Beginning in 2018, a handful of groups with a self-professed political agenda have impeded the valuable work of nonprofit organizations through lawsuits, deplatforming campaigns and challenges to organizations’ tax-exempt status. Ostensibly, these groups say their actions are aimed at strengthening security. Instead, their actions impede the nonprofits’ work. At the center of these campaigns is disinformation about the work and reputations of nonprofits, disguised as “research,” which is used to exploit legitimate counter-terrorism laws and whistleblower provisions.
This is the latest chapter in the use of disinformation to delegitimize charitable work. For several years, Charity & Security Network has been aware that disinformation on nonprofits has been given an audience on Capitol Hill, and that this sham “research” has even made its way into commercial tools commonly used by financial institutions to screen customers and potential customers against sanctions lists.
In this section you will find information on False Claims Act lawsuits, Deplatforming, Charitable Status, Grantmaking, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and the Partner Vetting System.
Featured Resources
Citing Lack of Factual Allegations, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Seeks Dismissal of Anti-Terrorism Act Suit
In November 2019 the Jewish National Fund and 12 individual Americans living in Israel filed suit against Just Peace in the Middle East, a U.S. charity d/b/a US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). The suit
Islamophobic Groups Attacking Humanitarian, Peacebuilding Groups and Human Rights Defenders
Click here for a printable PDF of this fact sheet In recent years, two U.S. organizations have conducted smear campaigns against charities and human rights groups that appear intended to shut down or limit humanitarian
TZAC Files Notice of Voluntary Dismissal in Case Against Oxfam GB
Use of the U.S. False Claims Act (FCA) to attack nonprofit organizations’ programs in Palestine took a setback in late December 2019 when the Zionist Advocacy Center’s (TZAC) FCA case against Oxfam Great Britain was
Surveillance of Civil Society is a Growing Problem
Headlines in recent weeks serve as reminders that the long-standing problem of government surveillance of civil society has not gone away. Instead it is growing into a threat to the privacy of communications of civil
Abstract: Development Needs Civil Society: The Implications of Civic Society for the Sustainable Development Goals
“Development Needs Civil Society: The Implications of Civic Society for the Sustainable Development Goals,” by the ACT Alliance and Institute for Development Studies, examines the consequences of closing civic space on civil society organizations (CSOs),
Abstract: UN Special Rapporteur Calls for End to Attacks on Civil Society
In her report to the Fortieth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) on the role of measures to address terrorism and violent extremism on closing space (Advance Unedited Version, A/HRC/40/52, February 18, 2019),