 As you probably noticed, running for political office costs money. Raising that money is one of the most important things a candidate does, but there's a wrong way to do it and a right way to do it. Seriously though, you need to know the rules of campaign finance. This stuff is incredibly complex, so we can only just scratch the surface here, but we'll focus on the federal system as an example and deal with two basic areas. What a candidate can receive in contributions and what they can spend. You should know too that spending money on candidates in an election is entirely different than lobbying, which covers spending to support or oppose a specific law. A contribution is defined into anything of value given or loaned to influence an election. A gift is probably preferred to a loan. You'll notice that the rule doesn't cover everything given or loan, just those gifts and loans given to influence elections. So birthday presents are still okay, usually. It doesn't matter if you contribute money, investments, gold, or any other item of value. It doesn't matter if you give it yourself or through someone else. It doesn't matter if the contribution is in the form of services. All of these things count as contributions. One exception is that volunteer services don't count as long as no one pays for them. This includes letting the campaign use your house or building for an event. The only time a loan doesn't count as a contribution is when the loan is made in the course of regular business under the same expectations as any other loan. It's important to keep track of what counts as a contribution because candidates can only get so much for many one person and then they have to return the extra. Individuals and groups can contribute up to $2,300 every election cycle to a candidate. Political action committees, or PACs, can be formed as long as they exist for six months, taking contributions from more than 50 people and contributing to at least five candidates, and they can give $5,000 per candidate per election. An individual can give $5,000 to a PAC, $10,000 to their state party, and $28,500 to their national party, though they can't give more than $42,700 total to candidates and $65,500 to all PACs and parties. A PAC can give $5,000 to a candidate and can also give $5,000 to another PAC or a state party. PACs can give $15,000 to a national party. State and national parties can give up to $5,000 to candidates and another $5,000 to PACs and can share as much money as they want to between each other. Other candidates can give each other up to $2,000. A person called a bundler is someone who collects, or bundles, other people's contributions for the campaign, basically serving as a mobile fundraiser. It's all okay as long as you don't get too enthusiastic. Now, given how expensive campaigns are, every dollar is appreciated. Some campaigns use the money a little more wisely than others. Each national party can have three committees, one for the whole party, one for the House, and one for the Senate. There's a $50 limit on anonymous contributions and $100 limit on cash contributions, regardless of the size of the bills. One way to keep people from cheating is that the limit on PAC contributions counts towards all PACs controlled by the same person, organization, or group. So you can't just form 100 PACs and give $500,000. These limits apply once in the primary and once again in the general election, if a candidate runs in both. If a candidate doesn't collect and spend all of the money allowed in a primary, they can carry that unused part over to the general election, even if they ran unopposed in the primary. A candidate can even collect and spend money in an election where no one is running against them. Corporations cannot contribute directly to candidates, though partnerships can. The difference between a corporation and a partnership is largely in who can be sued and connection to the business. Candidates could find other ways to get money directly from corporations, though. People under the age of 18 are allowed to contribute to a candidate provided that they do so on their own and that the money is under their control and not just coming from someone else to give to the candidate. This could be a key demographic for fundraisers. After the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, corporations, banks, and unions can create a political committee that will donate to candidates called a super PAC. This means any kind of corporation of any size organized for any reason. Not just big companies like Pepsi and Microsoft, although they can, too. Corporations are still prohibited from giving unlimited amounts to political parties, called soft money, under one of the provisions of the McCain Fine Gold Act. Government contractors are not allowed to contribute to a political campaign, even from their personal funds, due to the potential for corruption. Family members and employees of comfort and contractors can still contribute, though. Citizens of other countries are also prohibited from contributing to candidates for similar reasons. In fact, it's a crime to knowingly ask for campaign contributions from foreign citizens or to assist them in contributing to a political campaign. Someone with a green card can contribute, which is somewhat confusing, as the cards are often not green at all. And the American subsidiary of a foreign company can contribute to committees as long as all the money comes from the subsidiary. Finally, any political organization that deals with more than $25,000 a year has to disclose the identity of their donors except for three types of organizations. Trade associations, labor organizations, and social welfare organizations. None of these groups can spend more than half their time and money on campaign activities, but they also don't have to disclose who gave the money. Sometimes they work with a super PAC. So, if that's all the ways a campaign can get money, how can a campaign spend money? A candidate can spend as much of their own money on their election as they want. Parties can spend their own money on a candidate aside from contributing directly to the campaign. The spending limit for the party is determined by a formula that includes variables like the population in the district and the cost of living there. The party can also distribute general campaign materials like pins, signs, brochures, and posters without limit, as long as the materials are distributed by volunteers at in-person. Any person or group can spend as much money as they want to on election activities as long as they don't coordinate it with the candidates. Spending is coordinated with the candidate if the candidate helps pay for it, requests it, decides what the activity will be, or discusses what to do with the person spending the money. Due to Citizens United, corporations and unions now have no limit on the money they can spend to directly advocate for or against a candidate, as long as they indicate who is spending the money and don't coordinate it with the campaign. Corporations and unions cannot directly collect money for the campaign, but they can run drives to get out of the vote. Campaigns are not allowed to spend campaign money on the candidate's personal uses. What counts as a personal use is pretty specific and includes the rent, utilities, or mortgage on the candidate's personal residence, tickets to movies or sporting events for the candidate, or, and this is specifically listed, funeral or cremation expense it, because someone apparently tried to do that. So, now you know a little bit more about campaign finance, and there you have it.