Non-profit organizations should be required to disclose foreign special-interest donors.
Privacy rules allow 501c3 & c4 non-profit groups to keep donors anonymous.
But what if the non-profit is supporting an issue that undermines our American way, in a manner that benefits foreign interests? Several problematic examples are obvious:
a. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) fights against Christian influence in our day-to-day life (nativity scenes at Christmas, school prayer, etc). They can keep private their donor rolls – what if major funding is from anti-Christian foreign Muslim sources?
(Skeptical? Google the amount of ACLU acts against Christianity, but for Islam.)
b. Campaign contributions going to Super-PACs: America’s election process is no longer protected from foreign tampering, now that Internet contributions play a role.
c. As they move to regain lost territories, Russia has a stranglehold on European nations which buy 30% of natural gas energy from that nation. American environmental groups are stalling U.S. natural gas exports to Europe, which would break Russia’s grip.
How much foreign (Russian) money is funding this ‘American’ environmental effort?
An American’s Constitutional right to privacy is one thing; a foreign interest’s is another.
Many of our American issues have global impact. That said, it’s obvious that foreign persons, and groups, will often take advantage of our privacy laws to serve their best interest…at the expense of America’s best interest. We should know when that occurs.
Isn’t it time to legislate that American non-profits must disclose foreign donors?