How Dark Is It? An Investigation of Dark Money Operations in U.S. Nonprofit Political Advocacy Organizations

Abstract

Claims of dark money influence on U.S. political activity are heard from both left- and right-leaning media, both accusing the other side of undue influence from high net worth political donors on American politics. This article explores the issues of donor control, transparency, and publicness of economic policy advocacy organizations. The study focuses on social welfare nonprofit organizations active in economic policy advocacy, utilizing tax filings to compose an index of transparency based on observed characteristics such as; website verbiage, board size, staffing, fundraising spending, relations to other organizations, and other indicators. All of these variables measure legal behavior, yet as L.H. Mayer describes, some organizations appear to be stretching the boundaries of the rules so egregiously as to be in violation of legal rules, with “little fear of negative consequences” (2018, 194). Organizational tactics can reflect a disinterest in public engagement, or worse, a deliberate attempt to keep the organization’s operations opaque. It is impossible to observe, with current policy, the identity of the donors. Given an index as proposed in this article, however, observers can rank organizations on a scale indicating transparent or opaque characteristics.

Keywords

• economic policy
• campaign financing
• money laundering
• 501(c)(4)
• transparency
• high net worth donors