During President Trump’s second time period, Republicans have escalated their assaults on hard-to-trace fundraising strategies utilized by left-leaning teams. Now, these efforts could pressure extra disclosure for a undertaking linked to Mr. Trump himself: Freedom 250, the entity behind America’s 250th birthday celebration.
When the Trump administration got down to plan occasions for America’s 250th anniversary, it didn’t construct a brand new charity. Instead, the National Park Foundation — a congressionally chartered nonprofit that raises cash for the National Park Service — created a particular subsidiary in October 2025 and established it in Delaware.
President Trump declared that Freedom 250, organized as a restricted legal responsibility firm, would throw America “the most spectacular birthday party you’ve ever seen.” The National Park Foundation obtained roughly $90 million in federal {dollars} to help the celebration, authorities information present. Freedom 250 individually solicited seven-figure donations from company sponsors, paperwork present, with out submitting any public monetary disclosures of its personal.
This form of lawful construction is acquainted within the nonprofit world, the place charities routinely home tasks that lack their very own tax-exempt standing, an association referred to as fiscal sponsorship — a time period that doesn’t seem within the tax code. The National Park Foundation describes Freedom 250 as a “wholly owned subsidiary” that supplied the Park Service with “access to the expertise needed for planning and executing the events” for the 250th.
Freedom 250 information no tax return of its personal, and cash raised in its identify legally belongs to the National Park Foundation. There isn’t any standalone accounting on these disclosures of how a lot flowed by means of the undertaking, the way it was spent, or who ran it.
Charities face broad public-disclosure necessities “at least in part because they are publicly supported through tax benefits,” stated Brian Mittendorf, an Ohio State University professor who focuses on nonprofit accounting. But whereas a charity should disclose that it owns an entity like Freedom 250, it’s not required to interrupt out how that undertaking raised or spent its cash, he stated.
“There’s always been this challenge for transparency,” Mittendorf informed CBS News.
For years, Republicans have scrutinized this actual kind of fundraising system, arguing that left-leaning nonprofits abused lax federal rules whereas funding allegedly partisan causes. Liberal teams have denied any impropriety.
Now, these GOP efforts have ramped up. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee advanced a invoice final week that might require charities to reveal particulars about fiscal sponsorship preparations on their tax returns. And it could additionally impose a tax of 20% on funds deemed to have been “improperly” routed by means of them — rising to 100% if not corrected.
Under the invoice, the National Park Foundation would probably should report sure particulars about its association with Freedom 250 on its annual tax return, together with how a lot cash moved by means of it and who manages it, stated Lloyd Mayer, a professor and skilled on nonprofits on the University of Notre Dame’s legislation faculty. The invoice would fall wanting requiring the muse to checklist Freedom 250’s particular person donors.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threw his support behind the invoice in an announcement final week, saying that it “complements Treasury’s work to improve transparency, strengthen tax administration, and provide clearer reporting on certain activities of tax-exempt organizations.” He added that the division is “taking action to prevent nonprofit status from being used to enable or conceal fraud, abuse, and illegal extremist activity.”
The Ways and Means Committee didn’t reply to requests for remark. The White House Press Office didn’t reply to questions on whether or not Mr. Trump helps the invoice or has communicated with the Treasury Department about it.
“Republicans may write a definition into the tax code for fiscal sponsorship that could accidentally lump in a lot more relationships and projects within the nonprofit sector than they intended,” stated Sara Barba, a managing accomplice at Integer, LLC, who represents teams within the nonprofit sector. “There are several different types of fiscal sponsorships.”
Sarah Saadian, the senior vice chairman of public coverage campaigns for the National Council of Nonprofits, which describes itself as the most important nonprofit community within the United States, stated “members of Congress should realize that when they pass legislation like this it could have a really broad effect, even on projects they support.”
Tensions between the nonprofit sector and Republicans have heated up in current months. The high Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, Missouri Rep. Jason Smith, issued subpoenas to nonprofits related to progressive philanthropist Neville Roy Singham — requesting particulars about fiscal sponsorships. Singham, who’s married to Jodie Evans, the co-founder of feminist anti-war group Code Pink, is underneath legal investigation by a grand jury within the Southern District of New York over whether or not he lied on tax types for nonprofits he controls or might have unlawfully funneled cash by means of them, CBS News reported in July.
Smith has launched a collection of probes into left-leaning nonprofits, together with these funded by the progressive Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, whose help for teams organized as fiscal sponsorships has drawn GOP scrutiny. The House panel superior a separate invoice final week that might bar nonprofits from donating to PACs for 2 years after receiving cash from a international nationwide.
A spokesperson for Wyss stated in an announcement that the payments are “an attempt to stop nonprofits from working on issues like increasing access to health care, conserving public land, and promoting economic opportunity.” The assertion added that Wyss’ teams “have complied with laws and rules governing our activities, and all grant funding is prohibited from being used to support or oppose political candidates or parties or other electoral activity.”
