Fossil Fuel Philanthropy Exposed: New Report Reveals How Climate Disinformation is Subsidized by American Taxpayers
Washington, D.C. – A new report by the Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP), the www.climatecriminals.org campaign group, with assistance from the Charity Reform Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies, found that at least $219 million in taxpayer-subsidized charitable contributions went to organizations that promote climate disinformation in the United States from 2020 to 2022.
CARP and the Charity Reform Initiative at IPS examined donation data from foundations and donors to 501(c)(3) charities to map the unscrupulous ways that wealthy donors, many connected to the fossil fuel industry, use charities to spread climate disinformation subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.
The report, “Fossil Fuel Philanthropy: How Taxpayer-Subsidized Charities Promote Climate Change Disinformation and Stall Urgent Action,” illustrates how wealthy donors take taxpayer-subsidized charity deductions when they pour millions of dollars into charities that actively work to spread disinformation about climate change.
The report details, for the first time, the top charities formed to receive funding for climate disinformation via donor-advised funds (DAFs) and private foundations and illustrates how they’ve been created to give tax breaks to billionaires while also advancing their personal fossil-fuel-dependent interests.
Certain financial structures, like DAFs, are increasingly attractive options for donors who want to give untraceable major gifts. DAF giving can be completely anonymous, even to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and crucially gives donors advisory privileges to recommend grants out of the fund to whichever charities they want, on whatever timeline they want — such as climate disinformation charities. DAFs utilize taxpayer subsidies primarily through the tax deductions that donors receive when contributing to the DAF and through the tax-exempt growth of the funds.
Similarly, private foundations are vessels for funding nonprofits advocating for climate denial, delay, and disinformation. The structure benefits from taxpayer subsidies primarily through the tax deductions available to their donors and through the foundations’ tax-exempt status.
Key findings from the report include:
- Number of Climate Disinformation Organizations: Between 2020 and 2022, 137 separate organizations engaging in climate disinformation received donations of at least $5.8 billion. The report estimates that at least $219 million of these donations went towards climate disinformation efforts.
- Climate Disinformation Funding via Donor-Advised Funds: 16 percent of the funding for climate disinformation organizations came from DAFs ($942 million), while 9 percent came from private foundations ($545 million). Government grants totaled $118 million, and all other sources – such as primarily individual donations – totaled $4.2 billion.
- Top Charities Promoting Climate Disinformation: The top three climate disinformation charities that took in the most total contributions were the Seminar Network ($446,168,652), the Stand Together Foundation ($426,975,889), and Leonard Leo’s 85 Fund ($317,845,906).
- Top Funders Promoting Climate Disinformation: The top three funders donating their funds to climate disinformation charities are National Philanthropic Trust ($242,789,215), Schwab Charitable Fund ($212,672,432), and DonorsTrust ($181,493,387).
- Top Foundations Promoting Climate Disinformation: The top three foundations donating their funds to climate disinformation charities are The Scaife Foundations – including the Allegheny Foundation and the Scaife Family Foundation – ($36,136,000), Searle Freedom Trust ($28,912,250), and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation ($21,811,200).
Analysis by the Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) Research Team:
- A closer prediction of contributions: Researchers believe the true figure of charitable contributions to climate disinformation charities subsidized by the taxpayer is closer to $1 billion. They are now calling for greater transparency reforms to identify more accurate figures.
- Election spending: Researchers believe charitable contributions would have increased during 2023 and 2024 to influence policymaking and agenda-setting in the run-up to the November 2024 elections.
- Cost to taxpayers: Based on data from the IRS, CARP estimates that the typical individual American household paid $188 towards the total cost of individual charitable deductions in 2022.
- A call for increased transparency: To encourage greater clarity around these contributions, CARP names five steps in the report (page 6), including an obligation for charitable organizations to disclose the names of all individual donors who have contributed $10,000 to the IRS, and a requirement for private foundations to identify their grantees.
The top climate disinformation charities are also profiled in the report, including: the Bipartisan Policy Center, founded by a group of mainstream politicians that promotes policies that appear to address global warming but which may have no effect and may delay needed large-scale solutions; the Reason Foundation, which is a component of the Koch brothers’ network that has produced a steady stream of reports, studies, and policy briefs around the topics of climate change designed to influence both legislation and popular opinion; and the Media Research Center, a nonprofit right-wing news outlet with a mission to debunk what it calls the liberal bias of the national news media.
The report includes full profiles of each of the charities listed and details of funding.
“Our report provides some much-needed transparency so that the American public can understand the deceptive ways in which the rich seek to advance and protect their interests. Based on our findings from the data sources available to us, we are calling for fundamental transparency reforms so we can assess the total amount of taxpayer-subsidized charitable donations flowing to climate disinformation organizations,” said Chuck Collins, Co-Founder of the Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) and Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies.
“Many of these donors have built their fortunes in energy or the banking, insurance, transportation, and legal businesses that support the carbon-intensive industries, so they have strong personal interests in ensuring the world’s dependence on fossil fuels,” Collins continued. “They are using charities to advance misleading, self-serving agendas that do irreparable harm to our planet, and they receive enormous, publicly-subsidized tax benefits for doing so.”
To speak with report co-author Chuck Collins, contact IPS Deputy Communications Director Olivia Alperstein at (202) 704-9011 or olivia@ips-dc.org.
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About the Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP)
The Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) hosts www.climatecriminals.org. For the report Fossil Fuel Philanthropy: How Taxpayer-Subsidized Charities Promote Climate Change Disinformation and Delay Action, it teamed with the Charity Reform Initiative of the Institute for Policy Studies for research assistance.
The campaign group cites new research dossiers that name and charge 24 individuals from North America who are responsible for delaying climate action. It includes a citizen-centered ask: a petition where, for the first time, the public has the power to expedite the legal process to put the ‘criminals’ on trial—https://www.climatecriminals.org/take-action.
The research dossiers were gathered with leading climate organizations such as Greenpeace, Summer of Heat, Global Center for Climate Justice, and Climate Clock and involved a vigorous nomination and research process, reviewing over 300 individuals engaged in deflection, denial, and delay. The campaign examined their positions within the polluter industrial complex, their actions and inactions to address climate change, and their public statements.
The Climate Criminals listed have not yet been convicted of a crime. The campaign prepares criminal complaints against individuals personally responsible for wielding power and influence to “run out the clock” of humanity’s response to catastrophic climate change. CARP believe that in a political and judicial system not captured by the fossil fuel industry, these individuals will be held to account. The full list of Climate Criminals can be seen here: https://www.climatecriminals.org/2024-climate-criminals-profiles
About the Charity Reform Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies
The IPS Charity Reform Initiative aims to overhaul the rules governing philanthropy to boost the flow of funds to working charities, protect democratic institutions, and strengthen the entire independent nonprofit sector. The Initiative regularly publishes groundbreaking, accessible, nonpartisan research and commentary regarding existing laws governing charitable giving and necessary transformations to benefit our common good. Their Charity Data Lab provides vital and comprehensive analyses of a large set of publicly-available tax information for all types of charitable organizations, including private foundations, community foundations, donor-advised fund sponsors, and working charities.
