Foundation behind network pushing election and coronavirus conspiracies had its tax-exempt status revoked
But more than seven months later, the organization is still actively soliciting donations and telling potential donors their contributions will be deductible. This week, a large pop-up ad on the website declared that “your tax deductible contribution is vital to continue operations,” while a banner ad urged supporters to “make your end of the year tax deductible donation!”
The network asks for donations in a form at the bottom of every page on its website, which states three times that contributions are “100% Tax-Deductable” (sic). And its audio and video broadcasts and social media posts often include similar requests for donations and claims about deductibility.
“We are confident that the Foundation will ultimately receive a favorable determination from the IRS in respect of its retroactive reinstatement application,” the organization’s lawyer, Jake Kasser, wrote in a statement.
“It’s wrong for a charity to claim the contribution is deductible when it isn’t,” said Philip Hackney, a former IRS lawyer and a University of Pittsburgh law professor who specializes in nonprofit law. “It’s interesting that an organization trafficking in lies is also trafficking in a lie about the deductibility to generate their contributions — something you can obviously check and confirm is not true.”
How Worldview Weekend spreads falsehoods
The experts said that the IRS is unlikely to impose penalties or fines against Worldview Weekend for claiming its donations are tax-deductible. The foundation could possibly face legal action from state attorneys general in states where it is soliciting donations, or donors who feel misled by its solicitations — but neither is likely to be an issue for the organization if it is successful in getting its status retroactively reinstated, the experts said.
Kasser, the foundation’s lawyer, said it had been struggling for years with the IRS misclassifying it and failing to respond to its filings and communications. He said that the IRS had previously revoked the foundation’s tax-exempt status in 2018 over a misunderstanding, and that the organization had filed a return for 2018, although the agency hadn’t acknowledged it or answered the foundation’s question about it. An IRS spokesperson said the agency could not comment about specific organizations.
“By law, organizations cannot solicit in Tennessee if they do not comply with registration requirements or make false statements to donors,” the spokesperson, Julia Bruck, wrote in an email. Civil penalties for charities that don’t comply with state law can reach up to $5,000 per violation, and unlawfully obtained contributions have to be forfeited to the state in some cases, she said.
Kasser said that the foundation’s attempts to register with the state had been denied “because of the issues caused by the IRS with respect to the Foundation’s tax returns” over multiple years. “Once resolved, the Foundation will take all necessary actions to comply with state registration requirements,” he said.
In addition to election denial, Worldview Weekend has also repeatedly aired segments with false claims about coronavirus vaccines. “FDA ‘Approves’ ‘Vaccine’ That Has A Higher Rate Of Harm And Death Than Does Covid-19,” declared one headline in September.
On the network’s website, stories about vaccines and election fraud are posted alongside promo codes for discounts from Lindell’s pillow company and appeals to donate to the foundation. Brannon Howse, Worldview Weekend’s president and founder, has said that contributions to the foundation go to paying expenses for spreading the network’s content.
“WVW Foundation helps to underwrite the expenses of much of the bandwidth that we have to pay for,” Howse said in one broadcast in August, days after the IRS publicly posted the revocation of the foundation’s tax-exempt status. “Our Worldview Weekend Foundation exists in part to help us give away free radio shows and TV shows.” In another podcast episode last year, he said the group’s streaming costs had increased fourfold as traffic grew, adding that the network has “seen incredible growth.”
That statement might seem to clash with Worldview Weekend’s coverage, such as claims that the “American Medical Establishment and Government Are Overseeing a Eugenics Program That Will Lead to an Even Bigger Holocaust.” But nonprofit experts said that the fact that an organization promotes a controversial viewpoint doesn’t mean it isn’t eligible for tax exemption.
“The flat earth society can be a charity,” said Eric Gorovitz, a tax lawyer with the firm Adler & Colvin. “The fact that its claims are wrong isn’t relevant to its qualification for exemption.”
