March 9, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Sen. Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania, runs a charity that isn’t very charitable, and doesn’t have the proper registration to do business in the state, says an article in The American Prospect (March).
In an article called “Sour Charity,” the magazine says that Operation Good Neighbor Foundation, created by Mr. Santorum five years ago, has given away not much more than a third of the money it has raised.
In an examination of the charity’s informational federal tax returns from 2001 through 2003, the magazine found that the charity spent just 36 percent of the nearly $1-million it collected on its charitable mission — making grants to religious groups and other organizations that combat poverty and social ills, such as teenage pregnancy.
During those same three years, roughly 57 percent of the charity’s expenditures went to cover salaries, fund-raising commissions, travel, conference costs, and rent, the article says, raising questions about the organization’s efficiency.
Operation Good Neighbor’s Web site says the organization has given away a total of $474,000.
The American Prospect’s examination of the charity also reveals that Operation Good Neighbor is not registered with the Pennsylvania Department of State, a requirement for any charity that raises more than $25,000 in Pennsylvania. Tax records for 2002 list $94,000 in donations from sources in the state, the article says.
A survey of the charity’s donor list reveals something else, too, according to the magazine: a good deal of overlap between supporters of the charity and supporters of Mr. Santorum’s political campaigns. Most notable, the article says, is the Philadelphia Trust Company, whose chief executive officer is chairman of the charity’s advisory board. The company, a private bank that refinanced the senator’s Virginia home in 2002, gave $10,000 to Operation Good Neighbor.
The article also brings to light the heavy crossover between Mr. Santorum’s charity, in a Philadelphia suburb, and his political operations. The charity’s treasurer, for example, who works out of the offices of a Washington lobbying firm, also serves as treasurer of the senator’s political action committee.
The article is available online at http://www.prospect.org/web/index.ww.
