Shortly after endorsing Senator Clinton’s presidential campaign, a former Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack, received nearly $90,000 from donors who are among Mrs. Clinton’s major backers, campaign finance reports show.

The donations, disclosed in Federal Election Commission filings over the weekend, came from Clinton fund-raising bastions of New York, California, Texas, and Washington, D.C. None came from Iowa, where Mr. Vilsack served two terms as governor.

Mr. Vilsack, unable to raise the tens of millions needed to wage a serious presidential campaign, withdrew from the race in February. In a finance report filed Sunday covering the first half of the year, Mr. Vilsack disclosed that he had $2,962 in cash and a leftover debt of $148,000.

Once he dropped out, Democratic candidates came courting, hoping he could help them win the important early caucus state. In March, he endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and his Democratic organization is viewed as key to her chance of winning in Iowa six months from now.

In May and June, at least 45 Clinton donors contributed $87,000 to Mr. Vilsack’s presidential campaign account. Mr. Vilsack used part of the money to repay himself $55,000, part of a personal loan he had given to his campaign. He paid off other bills as well.

Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer said Mrs. Clinton had made it clear early that “we were going to help retire the debt,” but that Mrs. Clinton did not receive Mr. Vilsack’s endorsement because of any offer or deal.

“The Clintons and Governor Vilsack have a long history,” Mr. Singer said. “She offered to do whatever she could to help him close out his campaign.”

Vilsack spokeswoman Kiki McClean said the former governor “endorsed Senator Clinton because he believes she is the best person to be president.” She said “it’s not surprising” that Democratic donors would back Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Vilsack.

San Jose State University political science professor Larry Gerston, noting that such arrangements are not unusual, called it “a pretty good investment by Hillary Clinton,” given Mr. Vilsack’s standing among Iowa Democrats. “He is a name there, and that is a wide-open race,” Mr. Gerston said. “Is this anything new? It is not. Far be it from me to say it is wrong because there are few wrongs. There are far more opportunities than there are wrongs.”

Donors who gave the maximum allowable donation of $2,300 to Mr. Vilsack include San Francisco Democrats Susie Tomkins Buell and Mark Buell, who are longtime Clinton backers and have been the hosts of at least one fundraiser for Mrs. Clinton this year. Sacramento Democrat Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalak also held a fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton in May. She was one of a half-dozen members of her family who each gave $2,300 to Mr. Vilsack.

The $87,000 that Mr. Vilsack received is minuscule compared with the $27 million that Mrs. Clinton has raised in the second quarter. As much as that was, she trailed her chief rival, Senator Obama, a Democrat of Illinois, who raised $34 million.

A review of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign finance statement shows she continued to focus her fundraising in New York, where she raised almost $7 million, and California, where she raised almost $4 million.