Friday, November 7, 2014
Open Society Foundations Announces $50 Million Gift to ACLU
In addition to its significance for the ACLU, which is in the early stages of a fundraising campaign that will end in 2020, the gift lends philanthropic muscle to a movement that has gathered bipartisan momentum in recent years.
Because the ACLU is a 501(c)(4) "social-welfare" organization, the money can be used for political activity. The ACLU has earmarked the gift for legislative action and public education, with a goal to halve the number of Americans behind bars in six years. It plans to create a database of incarcerated people, build political capacity in early primary states ahead of the 2016 election, and focus on three to five states where it thinks the 2016 ballot could bring substantial changes....