The Billionaire's Tip Jar

Six years ago, internet billionaire Pierre Omidyar gave Bolshi Freedom Troll Glenn Greenwald a quarter of a billion dollars to play with.

Six years later, the media company Mr. Greenwald created using a portion of that money says they need your nickels and dimes to keep them up and running.

Now how could that be?

Well, part of the problem is that -- believe it or not -- The Intercept was chartered as a "public charity".  And it turns out, public charities have some very specific rules about money and stuff.  And if it wants to hang onto that very advantageous IRS classification, the balance between money it gets from one billionaire and the money it gets from everyone else needs to change. 

A lot.

From this in-depth article from the Columbia Journalism Review article ("The Intercept, a billionaire-funded public charity, cuts back") which I commend to your attention:

In order to maintain its status as a “public charity,” First Look Media Works must receive “a substantial part of its support from a government unit or from the general public,” according to the Internal Revenue Service. Specifically, it must receive 33.3 percent of its support this way over five years; barring that, 10 percent, with a good enough explanation (“facts and circumstances”). If it were to lose this status, First Look Media Works would become a “private foundation,” and subject to rigorous scrutiny from the IRS.
...

Of the $90 million in total disclosed support it has received, $87 million has come from Omidyar, meaning just 2.7 percent of its revenue can be characterized as “public support.” The level of non-Omidyar money to the non-profit side is indeed rising—6 percent in 2017—but First Look Media Works will require there to have been a lot more in 2018 if it wishes to reach the IRS’s more charitable 10 percent threshold.

So in this holiday season, as charities which struggle to get by on a few small grants and donations solicit us for contributions to help them feed the hungry or shelter the homeless, I will be having special thoughts about The Intercept, which does indeed do some good work, but which now needs $2.4M of your nickels and dimes to supplement the quarter of a billion dollars Pete Omidyar has already pledged to the project.in order to maintain it's status as a "public charity".

Tip Jar:  Billionaires Welcome!