With the general election less than a month away, many are already seeing an increase in advertising for political candidates and campaigns.

These political advertisements aren’t just to get the candidates’ faces and talking points around the community, but also to encourage citizens to contribute financially to their campaigns.

Candidates running in the general election in November are required to report their finances to the Federal Election Commission for the third quarter of the year on Oct. 15, according to the FEC.

If a candidate hasn’t raised or spent $5,000 for their campaign, they aren’t legally required to file a report.

The reports allow the public to look at these records and see how their elected officials, and challengers, are receiving money and how they are using that money to run for office.

“The vast majority of the money either is coming from individual donors, political action committees or self-funding,” said Andrew Mayersohn, committees researcher for Open Secrets, a nonpartisan Washington-based nonprofit organization that specializes in tracking money in American politics.

Individual donors

Individual donors can be U.S. citizens or green card holders, and are allowed to donate up to $3,500 per candidate per election, according to a FEC chart about contribution limits.

“The vast majority of the money that federal campaigns raise comes from individual donors, usually pretty rich donors making large contributions,” Mayersohn said. “Thanks to the internet, raising lots of money from small donors is more viable than it used to be.”

If the candidate is running in both the primary and general election, donors can give up to $3,500 for each of those elections for a total cap of $7,000, Mayersohn said.

“In recent cycles in particular, individual donors have really dominated because the amount that an individual can donate to a federal campaign is indexed to inflation,” Mayersohn said.

Between 2002 and 2026, there has been a $2,500 increase in how much individuals are allowed to donate to a candidate campaign, according to FEC archive of contribution limits.

Personal funds

Candidates can donate an unlimited amount of money to themselves, as long as it’s income in their name, such as salary income, assets, personal gift received before cycle or dividend from stocks.

“The third big bucket, aside from individuals and political action committees, I guess, would be self-funding,” Mayersohn said. “You know, when rich people run for office and loan or donate themselves millions of dollars to support their own campaign.”

Not only can a candidate use personal funds, they can also take out personal loans. A candidate can use the raised campaign contributions to repay a personal loan made to their campaign, or they can forgive a loan if it is their own personal loan, according to the FEC.

Political action committees

Political action committees, better known as PACs, represent a way for organizations to put together funds for a candidate they support.

“Political action committees (are) entities that are formed by things like corporations and labor unions to take in contributions from their members and then forward it to candidates to support the interests of those entities,” Mayersohn said.

A PAC can donate up to $5,000 per election cycle. If the candidate runs in the primary and general election the PAC can give up to $10,000 total.

“PACs heavily, heavily back incumbent candidates who they think will be actually in power to favor their interests,” Mayersohn said.

To be a PAC, the organization must contribute to at least five candidates, receive 51 contributions and be registered with the FEC for at least six months, according to the FEC.

If a PAC does not meet these requirements, it can be a non-multicandidate PAC. It can donate to multiple candidates but cannot contribute as much. This donation limit is also on a scale indexed to inflation.

Between 2003 and 2026, the amount non-multicandidate PACs can contribute to a candidate has increased by $1,500, according to the FEC.

Super PACs

A super PAC can raise and give an unlimited amount by raising money from individuals, corporations, unions and other PACs. The donors that give to the super PAC don’t get to decide where, or who, the money goes to.

“A super PAC is a type of PAC that cannot make contributions to candidates,” Mayersohn said. “What they can do is spend unlimited amounts of money on what are called ‘independent expenditures.’”

Independent expenditures are things like television commercials, digital campaigns and mailers that endorse or condemn a certain candidate or issue.

Once a super PAC spends over $1,000 in a calendar year, it has 10 days to register, according to the FEC.

“The major super PACs will raise hundreds of millions of dollars, the vast majority of that coming from very wealthy individuals,” Mayersohn said.

Dark money and 501©(4)

“Dark money” is when an individual’s or group’s trail goes cold after donating to a nonprofit, Mayersohn said.

“A nonprofit does not need to disclose its donors, and therefore a nonprofit can give to a super PAC,” Mayersohn said. “The super PAC reports the contribution from the nonprofit, but the trail goes dead from there because we don’t know who gave to the nonprofit.”

If a donor wants to contribute to a certain campaign without being identified, they can go through a nonprofit.

“People who want to support a super PAC but don’t want it to be known publicly can donate to the nonprofit, which then donates to the super PAC,” Mayersohn said.

The amount of money given to super PACs influences how much they can help their chosen candidates.

“Every cycle, the major super PACs receive hundreds of millions of dollars from politically active nonprofits,” Mayersohn said. “Last cycle, we’re talking about something in the realm of like $1.3 or $1.4 billion that is basically just completely … we have very little idea where it came from and we probably never will.”

Alongside dark money are 501©(4) organizations, which are a tax-exempt social welfare groups that contribute to political campaigns.

“Some of the biggest donors every election cycle in recent years will be groups like Majority Forward, which is a 501©(4) that gives much, if not most, of its money to House majority PACs, which then spends most of its money helping House Democrats,” Mayersohn said.

When someone gives to a 501©(4), they don’t have to put their name or address. That makes this dark money because you can’t track a person to the money.

“They’re kind of like arms of the party committees in all but name,” Mayersohn said. “They could do super PAC stuff like taking unlimited contributions. Then what happens is those groups then created their own affiliated nonprofits.”

There are multiple 501©(4) organizations, Mayersohn said.

Even though dark money isn’t recognized under federal campaign finance law, it makes a difference in political campaigns.

“We do have this disclosure system, which is very powerful, and we do know where most of the money comes from. And I want people to appreciate that, but I also want them to appreciate the extent to which a large chunk of this is just completely, completely opaque to us,” Mayersohn said.