{"id":2568510,"date":"2026-02-10T18:32:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/charity-raises-legal-questions-by-funding-pro-harris-dark-money-operation\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T18:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:34:36","slug":"charity-raises-legal-questions-by-funding-pro-harris-dark-money-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/charity-raises-legal-questions-by-funding-pro-harris-dark-money-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity raises legal questions by funding pro-Harris dark money operation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcharity-raises-legal-questions-by-funding-pro-harris-dark-money-operation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2568510&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A report examines how Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lets-talk-about-our-relationship-with-the-state\/\" title=\"Let&#039;s Talk About Our Relationship with the State\">donor-advised fund<\/a>, transferred $37.5 million in 2024 to Luminous future Fund, a pro-Kamala Harris dark-money group, despite Fidelity\u2019s pledge not to fund political causes. Bright Future Fund, registered as a 501(c)(4), spent most of it&#8217;s 2024 revenue funding other 501(c)(4) groups, including Future Forward USA Action, which backed pro-Harris political ads, raising questions about the charity\u2019s nonpartisan claims. Tax experts cited by the piece suggest Fidelity\u2019s tax forms may have been technically inaccurate, implying an attempt to disguise or downplay a grant to a partisan political actor. Donor-advised funds allow donors to direct grants, with Fidelity typically not choosing recipients, and the funds can grow tax-free; donations to 501(c)(4) groups are generally not tax-deductible, creating further questions about the grant\u2019s accounting and motives. Fidelity says its grants comply with the Internal Revenue Code and cannot be used for lobbying or impermissible purposes, but did not address the specific grant to Bright Future Fund. Critics note the opaque paper trail of nonprofit funding and the potential for donor-advised funds to influence politics under the umbrella of charitable activity, while supporters argue that debates over \u201cnonpartisan\u201d voter engagement are politically charged. The story highlights ongoing concerns about transparency,tax reporting,and the role of donor-advised funds in political spending.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Major charity raises legal questions by funding pro-Harris dark money operation<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2497446\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>The Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, the nonprofit arm of the financial giant bearing the same name, transferred $37.5 million to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-hawley-files-counter-complaint-against-senate-dems\/\" title=\"Sen. Hawley files counter...complaint against Senate Dems\">dark money group<\/a> that assisted then-Vice President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/kamala-harris\/\">Kamala Harris<\/a> during the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/2024-elections\/\">2024 presidential election<\/a>, despite pledging <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fidelitycharitable.org\/content\/dam\/fc-public\/docs\/fc\/fc-990-fy-2024.pdf\">not to give money to political causes<\/a>, tax records show.<\/p>\n<p>Bright Future Fund, the pro-Harris dark money group, received $37.5 million from the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund in 2024, according to tax filings <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thefp.com\/p\/a-dark-money-group-that-backed-kamala\">first reported<\/a> on by the <em>Free Press<\/em>. Unlike traditional 501(c)(3) charities, which are barred from participating in electoral politics, the Bright Future Fund is <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/irs-efile-renderer.instrumentl.com\/render?object_id=202533219349300848#IRS990\">registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(4)<\/a>, a type of nonprofit organization with a broad license to engage in political spending.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/investigations\/4448859\/labor-secretary-lori-chavez-deremer-history-spending-eluded-congress\/\">Embattled labor secretary has history of questionable spending that eluded Congress<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/in_focus\/4448139\/how-hospice-fraud-flourished-california\/\">Bogus businesses and &lsquo;lax&rsquo; oversight: How hospice fraud has flourished in California<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/crime\/4449347\/added-security-starbucks-ceo-growing-concerns-executives\/\">Heightened security for Starbucks CEO puts spotlight on growing safety concerns for industry executives<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Notably, the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund claimed on its tax forms to have only transferred funds to 501(c)(3) organizations, a statement that critics say appears to be inaccurate given its transfer to the 501(c)(4) Bright Future Fund.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Patrick Sternal, a tax lawyer and former adviser at the IRS&rsquo;s office of chief counsel, told the <em>Free Press <\/em>that the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund&rsquo;s tax forms were &ldquo;technically inaccurate&rdquo; and that &ldquo;it raises questions about whether Fidelity was trying to disguise or downplay their grant to a highly partisan group that worked to benefit the Harris campaign.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Brian Mittendorf, a professor at the Ohio State University specializing in nonprofit accounting, shared Sternal&rsquo;s view, stating that it appears the charity &ldquo;filled out its tax forms incorrectly by saying there were no non-501(c)(3) recipients.