“Run out of the White House”
Freedom 250 — the entity that could be roped into extra disclosure underneath the GOP invoice — has been described a technique in company filings and one other by the cupboard secretary whose division oversees the National Park Service.
Corporate filings reviewed by CBS News checklist Freedom 250’s useful proprietor as Ruth Prescott, the manager vice chairman and chief governance officer of the National Park Foundation. The filings don’t checklist any White House officers.
But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum could not determine who ran Freedom 250. He testified to Congress in May that he was “not aware of the final decision maker on Freedom 250,” and later informed CNN that the group was “run out of the White House.”
Testifying in February, National Park Foundation president and CEO Jeff Reinbold said the basis had “created Freedom 250 at the request of the National Park Service.”
A spokesperson for the National Park Foundation stated in an announcement shared with CBS News that the group entered into an settlement with the National Park Service to handle congressionally appropriated funds and “to ensure Freedom 250 LLC properly distributes and accounts for appropriated project funds.”
Asked about Freedom 250’s fundraising, the spokesperson stated there have been no international or particular person donors to Freedom 250 — including that company sponsors, “except for a handful of sponsors that have requested anonymity, a typical nonprofit practice,” are listed on Freedom 250’s web site. Some listed on the web site embody Chevron, Boeing, ExxonMobil and Mastercard.
The Interior Department didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Ahead of the 250th celebration, Freedom 250 went on a fundraising blitz. The group hosted a concert series in addition to a “Great American State Fair” on the National Mall and a UFC blended martial arts occasion on the South Lawn of the White House in June, CBS News reported.
The Trump administration appointed allies of the president to the board of the muse, together with Meredith O’Rourke, Mr. Trump’s high fundraiser, and Chris LaCivita, Mr. Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign co-manager. A fundraising solicitation, first reported by the New York Times, provided donors who gave at the least $1 million invites to a “private Freedom 250 reception hosted by Mr. Trump” with a “historic photo opportunity.” Those giving at the least $2.5 million have been provided talking roles at a July 4 celebration, the doc stated.
Democrats in Congress have investigated Freedom 250, casting the entity as a “shadow organization capable of infiltrating the celebrations and injecting America’s 250th with Trump’s extreme, partisan agenda,” in line with a 55-page interim workers report launched in July by the House Natural Resources Committee.
The report cited Freedom 250’s occasions this yr — similar to a daylong prayer gathering in May that includes conservative Christian clergy, in addition to its “Freedom Trucks,” a fleet of cell museums that featured content material about American historical past with the conservative group PragerU and conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan.
A White House official, who would converse solely on background, stated Freedom 250 related “partners, institutions, and communities across the country to elevate local and civic participation on the national stage,” including that the group labored to make sure the 250th anniversary was “both deeply rooted in communities and fully realized at a national scale.”
“Weapons to force more disclosure”
As Democrats examine Freedom 250, some conservatives who work within the nonprofit sector stated it’s ironic {that a} Republican-led effort could pressure extra disclosure for the White House-linked group.
“This would ensnare groups on both the right and left, and become a bulwark against what is becoming a popular giving vehicle for those seeking privacy,” stated Lawson Bader, the president and CEO of DonorsTrust, one of many largest nonprofits that advise conservative and libertarian donors. “It ultimately goes up against free expression, and I don’t think they are thinking that through.”
Marc Wheat, basic counsel for Advancing American Freedom, a bunch based by former Vice President Mike Pence, agreed. “These guys on the Hill forget that all these weapons to force more disclosure were used against conservatives — and we were opposed to it,” stated Wheat, referring to the 2013 controversy over the IRS’ scrutiny of conservative teams in search of tax-exempt standing.
An effort to unmask nonprofit relationships can also be taking form within the Trump administration. At the Treasury Department, officers introduced in late April 2026 that the IRS plans to revise the Form 990 — the annual return filed by tax-exempt teams — to require “clearer reporting” on authorities grants, authorities contracts and financial sponsorship preparations.
The announcement, billed as an effort “to expose hidden funding,” stated current congressional oversight had raised considerations that some fiscal sponsorship preparations could also be used to obscure funding. The Treasury Department and the IRS say they count on to subject proposed rules and take public remark earlier than finalizing something.
The rules would require charities to report authorities grants and contracts in way more element — the place public funds got here from and the way they have been spent, the division stated. A spokesperson for the Treasury Department referred CBS News to Bessent’s assertion concerning the GOP invoice.
“Given Freedom 250 receives federal funding, the regulations Treasury is considering should reach Freedom 250’s activities,” Mayer stated.
The spokesperson for the National Park Foundation informed CBS News that the nonprofit usually shares its audited monetary statements with Congress, as required by legislation.
But Mayer stated these paperwork give foundations extra leeway so far as what they disclose, in comparison with federal tax types, which might demand extra underneath the principles Treasury is weighing.
“Audited financial statements do not require the level of detail that a Form 990 does,” Mayer added. “The information is basic money-in, money-out, certainly not individual recipients of expenditures.”
