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The Augusta-based Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area severed ties with an organization tied to a white nationalist in 2015 after discovering the groups mission and purpose, the nonprofits President and CEO Shell K. Berry said in a statement.

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that the foundation was the largest single donor to the National Policy Institute after white nationalist Richard Spencer provided the groups recent tax returns to the newspaper.

Established in 1995, the Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that administers over 200 funds of several different types, such as scholarship funds to memorialize a loved one and designated funds for specific organizations such as churches, or specific causes.

The foundation sent a grand total of $25,000 over three years to the National Policy Institute, which has become well-known among the alt-right, a phrase Spencer popularized, and hosted a November event where attendees were shown on video raising their right arms in a Nazi salute as Spencer spoke of America as a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity.

The groups Augusta ties date to at least 2006, when Augusta real estate investor Louis R. Andrews, who died in 2011, registered the National Policy Institute, Inc., at his Washington Road address with the Georgia Secretary of State. Funding to the organization were made at the direction of a single individual and other foundation money did not go Spencers group, Berry said. She would not name the donor.

Berry said the foundations involvement with the directed funds to the National Policy Institute ended with the final donation of $10,169 the foundation reported on its 2015 tax return, according to Berrys statement.

That year, management became aware that one of its funds was recommending grants in support of the National Policy Institute, she said.

Upon discovery of the mission and purpose of the NPI, Foundation management took immediate action to disassociate with NPI and as of July 2015, this donor-advised fund no longer exists at the Community Foundation for the CSRA, Berry said.

Independent of that one donor, any individual, organization or corporation that contributed to the (Foundation) can be assured that no additional monies given to the (Foundation) were granted to the (National Policy Institute), she said Tuesday when questioned about the donation.

The Foundation went on that year (2015) to modify policies to prevent any grantmaking that is inconsistent with our organization, she said.

As a public charity, the Foundation is required to report much of its giving, but allows donors to remain confidential and create anonymous funds, according to its web site. The LA Times article names the Masters Tournament as one of the foundations donors.

The Augusta Chronicle reported in December a Foundation endowment created by the tournament and Augusta National Golf Club was worth almost $15 million and had funded $7.5 million in in grants over the last 20 years.

Other local organizations that have established Foundation funds through which they award grants include Women In Philanthropy of the CSRA and the Border Bash Foundation, according to prior Chronicle reports.

The Foundations 2015 tax return shows millions in charitable contributions through its unrestricted grants fund, which allows not-for-profit organizations to compete for grants, and through its donor-advised funds, which allow donors to specify where the funds go, and through other types of funds.

The years more than 100 recipients ranged from Americas Warrior Partnership, which received $2.9 million in donor-advised fund grants to groups such as Augusta Locally Grown, Boys and Girls Club of the CSRA, Savannah Riverkeeper and the Salvation Army, which received unrestricted grants fund grants.

Reach Susan McCord at (706) 823-3215 or susan.mccord@augustachronicle.com.

Originally posted here:
Foundation stopped giving to 'alt-right' movement leader in 2015 ... - The Augusta Chronicle