Goldwater Urges Congress to Safeguard Donor Privacy

All Americans have the right to support the causes they believe in without fear of harassment or retaliation. But all across the country, that right is under assault from intrusive mandates that require nonprofit organizations to turn over their donors’ private information to the government. The Goldwater Institute is spearheading the nationwide fight to protect donor privacy, and last week we joined dozens of nonprofit groups in sending a letter to Congress urging support for the free speech and donor privacy protections of the American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act (H.R. 4563).

As the letter explains: “The free speech provisions in the American Confidence in Elections Act would defend the vital role nonprofit organizations serve in encouraging free speech and the free exchange of ideas. Privately supporting causes – and the organizations advancing those causes – is a fundamental freedom protected by the First Amendment.”

Read the letter here, or below.

Re: Support for the American Confidence in Elections Act’s Critical Free Speech and Privacy Protections

Dear Speaker McCarthy and Democratic Leader Jeffries,

The undersigned nonprofit organizations and policy leaders write in strong support of the free speech and citizen privacy provisions in the “American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act” (H.R. 4563) introduced by Congressman Bryan Steil. This thoughtful legislation protects and strengthens important First Amendment rights that Americans have enjoyed since the founding of our country. This is a critical counterbalance to the growing push for unconstitutional and harmful disclosures in Congress and at the state level that attack the rights to freely speak, publish, and support groups that advocate for causes supported by Americans across the country and ideological spectrum.

The free speech provisions in the American Confidence in Elections Act would defend the vital role nonprofit organizations serve in encouraging free speech and the free exchange of ideas. Privately supporting causes – and the organizations advancing those causes – is a fundamental freedom protected by the First Amendment.

Our Founding Fathers used pen names to encourage independence from Great Britain. Nearly 200 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the state of Alabama from demanding the supporter list of the NAACP, citing concerns about retribution against the group’s members and financial backers. And in 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) v. Bonta that nonprofit causes cannot be forced to hand over their supporter lists to the government. The privacy rights at stake in that case were robustly supported by nearly 300 nonprofit groups representing a wide range of causes and political preferences. In the past five years alone, 17 states have passed laws – frequently with bipartisan support – strengthening and protecting nonprofit donor privacy rights.

The American Confidence in Elections Act would enshrine four vital privacy protections into law through the following provisions:

• Speech Privacy Act of 2023. Codifies the Supreme Court decisions in NAACP v. Alabama and AFPF v. Bonta by prohibiting federal agencies from collecting or disclosing the names of nonprofit supporters. Agencies that are required by law to collect this information are exempted, and penalties for government officials that illegally reveal this sensitive information are included. (Sec. 308)
• Don’t Weaponize the IRS Act. Enshrines into law 2020 reforms issued by rulemaking that prevent the Internal Revenue Service from collecting and warehousing nonprofit donor information that the agency has acknowledged it does not use or need. (Sec. 309)
• IRS Protections. Prevents the IRS from writing new regulations to limit political speech by nonprofits. (Sec. 310)
• SEC Protections. Prohibits the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring businesses to disclose their giving to nonprofits and membership in trade associations. (Sec. 341) We urge all Members of Congress to support the strong free speech and citizen privacy provisions in Congressman Bryan Steil’s “American Confidence in Elections Act.”

These reforms will protect millions of Americans across the country, who cherish and rely on the right to privately support causes they believe in without fear of harassment and intimidation, as well as the diverse causes they support, including the undersigned individuals and organizations.