Dark money definition
Dark money refers to political spending by groups that disclose their election spending but not the sources of their funds.
Dark money is an informal term for money spent on political advertising by groups that do not publicly identify their donors. These groups report certain election spending to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), so the public can see what they bought. The public cannot see who supplied the money.
Federal campaign finance law does not use the term.
Which groups spend dark money?
Social welfare organizations (501(c)(4)), labor unions (501(c)(5)), and trade associations (501(c)(6)) can pay for political advertising without naming their donors. They cannot give money to a candidate or a party.
How does dark money work?
Let’s say a donor has some money and would like to use it to affect a federal election.
If they give money to a candidate directly, there's a cap on the amount, and their name becomes part of a public filing. If they set up a political action committee (PAC) or a super PAC, their name still appears in public filings.
So instead, they donate to a nonprofit. The nonprofit group is legally organized to do something other than elect candidates. The nonprofit improves a community, represents an industry, or represents workers, and politics can't be its main activity, because that's the condition attached to its tax exemption.
The donor’s money goes into that nonprofit group's general funds. Nothing requires the group to say who gave it the money.
Then the nonprofit group buys ads. Once those ads tell people to vote for or against a political candidate, or name a candidate on TV or radio close to an election, the group has to file with the FEC. That filing says what ads the group bought and what the cost was.
The donor gave money to the group, not to finance the ad specifically. So the FED filing doesn’t name them.
Result: anyone can look up the ad and the price. Nobody can look up the donors.
What is the difference between dark money and a super PAC?
A super PAC names its donors, so its money is not dark. It is a political committee, and federal law requires all such committees to file public FEC reports.
A super PAC only pays for independent expenditures, ads that directly ask voters to vote for or against a candidate. It gives no money to candidates or parties, and it can accept a contribution of any size.
A tax-exempt group can hand its money to a super PAC instead of buying the advertising itself. The super PAC's report then names that group, and the names of the people who funded the group stay off the report.
Keep exploring
- Who’s funding the 2024 election? - Over 75% of the funds raised for the 2024 election have come from political action committees (PACs) and party committees, which then redistribute the funds to different campaigns.
- Tracking 2024 election contributions and spending - A majority of funding for the 2024 election — over 65%, or nearly $5.6 billion — comes from political action committees, also known as PACs.
- How many nonprofits are there in the US? - Nonprofits, specifically 501(c)(3) charities, play a substantial role in the US economy — from creating jobs to providing benefits to individuals and communities.
- What does the Federal Election Commission (FEC) do?
