The little-known charity is backed by famous conservative donors, including the families behind Hobby Lobby and Uline. It’s spending millions to make a big political push for this election — but it may be violating the law.

A network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.

These previously unreported plans are the work of a group named Ziklag, a little-known charity whose donors have included some of the wealthiest conservative Christian families in the nation, including the billionaire Uihlein family, who made a fortune in office supplies, the Greens, who run Hobby Lobby, and the Wallers, who own the Jockey apparel corporation. Recipients of Ziklag’s largesse include Alliance Defending Freedom, which is the Christian legal group that led the overturning of Roe v. Wade, plus the national pro-Trump group Turning Point USA and a constellation of right-of-center advocacy groups.

ProPublica and Documented obtained thousands of Ziklag’s members-only email newsletters, internal videos, strategy documents and fundraising pitches, none of which has been previously made public. They reveal the group’s 2024 plans and its long-term goal to underpin every major sphere of influence in American society with Christianity. In the Bible, the city of Ziklag was where David and his soldiers found refuge during their war with King Saul.

“We are in a spiritual battle and locked in a terrible conflict with the powers of darkness,” says a strategy document that lays out Ziklag’s 30-year vision to “redirect the trajectory of American culture toward Christ by bringing back Biblical structure, order and truth to our Nation.”

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
    151·
    5 months ago

    I don’t think democracy can thrive, or maybe even survive, when individuals are allowed to accumulate unlimited amounts of wealth. Wealth is power, it always has been and it always will be. The more resources a person owns and controls, the more power they have.

  • xtr0n@sh.itjust.works
    4·
    5 months ago

    But Ziklag is not a political organization: It is a 501©(3) tax-exempt charity, the same legal designation as the United Way or Boys and Girls Club. Such organizations do not have to publicly disclose their funders, and donations are tax deductible. In exchange, they are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office,” according to the IRS.

    This shit. Fuck. Why is the IRS not going after them?

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
      2·
      5 months ago

      I mean it took until the last couple of years before the IRS decided to go hard core on rich people and their back taxes (and tax evasion).

      • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)@badatbeing.socialEnglish
        3·
        5 months ago

        Remember the Right was working on defunding the IRS, so that rich tax cheats could continue to fleece this country while the poor and middle class pay for everything while also providing the labor keeping them rich.

  • sudo42@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    5 months ago

    “We’re in a spiritual battle for the soul of the nation. Therefore any dirty, underhanded trick or cheat is encouraged.”

  • Moogosa@lemmy.world
    21·
    5 months ago

    Don’t look at (((other))) religions and their donors, which completely dwarfs this $12 million in comparison, and are the largest donators to both parties.

      • feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world
        1·
        5 months ago

        Honestly it wouldn’t have been a problem if they’d just said “Jewish donors”. If that’s a fact, it’s a relevant and interesting one.

        I mean, broadly relevant to the subject of religious groups making political donations. And maybe to highlight the relative scale of $12M in the context of campaign finance.