How Dark Money Works

The six containers

Ordered by how much they must disclose — most at the left, least at the right.

Select a container above.

The disclosure clock

The single rule that governs all of it: the closer a container sits to the ballot, the faster and more completely it must tell you.

Days

Political committees. Contributions and expenditures itemized by name, address and date, filed within weeks of the money moving.

~18 months

Charities and social welfare organizations. A Form 990 is due four and a half months after the fiscal year ends, and a six-month extension is automatic.

Two years

Anything covering an election year. A return covering the 2026 primary is not readable until 2028 — halfway through the winners’ terms.

Never

Donors to a c4. Advisors to a donor-advised fund. No form asks. No deadline applies. There is nothing to wait for.

None of this is illegal, and almost all of it is on a filing somewhere. Every figure in this project came off a form somebody signed and filed on time. The forms simply do not ask the last question, they do not arrive until the election is over, and no two of them live in the same place.

One standard: Rep. Storer’s dark money test

Rep. Liz Storer offered a definition of dark money in August. It is a real definition, and her own committee passes it. Her definition has four parts, plus a fifth she named in the same breath — out-of-state money. Select any organization to run her test against it.

“I don’t consider it ‘dark money,’ like some out-of-state PACs that can’t be traced back to one person or group… because all of the contributions and expenditures are reported.”
Rep. Liz Storer, to the Jackson Hole News&Guide, 26 August 2026

Seven organizations, one standard

Ordered from the most disclosed to the least. Her committee is first. Each bar shows the five questions of her test — green passes, amber is partial, red fails.

By the standard Rep. Storer offered — money you can trace back to one person or group — her own committee passes and the largest committee in the race does not.

No document connects the Storer Foundation to Western Futures Fund, Way Back PAC or Shelter JH. The funders never touch on paper. The people do. Nothing on this page alleges that any person or organization violated any law.

Sources: Keep Jackson Whole filings, Teton County Clerk · Way Back PAC, Wyoming Secretary of State 2026 Primary Report as amended, and FEC committee C00824342 · Western Futures Fund Form 990 TY2023 and TY2024, Schedule I · Shelter JH, as reported on the Schedules I of Western Futures Fund and Action Now Inc · Wyoming Donor Alliance Form 990 TY2024 · George B. Storer Foundation Forms 990-PF FY2021–FY2024, Parts VII-A and XV · Jackson Hole News&Guide, 26 August 2026. Figures are as filed.