“WHO FUNDS YOU?”
This is a question that I, and many staff members of public interest law firms and mission-driven nonprofits, encounter frequently. It’s not really a question so much as an insinuation that we simply do the bidding of secretive corporations and billionaires.
Attacks on “dark money” (a.k.a. private donations) are all the rage right now. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse introduced a bill this spring that would force nonprofits to disclose donations above $10,000. California and New Jersey have passed laws forcing donor disclosures—laws that groups ranging from PLF to the ACLU are fighting to overturn in court on First Amendment grounds.
On the surface, asking “Who funds you?” seems substantive. It’s intended to follow the money and immediately raises a cloud of suspicion around an organization’s “true” motivations. The thinking is that nonprofit organizations like Pacific Legal Foundation or the ACLU follow, on some level, the direction of their donors. After all, Jeff Bezos controls the trajectory of Amazon and Mark Zuckerberg controls the direction of Facebook. Why wouldn’t nonprofit donors control what the organization does?
But “Who funds you?” won’t reveal any secret motives for properly run nonprofit organizations like PLF. For us, the reality is far simpler: Donors choose to invest in PLF not because they expect us to do their bidding, but because they believe we have a compelling mission and an effective strategy.
Why am I so confident about this? Because I’ve seen firsthand how nonprofit fundraising actually works. A nonprofit’s leadership has the legal and ethical responsibility to create a compelling vision and strategy for the organization. And if the leadership team performs their duties effectively, they will inspire staff and supporters to become a part of it. It’s no coincidence that the organizations with clear and inspiring missions have some of the largest and most dedicated donor bases.
Here’s how this works at PLF: We use public interest law as the engine to help make America freer and more prosperous. We rally others to our noble cause by articulating our strategy and explaining why we’re really good at it. That’s why so many people have answered the call to support us—they share our passion for that mission. I’m proud that we aren’t going to sacrifice our mission to chase dollars, happy as we are to accept dollars from those who agree with us.
But the question “Who funds you?” implies a different motivation. It assumes that donors support nonprofits strictly for self-interested motives, in order to somehow gain from their donation. Usually the accusation is that the donation brings some advantage to their business interests. But consider this fact: Most nonprofit organizations have hundreds if not thousands of individual donors, each of whom has their own interests and motivations for contributing. Pegging the organization’s motives to the dictates of an individual donor, even a relatively large donor, discounts the motives of every other supporter, employee, and advocate contributing to the mission in their own ways.
True, there are nonprofit organizations that exist only to serve the motivations of their donors—no matter what those motivations are. But those organizations often fail the tests of time and effectiveness.
The lazy and clichéd attacks against our employees and supporters are tiring, but it’s often a sign we’re doing our jobs right. If someone would rather insult your character than engage your ideas, it’s a pretty good tell that they’re on the weak side of the argument.
For example, PLF is fighting against unconstitutional racial quotas in Connecticut and New York schools. The ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund have chosen to react not by defending the racial quota system we’re battling against, but by telling the parents they’re being duped by carpetbagging lawyers from California—sending the message that the parents are too stupid to evaluate the arguments for themselves.
Whether you agree or disagree with an ideas-driven non-profit, it’s crucial to remember that its employees and donors genuinely believe in the organization’s work. To believe otherwise is to presume a fantastic conspiracy in the absence of evidence or common sense.
So why don’t we just expose the names of all our donors to the world? Because we believe donors have the right to choose for themselves whether to make their spending priorities public. Our supporters belong to many different causes, communities, and faiths, and they may not want to be solely defined by their relationship to us—particularly since the stated goal of the people clamoring for donor disclosure is to name and shame.
Supporters and board members of liberty organizations have suffered boycotts of their businesses, and in extreme cases, donors and their families have been threatened with violence. PLF respects the privacy of our supporters and lets them choose for themselves whether they want to publicly support us or be a silent champion of liberty.
When someone attacks your motivations, it can feel like you have a target on your back. But it’s worth the hardship to invest in something that will make the world a better place. I know I speak for all my colleagues when I say that we’re grateful for the many thousands of people who are willing to occupy the high ground with us. Thank you to those who have joined us—we’re honored to fight alongside you.