Richard Mellon Scaife and his family perfected the art of weaponizing think tanks to achieve political initiatives. Mayer chooses to focus on these families because of the precedent each one set for the conservative movement and the paths they paved for future wealthy donors. As a way to take advantage of tax breaks for donations given to philanthropic organizations, the families established their own pseudo-philanthropic organizations ingrained with their own far-right, free-market theories. This war was fought using philanthropic organizations as weapons, as the title of the first section suggests. Equipped with an unrealistic fear of losing their fortunes, these wealthy families used their checkbooks to wage a war of ideas, with the long-term goal of shifting American political discourse as far right as possible. These chapters are the only in which Mayer dedicates background information of the main donors and their families. The first three chapters detail the corporate and political endeavors of four of the largest families who helped lay the foundation for the modern far-right conservative movement: the Kochs, the Scaifes, the Olins, and the Bradleys. The first section, titled 'Weaponizing Philanthropy: The War of Ideas, 1970-2008' covers the longest span of time of the three sections (25). Mayer has divided her investigation into the rise of the far right into three sections. Mayer uses Dark Money to exemplify the Kochs as the epitome of what is wrong with the current political system dark, outside money is corrupting American politics, and though the corruption has been taking place for decades, it has not been publicized until now. The brothers have used their million-dollar fortunes to further own self-interest on the political stage. Presumably, the Kochs represent a convergence of all the efforts of the conservative movement, from weaponizing philanthropic efforts, to investing in academia, to buying state legislatures.

The Kochs are not the only financiers of the conservative movement, yet they capture the vast majority of Mayer's attention. At every turn, Mayer's investigation led her to Charles and David Koch, referred to in the book and in public jointly as the Koch brothers. Going back almost fifty years, Mayer provides a timeline of the progression of one of the most influential yet most covert movements in American political history. Seasoned reporter and staff writer of The New Yorker Jane Mayer delivers an in-depth, wide-spanning analysis of the rise of outside money in the political arena, specifically on the right, with Dark Money.

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