Donors Capital Fund

Donors Capital Fund
Type Nonprofit (501(c)(3))
54-1934032
Location
  • 1800 Diagonal Rd., S-280
    Alexandria, VA 22314
Coordinates 38°48′20″N 77°03′37″W / 38.8056°N 77.0603°WCoordinates: 38°48′20″N 77°03′37″W / 38.8056°N 77.0603°W
Services Donor advised fund
President
 Whitney Ball
Revenue (2011)
 US$61,700,814[1]
Expenses (2011) US$57,382,089[1]
Website www.donorscapitalfund.org

Donors Capital Fund (DCF) is a nonprofit Virginia-based donor advised charity that distributes grants to politically conservative and libertarian organizations. Donors Capital Fund is associated with Donors Trust, another donor advised fund.

Background

Donors Capital Fund was established in 1999.[2] According to Donors Capital Fund, it was "formed to safeguard the charitable intent of donors who are dedicated to the ideals of limited government, personal responsibility, and free enterprise."[3] Donors Capital Fund assures contributors that their donations will only support "a class of public charities firmly committed to liberty."[4] Grants from Donors Capital Fund are based on the preferences of the original contributor.[5]

Donors Capital Fund is associated with Donors Trust. Donors Trust refers clients to Donors Capital Fund if the client plans to maintain a balance of US$1 million or more.[3][6]

Donors Capital Fund files with the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.[1] Whitney L. Ball is the president of the Donors Capital Fund.[7] Ball is formerly the executive director of the nonprofit Philanthropy Roundtable and director of development at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C. libertarian think tank. Ball is also president and chief executive officer of Donors Trust and a member of the board of directors of the Donors Trust and the State Policy Network.[8] As of 2015, the board of directors of the Donors Capital Fund includes Ball, Arthur C. Brooks, and Steven Hayward.[9]

Grant-making activities

Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund distributed nearly US$120 million to more than 100 groups skeptical of global warming between 2002 and 2010, according to the The Guardian.[10] According to a 2013 analysis by Drexel University environmental sociologist Robert Brulle, Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund combined were the largest funders of what he calls "the climate change countermovement" in the US between 2003 and 2013.[5][11] According to Brulle, "by 2009, about one-quarter of the funding of the climate countermovement is from the Donors Trust, Donors Capital Fund."[6]

In 2008, the Donors Capital Fund granted US$17.7 million to the Clarion Fund, now the Clarion Project, a nonprofit corporation organized for the education of the US public about the dangers of Islamic extremism. "One of our clients made a recommendation for Clarion and so we did it,” Ball told the news website Salon.[7][12][13]

Donors Capital Fund granted US$192,000 to the Alaska Policy Forum in the Forum's first two years, 2009 and 2010. The Alaska Policy Forum is free-market think tank and a member of the State Policy Network of conservative and libertarian think tanks which focus on state-level policy. The grants from Donors Capital Fund were most of the funds raised by the Forum in that period.[14] In 2010, Donors Capital Fund granted US$1.75 million to the State Policy Network, US$2 million to Donors Trust, US$2.5 million to the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank, US$2 million to Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington, D.C.-based fiscally conservative think tank, US$1.7 million to The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based conservative think tank, and more than 206 other grantees.[15]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Nonprofit Explorer – Donors Capital Trust, archive of federal disclosures maintained by ProPublica
  2. ↑ "Bruce H. Jacobs". Donors Capital Fund. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "What is Donors Capital Fund?". Donors Capital Fund. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Mission and Principles". Donors Capital Fund. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Brulle, Robert J. (December 21, 2013). "Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations". Climatic Change 122 (4): 681–694. doi:10.1007/s10584-013-1018-7.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Robert Brulle: Inside the Climate Change "Countermovement"". Frontline (PBS). October 23, 2012. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Elliott, Justin (November 16, 2010). "Mystery of who funded right-wing "radical Islam" campaign deepens". Salon. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Whitney L. Ball". Donors Capital Fund. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Donors Capital Fund Board of Directors". Donors Capital Fund. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  10. ↑ Goldenberg, Suzanne (February 14, 2013). "Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  11. ↑ Kroll, Andy (February 5, 2013). "Exposed: The Dark-Money ATM of the Conservative Movement". Mother Jones.
  12. ↑ Zornick, George (August 29, 2011). "Fear, Inc.: America's Islamophobia Network". The Nation. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  13. ↑ Steinback, Robert (August 26, 2011). "New Report Details Funding Sources Behind Anti-Muslim Fearmongers". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  14. ↑ DeMarban, Alex (September 14, 2014). "Conservative group shapes Alaska policy debate with Outside help". Alaska Dispatch News. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  15. ↑ Hickley, Walter (February 12, 2013). "Inside The Secretive Dark-Money Organization That's Keeping The Lights On For Conservative Groups". Business Insider. Retrieved February 21, 2013.

External links