NCF calls itself a “ministry,” and although it aids a variety of secular non-profit charities it is a notably vital automobile for non secular donations from rich conservative Protestants who share its perception that “all the Bible is the impressed and inerrant Phrase of God.” The muse’s 26 workplaces across the U.S. deal with donations — contact information posted right here — so native angles for the media abound. (At nationwide headquarters, Dan Stroud is C.E.O and Steve Chapman the media contact by way of information@ncfgiving.com or 404-252-0100.)
Rabey’s piece features a useful hyperlink to the Guidestar posting of NCF’s 593-page IRS Kind 990 filed for 2019, with a list of grant recipients that reporters will need to eyeball. The most important classes of donations ranged from native church buildings ($215 million) on all the way down to medical care ($21 million). Main causes included evangelism, reduction, training, kids and youth work, museums, non secular and neighborhood improvement, media and publishing, orphan care, Bible translation and ministry to the homeless.
NCF typifies the rising significance of “donor-advised funds” in U.S. philanthropy. The fundamental thought has existed for a century and was devised as a automobile for Christian donors in 1982 by pioneering Atlanta tax legal professional Terry Parker, nonetheless a board member, together with evangelical monetary gurus Ron Blue and Larry Burkett. The idea actually took off for secular traders in 1991 when Constancy launched such a fund. The trade is regulated by Congress’s 2006 Pension Safety Act and part 4966(d)(2) of the IRS tax code.
As an alternative of doling out particular person contributions, a donor offers tax-exempt presents to such a fund, which then in the end will assist causes according to donor’s pursuits. This streamlines the method, maintains tax exemption and supplies donors helpful anonymity so they are not pestered by teams looking for cash and avoids backlash from funding controversial causes.
That brings us again to the Chronicle‘s February assault, which spanned NCF alongside the charities operated by industrial companies like Constancy and Schwab. It reported that collectively they’ve pumped hundreds of thousands into 351 “hate teams.” The premise for that accusation — in fact — was the listing of 838 “hate teams” focused within the 2020 report from the Southern Poverty Legislation Middle of Montgomery, Alabama (SPLC: contact: press@splcenter.org). www.splcenter.org/hate-map/
SPLC’s hate listing abhors religiously motivated authorized and activist organizations over “opposition to LGBTQ rights.” Among the many better-known are the Alliance Defending Freedom, American Household Affiliation, Household Analysis Council, Household Analysis Institute, Liberty Counsel and Pacific Justice Institute, which SPLC thus lumps along with tiny Westboro Baptist Church’s gay-baiting picketers, to not point out Nazi and Christian Identification cultists.
In case your outlet hasn’t lined this but, here is a possibility to look at SPLC’s latest scandals and ongoing feuds with non secular and cultural conservatives that the group manufacturers with its “hate” label. See for instance this Catholic Information Company piece (“SPLC denounced as ‘totally disgraced’ after labeling pro-life, household organizations as ‘hate teams’ “), this Washington Occasions report (“The Southern Poverty Legislation Middle is ensnared in a scandal that threatens its survival”) after which this Q&A submit from the Alliance Defending Freedom (“Setting the Report Straight”).
The NCF as such just isn’t closely political — however its non secular donors in fact need to assist e.g. anti-abortion non-profits and the Federalist Society, famed for advising President Donald Trump on Supreme Courtroom and different judicial nominations.
All of which provides to a traditional hook for culture-war journalism.
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