Loyalty targeting donations to the group funding Israeli settlements – the forward

Two progressive Jewish groups have joined a coalition calling on financial giant Fidelity to stop facilitating donations to right-wing organizations, including one that funds Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
.@Loyalty must reveal their role in promoting anti-Palestinian violence around the world.
Millions of people flock from Fidelity to organizations like Central Fund of Israel, a key organization that funds illegal Israeli settlements displacing Palestinians.
Take action: https://t.co/cuv6hYRzpNpic.twitter.com/T8hv8VKd1C– IfNotNowð¥ (@IfNotNowOrg) October 1, 2021
Fidelity has, at the behest of clients, directed millions of dollars to controversial nonprofits through so-called âdonor-advised funds,â which allow high net worth individuals to channel deductible donations. tax through third parties that mask the flow of money.
The Unmasking Fidelity campaign last week added the two left-wing Jewish groups to its coalition. The coalition uses Fidelity Charitable, which allows the company’s clients to make tax-exempt donations, reveal past contributions to organizations it believes promote racism and anti-LGBT sentiment, and quit to make such donations.
The larger campaign largely targets Fidelity donations to nonprofits that promote hate nationwide, and cites records that show Fidelity Charitable sent $ 4.6 million to 23 organizations designated as hate groups. by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2017, 2018, and 2019. But IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, both of which focus on Israel, pointed to $ 25 million in contributions to the Israel Central Fund, which pays for settlements Israelis in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
It’s time @Loyalty stop allowing anti-Palestinian violence. Millions of people flock from Fidelity to groups like the Israel Central Fund, a key funder of illegal Israeli settlements displacing Palestinians.
Take action: https://t.co/PmDzQT4YhA# UnmaskFidelitypic.twitter.com/JRPeObA4rO– Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) October 1, 2021
Fidelity Charitable did not respond on Tuesday to a request for comment on the Unmasking Fidelity campaign and the standards, if any, they have set for directed giving.
While foundations are generally required to disclose both who controls them and how they distribute their money, donor-advised funds make this information opaque. A family foundation could donate $ 100,000 to Fidelity Charitable and then ask Fidelity to donate on their behalf. But because Fidelity manages billions of dollars in donations each year, there is no way to determine how a money transfer donated to Fidelity is spent, or who is responsible for Fidelity’s contributions to organizations like the Central Fund. from Israel.
Individuals can already make anonymous contributions directly to nonprofits, but IfNotNow and other organizations active in the Unmasking Fidelity campaign say the company, which also runs a retail investment firm, is making the process easier. .
âObviously, this is a larger systemic issue about how money can be funneled into problematic causes,â said Naftali Ehrenkranz, digital organizer at IfNotNow. “But the first step is just to put pressure on Fidelity and other groups who are helping to make this process possible.”
People looking for a variety of tax benefits give through Fidelity Charitable and most other donor-advised funds, which in turn distribute donations to a wide list of charities, including many have no political agenda.
But donor-advised funds run by local Jewish federations have sparked controversy in the past, especially when it was revealed that the Federation of the Jewish Community of San Francisco was funding Canary Mission, a controversial website targeting pro activists. -palestinians. Federation officials said at the time they would tighten the rules for which charities they allow donors to direct donations to.