dark money

[ dahrk muhn-ee ]

noun

1. money donated to politically active nonprofit organizations or anonymous corporate entities, which spend this money to influence political campaigns or other special interests but are not required to reveal their donors.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dark money¹

First recorded in 2010–15

Example Sentences

How to fix those critical and potentially terminal problems is very much up for debate, and God knows the internet is already overloaded with half-baked takes: Democrats are too woke, too cautious, too corporate, too contaminated by identity politics or dark money or both.

From Salon

It’s doing the opposite, because when you give dark money the right to participate in the elections, that’s suppressing the right of everybody else to be informed and to have a voice.

From Slate

The future, Teske told me, would not be free of ads but full of manipulations on the internet even more obscure, from dark money groups, which, unlike super PACs, do not disclose donors.

From Slate

A Donald Trump-supporting group is spending millions in dark money to claim the candidate would defend reproductive rights while brandishing late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s name.

From Salon

“I think there are real questions with how he is spending money in this race — how the dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians,” Shapiro said.

From Salon