The foreign influence in the United States is the target of new legislation introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who says adversaries have long exploited tax-exempt organizations to promote hostile interests.
Cotton unveiled the Nonprofit Governance Integrity Act on Wednesday, a measure that would bar foreign nationals connected to countries such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from serving on the boards of American nonprofits. Groups that fail to comply would lose their tax-exempt status. “Nonprofits that receive tax breaks should be completely free from malign foreign influence,” Cotton said. “Organizations run by adversarial foreign nationals should not benefit from our tax code.”
The bill follows years of warnings about how wealthy oligarchs and regime-linked figures used U.S. charities to sanitize reputations and advance foreign policy goals. The Anti-Corruption Data Collective reported in 2022 that at least seven Russian oligarchs “directly connected to U.S. political interference campaigns” funneled over “$372 million to more than 200 American nonprofits over the past 20 years.” Donations went to major institutions including Harvard University, the Mayo Clinic, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Kennedy Center.
China has adopted similar strategies. The China General Chamber of Commerce and the China-United States Exchange Foundation both maintain extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party while operating under U.S. nonprofit status. The Alavi Foundation, linked to the Iranian government, was accused by federal prosecutors in 2017 of violating sanctions and coordinating with Tehran.
Cotton’s legislation has already drawn interest from House Republicans seeking to strengthen oversight of groups like the Energy Foundation and the People’s Forum, which congressional investigators flagged in 2024. The bill could mark one of the most aggressive moves yet to shut down foreign influence operations that exploit America’s nonprofit sector.
