The Zionist Advocacy Center’s (TZAC) May 26, 2020 Facebook post announced that it filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The complaint alleges that the WESPAC Foundation, a Westchester County, NY social justice organization, violated it status as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code by acting as a fiscal sponsor for Students for Justice in Palestine. TZAC alleges that WESPAC’s fiscal sponsored engaged in discriminatory conduct and that WESPAC did not “exercise adequate oversight” over them. The IRS process for such complaints is not public, due to privacy protections. TZAC unsuccessfully challenged the tax-exempt status of Doctors Without Borders in 2018 and has used other “lawfare” tactics to attack organizations that provide aid and support to Palestinians.

Fiscal sponsorship relationships are common in the nonprofit sector. The National Council of Nonprofits’ resource page on fiscal sponsorship notes that, “In essence the fiscal sponsor serves as the administrative “home” of the cause. Charitable contributions are given to the fiscal sponsor, which then grants them to support the cause.” (Disclosure: The Charity & Security Network is a fiscally sponsored project of NEO Philanthropy, Inc.)

WESPAC, which has a Gold Seal for Transparency for Guidestar, has acted as fiscal sponsor for the National Students for Justice Palestine (NSFP) annual conferences, helping to pay travel costs for participants. NSJP was founded in 2010 to coordinate efforts between over 200 campus chapter and host the annual gathering. It notes that “we do not dictate to SJP chapters: all individual SJPs are autonomous student orgs on their respective campuses…” Its donation page explains that WESPAC is its fiscal sponsor.