# "Trump Foundation lacks the certification required for charities that solicit money" **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 30, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297 "2016-09-30T18:37:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/1 "2016-09-30T18:37:52Z")
It certainly is hard to keep up with the flood of discoveries and revelations about Trump and his foundation. As a grant writer who worked for dozens of legitimate charitable organizations over the past 38 years, I find this latest revelation rather delicious. **[Trump Foundation lacks the certification required for charities that solicit money](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/2016/09/29/7dac6a68-8658-11e6-ac72-a29979381495_story.html)** This is pretty yuuuuge. > [@](#): > > Donald Trump’s charitable foundation — which has been sustained for years by donors outside the Trump family — has never obtained the certification that New York requires before charities can solicit money from the public, according to the state attorney general’s office. > > Under the laws in New York, where the Donald J. Trump Foundation is based, any charity that solicits more than $25,000 a year from the public must obtain a special kind of registration beforehand. Charities as large as Trump’s must also submit to a rigorous annual audit that asks — among other things — whether the charity spent any money for the personal benefit of its officers… Sorry, if someone has already mentioned this. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/2 "2016-09-30T18:44:10Z")
It seems the purpose of this foundation is to accept money that was actually owed to Trump (and then give the “donor” a tax receipt), and then turn around and use foundation money to pay Trump’s legal bills and fines. Now we find out that the foundation is not really legal anyway. Quelle surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/3 "2016-09-30T18:57:25Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > It seems the purpose of this foundation is to accept money that was actually owed to Trump (and then give the “donor” a tax receipt), and then turn around and use foundation money to pay Trump’s legal bills and fines. > > Now we find out that the foundation is not really legal anyway. Quelle surprise. Well if they did jump through all the hoops required to make it legal, then it would have been audited and all of those dealings that you correctly call its main purpose would have been verboten. So the two necessarily go hand in hand. The nice thing about these scandals is that it makes any criticism of the Clinton Foundation by Trump massively hypocritical. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/4 "2016-09-30T18:59:10Z")
It wasn’t already? Maybe upscale “massive” from “planetary” to " galactic". ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/5 "2016-09-30T19:03:44Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > The nice thing about these scandals is that it makes any criticism of the Clinton Foundation by Trump massively hypocritical. If only the typical Trump voter cared. This won’t change one person’s vote. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/6 "2016-09-30T19:07:00Z")
Yeah, but the thought of him having to give all that money back is delicious! ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/7 "2016-09-30T19:07:38Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > It seems the purpose of this foundation is to accept money that was actually owed to Trump (and then give the “donor” a tax receipt), and then turn around and use foundation money to pay Trump’s legal bills and fines. Well, to be fair, it seems like Trump’s favorite charity is himself. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/8 "2016-09-30T19:19:06Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > The nice thing about these scandals is that it makes any criticism of the Clinton Foundation by Trump massively hypocritical. Please. This is the candidate who says “I’ll release my tax returns when I see a birth certificate” and then doesn’t. Now he says “I’ll release my tax returns when I see those emails/speeches” and somehow his supporters think that’s an equivalent, even though every other candidate has already released the tax return. Trumps response to all of this will be something like “If there are problems in the Trump Foundation, just imagine how much worse the Clinton Foundation is. I’ll audit my foundation right after Hillary audits her foundation” which his supporters will eat up. The fact that Hillary has audited her foundation is practically an admission of guilt in their eyes. Her auditors must be covering something up, that’s it. We need the long form audit. Eight years from now, Trump will claim to have done us all a great service in making sure the Clinton Foundation was properly audited. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/9 "2016-09-30T20:12:44Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > Well, to be fair, it seems like Trump’s favorite charity is himself. Yeah. Some of the money bought portraits of Trump which hang in his clubs, which is illegal also. Please Og, let the October surprise be ten state AGs filing lawsuits against Trump and his properties. If any of this is criminal a Trump perp walk would be nice also. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/10 "2016-09-30T20:15:33Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > If only the typical Trump voter cared. This won’t change one person’s vote. This needs to be repeated constantly: **Trump needs more than his hardcore base**. His hardcore base won’t care if he sucker-punches an abbeyful of nuns, absolutely–but they’re not enough to win the election. He also needs some of the folks who are uncomfortable with him but want conservative Supreme Court justices, or who hate Clinton more than him, or who don’t like the idea of casting their first-ever vote for a Democrat. The more this sort of stuff comes up, the more of those waverers will stay home, or vote for Johnson, or even vote for Clinton. This election will be won at the margins. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/11 "2016-09-30T20:34:55Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > The more this sort of stuff comes up, the more of those waverers will stay home, or vote for Johnson, or even vote for Clinton. How much more stuff. Cause this charity stuff alone seems like it would bring down an organized crime family, but the polls don’t move on it at all. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/12 "2016-09-30T20:42:14Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > How much more stuff. Cause this charity stuff alone seems like it would bring down an organized crime family, but the polls don’t move on it at all. Trickle down scandal. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/13 "2016-09-30T20:42:38Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > How much more stuff. Cause this charity stuff alone seems like it would bring down an organized crime family, Wait – _are_ the Trumps an organized crime family? I saw a movie once with a hothead who got his start in business from his father, and loved having people talk about the size of his penis, and thinks he knows more about the use of force than folks who served in uniform, and could easily be goaded into wild overreactions, and – hang on; _is_ there a difference between Donald Trump and Sonny Corleone? ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/14 "2016-09-30T20:54:28Z")
Be pretty funny if the guy won only to be brought up on RICO charges brought on by the publicity of the campaign. That said, is there a potential RICO charge here? ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/15 "2016-09-30T21:00:18Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Wait – _are_ the Trumps an organized crime family? I saw a movie once with a hothead who got his start in business from his father, and loved having people talk about the size of his penis, and thinks he knows more about the use of force than folks who served in uniform, and could easily be goaded into wild overreactions, and – hang on; _is_ there a difference between Donald Trump and Sonny Corleone? Sonny actually did punch out people while Trump just says he’d like to. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/16 "2016-09-30T21:17:38Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > Be pretty funny if the guy won only to be brought up on RICO charges brought on by the publicity of the campaign. > > That said, is there a potential RICO charge here? I remember seeing something about it (might have been here), but I can’t figure out where. Can we get a lawyer in here please? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/17 "2016-09-30T21:24:44Z")
By my count we have about six admitted lawyers here, I think the rest pretend they are drummers and used car salesmen. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/18 "2016-09-30T21:25:31Z")
I think the Trumps are a **dis** -organized crime family. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/19 "2016-09-30T22:18:56Z")
His financials and companies are the reason I did not think mr. trump would allow his campaign to get this far. I reckoned on him dropping out when he would have to disclose his financials. That he couldn’t stand the scrutiny. Now i’m figuring that his ego has over ridden any sense of self preservation, and that he believes that he can get away with anything. It would be lovely if this totally brought down his very gaudy little empire. After his older sons comments I’m not fashed if it brings them down as well. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2016, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297/20 "2016-10-01T00:52:56Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > By my count we have about six admitted lawyers here, I think the rest pretend they are drummers and used car salesmen. People who play drums or traveling salesmen? Neither are positives, but the salesmen smell better. You gotta know the territory! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/767297.md?page=2)