The broader legal category also includes in-kind contributions. Paying a campaign's vendor, supplying equipment below market value, or producing material at the campaign's request may provide reportable value even when no check enters the committee's account. A third party that pays for a communication coordinated with a campaign can therefore make an in-kind contribution without transferring cash to the committee. Ordinary uncompensated personal volunteer activity receives different treatment. Attribution also matters: a reimbursement scheme cannot disguise the true source by routing one person's funds through employees, relatives, or friends. Each named donor must genuinely control the money attributed to that donor.

A traditional political action committee, or PAC, pools funds for regulated political activity. Depending on its status, it may make limited direct contributions to candidate committees and may also finance permitted expenditures. A corporation or labor organization may sponsor a separate segregated fund that raises voluntary contributions from a restricted class; a nonconnected PAC operates without that sponsoring relationship. The organizational form affects solicitation, source, limit, and reporting rules, so "a business supports a candidate" does not identify the legal vehicle.

Bundling and earmarking illustrate why the path matters. A fundraiser may collect many supporters' separate checks and deliver them together while preserving each supporter as the donor; that is bundling, not one giant contribution by the fundraiser. If a donor directs money through an intermediary to a particular candidate, earmarking rules may attribute the contribution to the donor and candidate rather than treating the intermediary as an unrestricted new source. Classify each step: individual to candidate, individual to PAC, PAC to candidate, or spender to vendor. A traditional PAC is an organization; a contribution is a transaction. Neither label alone answers who supplied, controlled, and reported the value.

Video lesson: Campaign finance | Political participation | US government and civics | Khan Academy