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Former Vice President Kamala Harris takes the stage during a campaign event on Proposition 50, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Ethan Swope)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund is donor-advised. This means that Fidelity itself is not directly choosing where the funds held by its charity are sent. In a donor-advised fund, individual philanthropists or <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >philanthropic organizations maintain accounts holding assets<\/a>. The fund itself manages these funds, allowing them to grow tax-free. At the time of the donor&rsquo;s choosing, they can request that the donor-advised fund donate assets from their account to another nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n<p>Donor-advised funds typically reserve the right to deny a transfer to an organization, raising questions as to why Fidelity made a payment to a 501(c)(4).<\/p>\n<p>The donation to a 501(c)(4) through the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund is potentially problematic because donors <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fidelitycharitable.org\/giving-account-guide\/tax-considerations.html\">generally receive<\/a> an immediate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-slam-senates-insulting-and-disgusting-changes-to-the-big-beautiful-bill\/\" title=\"House Republicans Slam Senate&#039;s &#039;Insulting and Disgusting&#039; Changes to the &#039;Big Beautiful Bill&#039;\">federal income tax deduction<\/a> after giving to the donor-advised fund. Donations to 501(c)(4)s, however, typically are <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbwt.com\/publications\/501c4-organizations-giving-with-an-edge\">not tax-deductible<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A Fidelity spokesperson told the <em>Free Press <\/em>that its charitable arm &ldquo;complies with its obligations under the Internal Revenue Code with respect to its grants&rdquo; and that grants &ldquo;cannot be used for lobbying, political activity, or for other impermissible purposes.&rdquo; They did not directly address the payment made to the Bright Future Fund, according to the <em>Free Press<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund bears the legal responsibility for ensuring that the funds it provided to the Bright Future Fund are used for strictly charitable, not political, purposes, according to tax experts cited by the <em>Free Press<\/em>. Per Fidelity, the funds given to the Bright Future Fund were to be used for &ldquo;nonpartisan voter engagement, mobilization, and education.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Nominally nonpartisan get-out-the-vote initiatives have drawn criticism from the Right in recent election cycles, facing allegations that they tend to target demographics favorable to the Democrats, thus offering a net benefit to the party under an apolitical charitable auspice. Defenders, meanwhile, counter that conservatives are trying to stop people from exercising their right to vote for similarly partisan reasons.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/investigations\/4438162\/democratic-pac-shuffles-money-after-washington-examiner-report\/\"><strong>DEMOCRATIC PAC QUIETLY SHUFFLES MONEY AROUND AFTER WASHINGTON EXAMINER REPORT ON POTENTIALLY ILLEGAL DONATIONS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Almost all of the Bright Future Fund&rsquo;s $40.6 million in 2024 revenue came from the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, records show. During 2024, the Bright Future Fund gave millions to other 501(c)(4) organizations, making it possible that some of the funds transferred by Fidelity ended up being used for political purposes. Nonprofit organizations, however, do not publicly provide enough of a paper trail to determine, definitively, whether this was the case. About $20 million of the Bright Future Fund&rsquo;s 2024 expenditures went to Future Forward USA Action, the main dark money group that bankrolled pro-Harris ads during that year&rsquo;s election.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;How Bright Future Fund can claim with a straight face that they spent almost $40 million on &lsquo;nonpartisan&rsquo; get-out-the-vote activities, while at the same time funneling tens of millions of dollars to support [former President] <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joe-biden\/\">Joe Biden<\/a> and Harris, is beyond me,&rdquo; Caitlin Sutherland, director of&nbsp;Americans for Public Trust, told the <em>Free Press<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a concise paraphrase of the piece:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, the donor-advised arm of Fidelity, gave $37.5 million in 2024 to Bright Future Fund, a dark-money group that backed Kamala Harris during the 2024 race, despite the donor fund\u2019s pledge not to fund political causes. Bright Future Fund is a 501(c)(4), which allows more political activity than a 501(c)(3). The donor-advised fund filed tax forms saying it only transferred money to 501(c)(3) organizations, a claim critics say may be inaccurate given the recipient\u2019s 501(c)(4) status. Tax experts interviewed suggested Fidelity might have misstated its grants, raising questions about disguising a partisan donation. Most of Bright Future Fund\u2019s 2024 revenue came from Fidelity, and it then directed funds to other 501(c)(4)s and to Future Forward USA Action, which financed pro-Harris ads; critics note that \u201cnonpartisan\u201d voter-engagement efforts can appear to benefit a political side. Fidelity maintains its grants comply with the Internal Revenue Code and cannot be used for lobbying or impermissible purposes, but the company did not directly address the specific transfer to Bright Future Fund.<\/p>\n<p>If you want, I can also provide a 55-character headline version. For example:<br \/>\n&#8211; Fidelity fund backs pro-Harris dark-money group (53 characters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":894,"featured_media":2568511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25267835141877-e1761586796948.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651,538],"tags":[69845,6543,27910],"class_list":["post-2568510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","category-washington-examiner","tag-campaign-finance-2","tag-charity","tag-dark-money"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25267835141877-e1761586796948.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2568510"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2568514,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568510\/revisions\/2568514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2568511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2568510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2568510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2568510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}