No matter how you feel about it, there’s no doubt that campaign finance in America can be very complicated and confusing. The laws surrounding it change all the time, and so do the legal setups and workarounds that campaigns and outside groups use to spend money on elections. The amount of dark money spent so far for 2016, for example, is dramatically outpacing the amount spent at the same point in 2012.So, to help you (and us) keep track of all these terms, loopholes, organizations, court cases, IRS designations and so on (and on and on), we created this handy campaign finance 101 glossary — written in a way that hopefully everyone can understand. We’ll be updating it with new terms and as new developments in campaign finance occur, so check back often.Click a letter below to jump to that section. Each term has a “Link” at the end that will bring you to that specific entry if you’d like to share it as well.

Read more here: A glossary of campaign finance in the U.S. – Sunlight Foundation Blog