Foreign Funding of Charities Under Assault, Including in the US

Last month I had the opportunity to attend the NYU National Center on Philanthropy and the Law's Annual Conference.  The conference was titled Regulation or Repression: Government Policing of Cross-Border Charity and provided an eye-opening overview of restritions imposed by many countries on foreign funding of charities and other NGOs.  What made the conference particularly timely was the fact that only a month earlier a prominent member of Congress had publicly attacked foreign donations to think tanks - in the United States.  This concern led to a bipartisan legislative proposal to require disclosure of foreign funding from scholars who testify on Capital Hill.  The timing was particularly ironic, as at almost the same time the Economist ran two articles raising concerns about autocratic and illiberal governments placing limits on such funding: Donors: Keep Out and Uncivil Society.  That said, whatever concerns charities and other nonprofits may have in the United States (including members of Congress criticizing them for accepting foreign donations), they pale in comparison to the concerns that the legal restrictions on both funding and activities raise for NGOs in many other parts of the world.  

Lloyd Mayer