New tax documents detail how Big Tech underwrites advocacy efforts

New previously unreported tax filings reviewed by Issue One illustrate how Big Tech helps underwrite advocacy efforts to weaken, dilute, and kill legislative and regulatory efforts to provide meaningful consumer protections for tech products and social media platforms.

“Policymakers and the public deserve to know if innocuously named organizations are independent actors or carrying water for special interests,” said Issue One Senior Research Director Michael Beckel. “Like Big Oil and Big Tobacco before them, Big Tech is using every tool at its disposal to wield influence and curry favor with government officials tasked with protecting our kids, our country, and our future. Strategically funding advocacy efforts helps create an echo chamber that prevents real accountability.”

Earlier this month, a coalition of mental health, youth-serving, and online-safety advocacy organizations — including Issue One — launched a new pledge that calls on nonprofits across the country to publicly disclose any funding or partnerships they receive from Big Tech companies.

While scores of tech-funded nonprofits exist, recently filed annual tax returns reviewed by Issue One illuminate three such cases that have not previously received much attention.

Patriot Voices is a “social welfare” organization registered under Sec. 501(c)(4) of the tax code that was founded in 2012 by former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and his wife Karen. It has been actively opposing the Kids Online Safety Act, bipartisan legislation that passed the Senate in 2024 on a 91-3 vote that would give kids and parents more tools to protect their information, disable addictive product features, opt out of algorithmic recommendations, and enable the strongest safety settings by default.

New tax filings show Patriot Voices raised roughly $740,000 in 2024 — and more than 75% came from the tech-funded trade association NetChoice, whose members include tech giants Alphabet (the parent company of Google and YouTube), Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), and X (formerly known as Twitter). NetChoice contributed $580,000. In fact, no other nonprofit funded in 2024 by NetChoice received more money than Patriot Voices.

Additionally, the Stop Child Predators Partnership is registered with the IRS as a charitable organization under Sec. 501(c)(3) of the tax code. Along with its related 501(c)(4) arm, the Stop Child Predators Coalition, it has supported legislation that increases criminal penalties and monitoring for sexual offenders against children.

Tax documents available on ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer database and reviewed by Issue One show that the Stop Child Predators Partnership raised about $125,000 between January 2023 and December 2024. During this two-year period, 99.9% of its funding came from Meta, including 99.9% of its funding in 2024 (when Meta gave $75,000) and 100% in 2023 (when Meta gave $50,410).

Meanwhile, 100% of the $210,000 raised in 2023 by the Stop Child Predators Coalition came from NetChoice — the second-largest grant the tech-funded trade association made that year. It is not immediately clear what individuals, companies, or organizations accounted for the $95,000 the Stop Child Predators Coalition raised in 2024. This means NetChoice accounted for roughly 70% of the $305,000 the Stop Child Predators Coalition raised during the past two years.

Only when such nonprofits disclose their financial relationships with Big Tech can the public and policymakers accurately assess these groups’ messages and advocacy efforts.