LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – It looks like charity doesn’t always mean feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless or rescuing puppies. Sometimes it means registering voters and making millions of voter contacts – including in Michigan, one of the nation’s biggest political battlegrounds.
A new Capital Research Center (CRC) report alleges a network of tax-exempt nonprofits spent hundreds of millions of dollars on voter registration and turnout efforts that were officially nonpartisan but often focused on groups more likely to vote Democratic.
MORE NEWS: Michigan Deer Die-Off Raises Alarm
And Michigan was right in the middle of it.
Welcome to the Battleground
CRC examined dozens of major nonprofit voter-registration and get-out-the-vote organizations and says the network spent about $638 million during the 2024 election cycle.
One of the groups highlighted is State Voices, a network that says it supports civic engagement organizations across the country. CRC describes it as a major organizing hub for left-leaning voter- turnout groups. The organization says its work helps build political power with Black, Indigenous, Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and other people of color.
State Voices reported that its network made more than 179.3 million voter contacts and collected over 840,000 registration applications nationwide in 2024. Michigan alone accounted for more than 18 million voter contacts.
Nonpartisan – With Convenient Results
The bigger question raised by CRC is whether charitable organizations that legally must remain nonpartisan are helping produce partisan political results.
The report points to America Votes Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) charity that CRC says spent $20.7 million, with most of the money going to its affiliated advocacy organization, America Votes.
MORE NEWS: Boo, Humbug: Traverse City Puts the Squeeze on Popular Halloween Attraction
America Votes itself makes no secret about its political goals. America Votes also describes itself as a coordination hub for the “progressive community” working to advance progressive policies and win elections. Following the 2024 election, the organization said its voter program contributed to Democrats’ Senate wins in Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin.
The Michigan Connection Gets Bigger
CRC also highlights the Voter Participation Center and other organizations that focus voter- registration efforts on groups they consider underrepresented, including younger voters, unmarried women and racial minorities. VPC’s own research later found turnout among those groups was actually higher in 2024 than in 2020 in several battleground states, including Michigan.
None of this means Michigan votes were fraudulent or illegally cast. The issue raised by CRC is about who finances voter-registration efforts, which voters are targeted and whether tax-deductible charities are staying on the nonpartisan side of the line.
That distinction matters because the report alleges groups used a web of affiliated 501(c)(3)s and 501(c)(4)s to funnel millions of dollars between organizations, blurring the line between tax-exempt charitable activity and political advocacy.
Where Nonpartisan Ends and Politics Begins
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said federal officials are examining large 501(c)(3) organizations that have affiliated 501(c)(4) groups, including how money moves between them and whether any have crossed legal boundaries.
The arrangements highlighted by CRC are not, by themselves, proof of illegal activity. But the report raises a bigger question for Michigan voters: When tax-exempt groups calling themselves nonpartisan target Democratic-leaning demographics, move millions between affiliated organizations and tout election results benefiting Democrats, where does charitable voter outreach end and partisan political activity begin?
