The charitable sector needs more media and government scrutiny. I write that sentence fully expecting blowback. But I\u2019ve come to believe that investigations and criticism of organizations across the ideological spectrum may be the only way to reduce the expanding use of tax-deductible charity to pursue political ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such scrutiny has accelerated in recent years on the political right. After a busy 2025, the House Ways and Means Committee is continuing its interrogation of the nonprofit sector. Last month the committee held a hearing<\/a> on foreign donors using nonprofits to influence domestic policy and elections. The Trump administration has also opened investigations<\/a> into donors and organizations involved in resistance to ICE-led immigration raids. And groups involved in anti-Israel protests and other progressive causes are regularly criticized in conservative publications<\/a> for possibly violating nonprofit regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many observers on the left are alarmed at the prospect of multiple, wide-ranging investigations and hearings<\/a> concerning the work of advocacy groups and the foundations that support them. Surprisingly, the Philanthropy Roundtable, the trade association for conservative donors, has also urged Congress to limit<\/a> if not stop these hearings because \u201cthis path will backfire and be turned against conservative causes and organizations when political winds shift.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would welcome retaliatory hearings by both parties when they control a branch of Congress just as I would welcome more scathing investigations of nonprofit behavior by the mainstream and partisan media. An environment of scrutiny and recrimination may be the only path by which a sharper line between charity and political action can be drawn. <\/p>\n\n\n