I hope that Obama will once and for all establish serious regulations which work not only for the financial community but also for the non-profit and foundation sector. There is so much abuse going on, and some of it is illegal and basically amounts to stealing money from the IRS -- (that is We The People and We desperately need this money!) -- and from naïve individual donors, all in order to further personal, religious and political extremism.
Want to funnel money from one entity to another and support black budget operations? Use a foundation. Frances Stonor Saunders' book, The CIA and the Cultural Cold War, mentions the MD Andersen Foundation in Houston, the cornerstone of the Medical Center, and how it was used to funnel government black budget money for years. Other family foundations have also been used this way. Sometimes foundation money funneling is for financial benefit, sometimes for political purposes and sometimes to carry out acts that cannot be easily traced to individuals.
Why don't people ask more detailed questions and really look into their charitable giving? And why are foundations set up left and right without enough regulation? Do people actually believe that all these foundations mostly do good and are not tax write-offs or even worse, ways to get around illegal actions?
Overhead spending by foundations and board links to financial benefits are another red flag area which are more often than not, overlooked or ignored by the few authorities which exist. No foundation should spend more than 10% of its budget on overhead or it is wasteful!
Make some money, create a foundation, why? Because it is to your benefit to do so...in that way you still control your money instead of paying it to the IRS... create a medical foundation, and via that, invest in a biotech startup, or obtain inside information about business opportunities because of the grants made by your foundation.
I ask that Obama immediately introduce and back initiatives which force foundations to disclose everything and truly become pure non-profits which do some good in this world, not just funnel and re-funnel money to causes which work against democracy!
"The Unification Church, founded and built by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, enjoys 501(c)(3) nonprofit tax status despite the fact that it has been a major, if not always apparent, player in U.S. politics for many years. Organizations participating in overt political activities are prohibited from receiving the 501(c)(3) classification. "
http://www.mediachannel.org/originals/upi-moon.shtml
"TV preachers Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are using the tax-exempt legal divisions of their Religious Right empires to help support the interests of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush during vote recounts in Florida."
"The press is here today expecting me to get into politics, which I'm not going to do, except to tell you to vote for the Bush of your choice," Falwell said. His comment drew laughter and sustained applause from the packed auditorium."
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=18940
http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=6303
Hence, people with money set up charitable foundations so they can give away the money they already paid taxes on without paying further taxes.
Maybe you ought to consider that double taxation levied by the government instead of sinister motives. "Stealing from the IRS," is what you call it. "Plundering avoidance" would be a more appropriate term.