You might pay them $1M to do research on a particular policy that is beneficial/detrimental to your business. That same firm will then put together a polish presentation or proposed language for legislation and get it in front of politicians where it makes a difference.
It's certainly not "Google hired this firm for $1M and they have $900K in donations to a politicians election fund". That's illegal.
A good example (that another poster mentioned) are organizations like the ACLU. They raise money and use it to lobby the government to get pro-ACLU laws written.
You might pay them $1M to do research on a particular policy that is beneficial/detrimental to your business. That same firm will then put together a polish presentation or proposed language for legislation and get it in front of politicians where it makes a difference.
It's certainly not "Google hired this firm for $1M and they have $900K in donations to a politicians election fund". That's illegal.
A good example (that another poster mentioned) are organizations like the ACLU. They raise money and use it to lobby the government to get pro-ACLU laws written.