Elections & terms
hard money
Contributions given directly to candidates and parties under federal limits and disclosure rules. Soft money is the unlimited kind, banned federally since 2002.
In full
Hard money is regulated: capped per donor, barred from corporate and union treasuries, and reported. Soft money was unlimited money raised by national parties nominally for party building, which the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 prohibited. Much of the spending that followed migrated to independent groups instead.
Also written as: soft money
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.