"But Crossroads has no choice -- and it's lucky to have donors who realize that. Tax law -- which, unlike campaign finance law, still strikes a modicum of fear into the hearts of political operatives -- requires that 501(c)4 nonprofits spend more than half of their resources on their 'primary purpose' of 'social welfare' -- that is, policy advocacy, not electoral campaigning. The 501(c)4 status is hugely attractive because it allows anonymous contributions; but the downside is that groups routinely get ahead of themselves with political spending, and then have to row back to shore by dumping money into less pointed campaigns or, if they can't raise the cash for that, collapsing into a larger allied group, as one liberal outfit did a few years ago."
The Crossroads money dump -- the flip side of being a 501(c)(4)
POLITICO.com:
