costs incurred of less than two hundred fifty dollars in a calendar year by an individual for personal travel expenses if the costs are voluntarily incurred without any understanding or agreement that the costs shall be, directly or indirectly, repaid;

(b) Amounts received pursuant to a pledge or promise to the extent that the amounts were previously reported as a contribution; or

(c) Food and beverages, in the amount of not more than fifty dollars in value during a calendar year, which are donated by an individual and for which reimbursement is not given.