Tax-Deductible Donations To Liberty-ish Organizations
As 2015 draws to a close, many people are making tax-deductible donations to various causes and organizations. I’ve put together a list of organizations or websites that are either libertarian in origin, libertarian in goal, or simply totally worth your time — and each of them is a 501(c)(3) and thus your contribution is tax deductible. Note: I emphasized activism over think-tanks, but included a mix.
Freedom of the Press Foundation
Freedom of the Press Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to helping support and defend public-interest journalism focused on exposing mismanagement, corruption, and law-breaking in government.
They accept tax-deductible donations to a variety of journalism organizations that push for transparency and accountability, and we work to preserve and strengthen the rights guaranteed to the press under the First Amendment.
Freedom of the Press Foundation is built on the recognition that this kind of transparency journalism — from publishing the Pentagon Papers and exposing Watergate, to uncovering the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program and CIA secret prisons — doesn’t just happen. It requires dogged work by journalists, and often, the courage of whistleblowers and others who work to ensure that the public actually learns what it has a right to know.
You can make a tax-deductible donation at their website. You can also donate to Wikileaks through their organization as well.
Institute for Justice
The Institute for Justice (IJ) considers itself the “National Law Firm for Liberty”.
Since 1991, IJ has come to the aid of individuals who want to do the simple things every American has the right to do—including own property, start and grow a business, speak freely about commerce or politics, and provide their children with a good education—but can’t because they find the government in their way. Through 2015, IJ has litigated nearly 200 cases, including five before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning four out of those five cases.
You can donate to support the Institute for Justice here, and yes, donations are tax-deductible.
Wikipedia
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit charitable organization founded by Jimmy Wales (an Objectivist) and dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual, educational content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, a top-ten internet property.
Donations to Wikipedia can be made on their website and are tax deductible.
Let’s face it, Wikipedia has taught Americans more than public school ever has.
Antiwar.com
Antiwar.com is a non-partisan website devoted to the cause of non-interventionism, read by libertarians, pacifists, leftists, “greens,” and independents alike, as well as many on the Right who agree with their opposition to imperialism. Antiwar.com’s founders were active in the Libertarian Party in the 1970s, and the site itself is officially 20 years old this month (December 2015). There is no better source for information on foreign policy and non-interventionism and the truth about the dehumanizing, anti-liberty aspects of war.
Donations can be made on their website and are tax deductible.
Drug Policy Alliance
The Drug Policy Alliance is the nation’s leading organization promoting drug policies that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. Supporters believe the war on drugs does far more harm than good, and so they advance policies that reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition. DPA is actively involved in the legislative process, seeking to roll back the excesses of the drug war while blocking new, harmful initiatives.
Their work has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to be diverted from incarceration to drug treatment programs, as well as allowing hundreds of thousands of sick and dying patients to safely access medicine without being considered criminals. DPA has saved taxpayers billions of dollars by eliminating wasteful and ineffective law enforcement, prosecution and prison expenditures.
Here is a link to their donation form, and contributions are tax-deductible.
Free State Project
The Free State Project is a social movement intending to concentrate 20,000 liberty activists in New Hampshire. They’re currently 90% to their goal of getting 20,000 signers. Over 18,000 people have taken the pledge and almost 2,000 have already moved to NH.
Currently the FSP uses donations to raise awareness and advertise – targeted digital media campaigns on Facebook have resulted in 1-2% growth in signers per month.
You can donate at the website here. You can also “Like” their Facebook page to show your support.
The Free State Project is a 501(c)(3) organization; contributions are tax-deductible.
Students for Liberty
Students for Liberty was founded in 2008 and is a rapidly growing network of pro-liberty students from all over the word. Their mission is to educate, develop and empower the next generation of leaders of liberty. With over 1,350 groups and 800+ leaders around the world, and operations on every inhabited continent, Students for Liberty is committed to a big-tent liberty philosophy, not dictating the ways in which people may justify their belief in liberty, but encouraging debate and discourse on differing philosophies that underlie liberty.
Their donation form explains what each contribution can do to help their organization.
Students for Liberty is a 501(c)(3) organization and contributions are tax-deductible.
Young Americans for Liberty Foundation
Young Americans for Liberty and is the fastest growing pro-liberty organization on America’s college campuses. YAL evolved from Students for Ron Paul during the 2008 election and supports 600 chapters and 204,000 youth activists in the US. They’ve worked to create relevant, media-engaged activism such as “Visualize the Debt” and “War on YOUth” to illustrate liberty concepts in interesting ways centered on increasing awareness.
Their donation form can be found here – I’ve linked to their non-profit organization, which is a tax deductible contribution.
Givewell
GiveWell is a nonprofit dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities and publishing the full details of their analysis to help donors decide where to give.
Unlike charity evaluators that focus solely on financials, assessing administrative or fundraising costs, they conduct in-depth research aiming to determine how much good a given program accomplishes (in terms of lives saved, lives improved, etc.) per dollar spent. Rather than try to rate as many charities as possible, they focus on the few charities that stand out most in order to find and confidently recommend the best giving opportunities possible.
You can look over the top charities on their website to determine where you wish to make the most impact.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.
Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes: texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in their collections, and provides specialized services for adaptive reading and information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities.
Make your donation here, and yes, it’s tax deductible.
The Human Rights Foundation
The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. HRF unites people in the common cause of defending human rights and promoting liberal democracy. Their mission is to ensure that freedom is both preserved and promoted around the world.
You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Reason Foundation
The Reason Foundation advances a free society by developing, applying, and promoting libertarian principles, including individual liberty, free markets, and the rule of law.
Reason Foundation produces respected public policy research on a variety of issues and publishes the critically-acclaimed Reason magazine. Together, their top-tier think tank and political and cultural magazine reach a diverse, influential audience, advancing the values of choice, individual freedom and limited government.
Reason Foundation’s nonpartisan public policy research promotes choice, competition, and a dynamic market economy as the foundation for human dignity and progress. Reason produces rigorous, peer reviewed research and directly engages the policy process, seeking strategies that emphasize cooperation, flexibility, local knowledge, transparency, accountability and results. Through practical and innovative approaches to complex problems, Reason seeks to change the way people think about issues, and promote policies that allow and encourage individuals and voluntary institutions to flourish.
Reason Foundation also brings us Reason magazine and Reason.tv.
Make your tax-deductible donation here.
Honorable Mentions
Frankly, when I set out to write this article, I was impressed with how many awesome liberty-oriented organizations there are out there. I didn’t have time to pull up biographies on every single one or this list would’ve ended up way longer, but if you’re feeling curious and charitable, here are more 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations you should check out and a link to their donation page (tax deductible!).
Center for a Stateless Society
Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Foundation for Economic Education
Ultimately, there are tons of organizations worth your voluntary donation. Here’s just a few I happen to think deserved a mention.