City Council members steering millions of taxpayer dollars to groups outside of their districts are receiving campaign contributions from employees and board members of the groups they are giving the discretionary grants.

As the slush fund scandal at City Hall has widened in recent weeks, council members have defended their use of public dollars to fund “member items,” which they say allows them to bring services to their communities and support local nonprofits.

Council members running for higher office, however, are directing taxpayer dollars to organizations outside of their districts, enabling them to tap into new fund-raising networks and promote themselves across the city.

A council member who represents parts of Queens and is running for comptroller, David Weprin, for example, has collected thousands of dollars in donations linked to outside groups he has supported with tax dollars, according to a review by The New York Sun of the city’s Campaign Finance Board database and the council’s list of member items in a public document, Schedule C.

Mr. Weprin, who co-sponsored a $40,000 council grant to the Joyce Theater Foundation in Manhattan last year, pulled in $1,500 in campaign contributions for his 2009 citywide race from the foundation’s board chairman, Stephen Weinroth. Public matching funds from the city’s Campaign Finance Board mean that the donation will net Mr. Weprin’s campaign a total of $2,550.

The chairwoman of the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute, Erica Forman, donated $500 to Mr. Weprin’s campaign in December, netting his campaign $1,550 when combined with public matching funds. Mr. Weprin helped steer $35,000 to the Bella Abzug Institute last year.

A developer who is the co-chairman of Friends of Hudson River Park, Douglas Durst, donated $2,100 to Mr. Weprin for his 2009 campaign, and previously gave the council member $1,500 for earlier campaigns. Last year, Mr. Weprin, along with two council members from Manhattan, co-sponsored an $88,000 grant to the park group.

The donations have helped Mr. Weprin, who is chairman of the council’s finance committee, raise more than $1.5 million for his campaign for comptroller, according to the Campaign Finance Board’s most recent figures.

Every time Mr. Weprin receives a donation of $175 or more from a donor, the board gives him an additional $1,050 in matching funds from the taxpayers.

Although all council members can direct public funding to organizations they support, Mr. Weprin last year directed more than anyone else to groups for which he was the sole sponsor, according to Gotham Gazette, which reported last year that he gave out $736,500 to 31 organizations in the city’s current budget.

His name is attached to many more organizations as a co-sponsor, allowing him to develop relationships with groups outside of his district and borough. Last year was the first time the names of council members who had sponsored or co-sponsored public funding for specific groups were disclosed.

Some donors from organizations that benefited from Mr. Weprin’s support said they gave to the council member because he had helped their group, while others insisted that there was no connection between the payment from the city and the contribution.

Mr. Weinroth of the Joyce Foundation said he donated to Mr. Weprin’s campaign because “he’s been a friend of the Joyce.”

“I think it’s sort of reasonable for organizations that get supported by office holders to try and keep them in office,” he said. “I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

A spokesman for Mr. Durst said there was no link between the council grant for the Friends of the Hudson River Park and campaign donations to Mr. Weprin.

Mr. Durst has contributed to the campaigns of several elected officials, including the president of Manhattan, Scott Stringer, Comptroller William Thompson Jr., Speaker Christine Quinn, and council members Eric Gioia, Sarah Gonzales, and Melinda Katz.

Mr. Weprin said yesterday that the groups he supports in the budget have nothing to do with the campaign contributions he receives.

“In my capacity as Finance Chair I lend my general endorsement to dozens of non-profit organizations from across the city each year based on the merits of the work they do; without regard or concern to whom they politically support,” he said in a statement.

He said that when he gives his support to “worthwhile budget requests” it is “wholly different from actually allocating any of the limited discretionary funds I have at my own disposal.”

Other donations to Mr. Weprin’s campaign include a $550 contribution in 2006 from Marianna Koval, the president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. With matching funds the donation totals $1,600.

Last year, Mr. Weprin co-sponsored, with four other council members, a $126,000 grant from the city to the conservancy.

Ann Jawin, the founder and chairwoman of the Center for the Women of New York, gave Mr. Weprin $1,800 for his 2009 campaign, which will net him $2,850 with matching funds.

In 2007, Mr. Weprin, along with two other council members, helped steer $16,857 to the group, which is located in Queens but not in his district.

The director of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Flatbush in Brooklyn, Ezekiel Pikus, donated $1,750 to Mr. Weprin’s 2009 comptroller campaign, for a total haul of $2,800 with matching funds.

Along with three Brooklyn council members, Mr. Weprin co-sponsored a $245,000 payment to the council in 2007.

The executive director of New York Cares, Ariel Zwang, donated $1,250 to Mr. Weprin’s campaign, bringing him $2,300 with matching funds. Mr. Weprin was the co-sponsor of a $55,000 grant to the Manhattan-based group last year.

The CEO of OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services in Brooklyn, David Mandel, donated $550 to Mr. Weprin’s comptroller campaign in 2006. Mr. Weprin co-sponsored a $175,000 grant to the home the following year.

The executive director of the New York City chapter of Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Andrew Tagliabue, gave $500 to Mr. Weprin’s campaign in May of last year, just before the budget was finalized, and followed up with a $100 donation in January.

With matching funds, Mr. Weprin will collect $1,650 from the contributions. In 2007, he co-sponsored a $15,000 grant for the Manhattan-based group.