A loophole in US charity law is letting anonymous donors hand hundreds of millions of dollars to ‘culture war’ groups campaigning globally against women’s and LGBTIQ rights, a nine-month investigation by openDemocracy has found.
Recipients of the $272m funnelled through special accounts called ‘donor advised funds’ (DAFs) in the four tax years from 2017 to 2020 included at least two US groups linked to the political organising in Uganda that preceded its brutal ‘kill the gays’ law, as well as groups that have argued for the statutory castration of transgender people in Europe and been implicated in anti-LGBTIQ ‘conversion therapy’ even in US states where the practice is restricted.
Anonymity makes it impossible for campaigners to understand where the money that bankrolls anti-rights groups ultimately comes from, and frustrates their efforts to hold backers accountable or persuade them away from funding hate.
