Press Releases

WASHINGTON ­­­­- The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) today announced that it is urging the IRS to deny tax-exempt status to a new "charity" set up by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, through which high-end donors can buy access to him and other powerful politicians by sponsoring lavish private dinners and parties at next year's Republican convention. While net proceeds would purportedly go to children's charities, a hefty share of the contributions to DeLay's Celebrations for Children Inc. would pay for fundraising events to reelect President Bush - giving donors a tax-deductible way around the new campaign finance reforms banning "soft money" campaign contributions. In connection with DeLay's latest attempt to blur the lines between political fundraising and charity, NCRP today also renewed its call for a corporate philanthropic disclosure law. NCRP's actions followed widespread media reports exposing DeLay's operation.

"The new DeLay venture evades campaign finance laws through political fundraising disguised as charity," said NCRP Executive Director Rick Cohen. "This so-called ‘charity' is set up to divide its contributions between helping poor children and electing the very politicians whose policies help keep those children impoverished. It goes beyond hypocrisy to so exploit exploited children in the name of helping them. This is as shameful as it is shameless, and the IRS should not grant Congressman DeLay's latest creation the tax-exempt status intended for true charities. To do so would further erode public confidence in the nonprofit sector, which is already struggling in the wake of scandals, a soft economy, increased human need and cuts in public funding."

NCRP, a watchdog for philanthropic accountability, also voiced deep concern about the congressman's overall long-term manipulation of the charitable giving laws for political purposes, and renewed its call for a change in public policy on corporate contributions to charity. Currently, the congressman's DeLay Foundation for Kids is under no legal obligation to disclose the identities of its contributors, what access their contributions have bought them or the names of and perks received by politicians involved in its charity events. Corporations are also under no legal obligation to report the charitable giving they engage in outside of their corporate foundations. NCRP cited these areas of secrecy in reaffirming its longstanding call for Congress to pass a law promoting public disclosure of corporate charitable giving.