Everytown Files Complaint about NRA Foundation’s Participation in Charitable Giving Program for Federal Employees

This Complaint Follows An Earlier Letter, Sent to the Office of Personnel Management October 2019, Calling for the Office of Personnel Management to Investigate the NRA’s Participation in Charitable Giving Program

The Complaint Comes After the New York and DC Attorneys General Filed Lawsuits Against the NRA Last Month

NEW YORK — Today, following lawsuits filed against the NRA by the New York and DC attorneys general last month, Everytown for Gun Safety has filed a complaint with the Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) about the participation of the NRA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization controlled by the NRA, in the Combined Federal Campaign, the workplace giving program for federal government employees. The complaint was first reported by Nonprofit Quarterly. 

The Combined Federal Campaign allows federal government employees to designate a portion of their paycheck to an approved and qualifying charitable organization. The NRA Foundation has participated in the Combined Federal Campaign for many years, and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars through the program. To gain access to the program, and in accordance with federal regulations, the NRA Foundation has repeatedly and explicitly certified that it “effectively uses the funds contributed for its announced programs” and that members of the “governing body” of the organization “have no material conflicts of interest.” Everytown’s complaint takes issues with both of these claims and calls on OPM to investigate, and ultimately expel, the NRA Foundation from the Combined Federal Campaign.  

“The NRA and its Foundation are facing lawsuits by regulators full of very credible allegations of conflicts of interest, wasteful spending, and corruption,” said Justin Wagner, senior investigations counsel for Everytown for Gun Safety. “The federal government’s Combined Federal Campaign was designed to support organizations that demonstrate integrity, not lawlessness and greed, and it’s past time the NRA Foundation was expelled from participating in it.” 

The complaint, which can be read in full here, highlights key allegations in the DC AG’s lawsuit against the NRA Foundation, which put the NRA Foundation “firmly on the wrong side of the core requirement for participation in the CFC – i.e., that [an organization] have ‘a high degree of integrity and responsibility in the conduct of [its] affairs.’” It also notes that “the two largest donor-advised-fund sponsors in the country, Fidelity Charitable and Schwab Charitable” have already “banned new donations to the NRA Foundation and other 501(c)(3) organizations affiliated with the NRA.” 

Earlier this week, members of the House of Representatives’ Oversight and Ways & Means Committees wrote a letter calling on the IRS to investigate the tax-exempt status of the NRA and the NRA Foundation due to “egregious self-dealing” and “a disturbing pattern of abusing their not-for profit status.” The letter, which is led by Representatives Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) and signed by 32 other Committee members, followed similar calls from Everytown –– which first filed a complaint calling for the IRS to investigate the NRA’s tax exempt status in April 2019, then re-upped that call earlier this year. 

This pressure on the NRA comes at a time when it is already mired in immense legal, financial, and internal turmoil, all of which are detailed in full on NRAWatch.org.