In June 1995, Common Cause launched a corporate welfare project that seeks to draw attention to the unfair benefits corporate special interests gain because of their substantial campaign contributions to elected officials. The project also seeks to identify those government policies and congressional decisions that are wasteful and inefficient. Return on Investment focuses on benefits received by large donors of soft money, the unregulated donations that are the most corrupting money in national politics today, according to Common Cause.
Hard money means contributions that are legal under federal law for federal elections.
Soft money means contributions made outside the limits and prohibitions of federal law, including large individual or PAC contributions and direct corporate or union contributions. However, the soft money contributions being reported by the national party committees to the FEC do not provide a complete picture of the soft money being used to affect federal elections, according to Common Cause. In 1996, for example, many soft money contributions raised to help reelect President Clinton reportedly were made directly to state party committees. Such contributions do not show up on the FEC reports filed by the national party committees.