Nonprofit News From Elsewhere Online
A conservative nonprofit that received a staggering windfall in 2021 made nearly $183 million in donations in the 2021-22 tax year, records show. The money handed out by the Marble Freedom Trust, a 501(c)(4) organization that received a $1.6 billion gift in 2021, went to intermediaries, with the ultimate recipients difficult to pin down. It gave $153.8 million to the Schwab Charitable Fund and $28.9 million to the Concord Fund, another 501(c)(4) group that has focused on filling the ranks of the judiciary with conservative judges and “has acted as a funding hub” for like-minded causes. A direct trace beyond that is impossible, but during the filing period, Schwab sent $141.5 million to the 85 Fund, a 501(c)(3) group with ties to Leonard Leo, the Marble Trust’s founder, that backs a nationwide project to restrict voting access. In addition, “some of the money that flows through Mr. Leo’s network of nonprofit groups goes to for-profit companies he controls. In 2021, the 85 Fund paid $21.75 million to CRC Advisors, a consulting firm run by Mr. Leo, according to the 85 Fund’s tax filings.” (New York Times)
Oklahoma’s Republican governor has vetoed the annual license renewal and spending bill for the state’s public broadcaster, citing what he called the station’s LGBTQ-inclusive programming. Gov. Kevin Stitt decried the “indoctrination and over-sexualization of our children” and said programming by the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority “doesn’t line up with Oklahoma values.” As the only statewide television broadcasting system in Oklahoma, the network reaches 650,000 viewers a week. It operates the only statewide news program and the tornado-prone state’s emergency alert system, in addition to its educational programming. The system receives $2.9 million from the state and $6.3 million from donors and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A board member and past president of the Friends of OETA nonprofit said the veto is a first and “we just don’t know” what the station will do if it is not overridden. (CNN)
More News
- Southern Baptists Lost Nearly Half a Million Members in 2022 (Religion News Service)
- Ohio Foundation With $440 Million in Opioid Settlement Money Must Make Records Public (Columbus Dispatch)
- Report: “Sharp increase” in Crimes Against Abortion Clinics Post-Roe (Axios)
- Adidas Finally Reveals Its Plan for Millions of Unsold Yeezy Shoes: to Sell Them for Charity (MarketWatch)
- Calif. Christian Nonprofit Punished for Feeding Homeless People Gains Backing of Justice Department (Los Angeles Times)
- Pope Warns Charity Network Caritas Against ‘Worldly Ways of Thinking’ (National Catholic Reporter)
- New Colo. Law Requires Nonprofit Hospitals to Explain Their “Community Benefit” in Greater Detail (Denver Post)
Nonprofit Innovation
Opinion
- Choose the Activism That Won’t Make You Miserable (Atlantic)
- Attacking Art Isn’t Climate ‘Protest.’ It’s Vandalism (Washington Post)
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