logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
    • Glossary
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

What a Difference Unlimited Contributions Make

Bruce S Trachtenberg
December 10, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

December 8, 2010; Source: Alaska Daily News | The sub-head on this story from the Alaska Daily News on how nonprofits took advantage of new rules that allow unlimited donations to political campaigns tells it all: “Many contributions would have been illegal in the past.” According to the newspaper, post-election filings show that Alaskans Standing Together a “super” political action committee raised $1.7 million over 38 days, including the single biggest contribution from a nonprofit that advocates for the state’s Native community.

Alaskans Standing Together supported efforts to re-elect Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who had been running as a write-in candidate, after losing her primary bid to GOP candidate Joe Miller. The $308,000 contribution to the PAC from Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) represented the group’s first-ever to a political candidate in its 44-year history. Because AFN is a 501(c)4, which means donations to it are not tax deductible—unlike those to a 501(c)3, it was able to make unlimited donations to support the Murkowski campaign.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

That permission followed the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year in the Citizens United case that lifted restrictions on donations to political campaigns without requiring that recipient groups disclose names of donors. Although it’s not likely to happen, especially with a Republican Congress that benefited most from the large cash infusions that helped the GOP recapture the House of Representatives and increase their Senate seats, Murkowski said she’d be in favor of changes in the law to limit contributions and require disclosures in future campaigns.

As she put it, “I have brought it up in conversation with several colleagues, and we all say we need to be looking at this and figuring out what the answer is, because this was this trial run with these, and the amount of money that we saw I think was just overwhelming, and I don’t say overwhelming in a good way.” We have no way of knowing, of course, if Murkowski’s tongue was planted against her cheek when she made those comments.—Bruce Trachtenberg

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

summer_sidebar_subscribe
You might also like
What Is Social Justice Philanthropy? A Donor Network Asks Hard Questions
Steve Dubb
What is Climate Psychology? An Interview with Climate Psychology Alliance’s Rebecca Weston
Rebecca Weston and Iris M. Crawford
Ruling on Affirmative Action Could Affect Hiring
Isaiah Thompson
The Great Integration Question
Saphia Suarez
Preserving Places of Belonging in Asian America: The Value of Community Voice
Seema Agnani
Economic Justice: Nonprofit Leaders Speak Out
Dr. Akilah Watkins, Nelson I. Colón, Jon Pratt, Marla Bilonick, Clara Miller, Seema Agnani and Gary L. Cunningham

NPQ Webinars

Oct 5th and 6th, 2:00 PM ET

Mastering QuickBooks 2023

Advanced QuickBooks for Nonprofits for Online Users

Register Now
Oct 26th, 2:00 PM ET

Becoming A Great Manager

How to Conspire and Align with the People You Lead

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Summer 2023 issue

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Funders
  • Magazine Art

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.