Charles Schwab's charitable fund has become a favorite vehicle for funding right-wing causes tied to influential conservative activist Leonard Leo.
The major donor-advised fund gave $141 million to a group associated with Leo between July 2022 and June 2023, according to a new tax filing with the Internal Revenue Service.
In total, the Schwab Charitable Fund has given more than a quarter billion dollars to the Leo-connected 85 Fund in two years, helping to fund conservative campaigns against racial justice education in schools and healthcare for transgender people, among other causes.
Another Leo-linked group gave more than $150 million to the Schwab Charitable Fund in 2022, showing how the fund can act as a pass-through for money from big donors and fundraisers.
Leo received $1.6 billion from a major GOP donor — one of the largest-ever single political donations — in 2021 through his group Marble Freedom Trust. Marble Freedom Trust then gave $153.75 million to Schwab Charitable Fund in 2022.
It's unclear from the filings whether those two transactions are related.
Schwab-Leo Ties
The Schwab Charitable donor-advised fund is not required to disclose the identities of the donors whose money it handles. But together, the filings show how central the Schwab fund and Leo have become to the flow of conservative funding in the U.S.
Schwab Charitable is a separate legal entity from Charles Schwab.
Meghan Miller, a spokesperson for Schwab Charitable, said the fund "facilitates grants recommended by donors for qualified charitable purposes to 501(c)(3) charitable organizations deemed eligible by the IRS and state regulators. Grants recommended by donors do not reflect the values or beliefs of Schwab Charitable, Schwab, or its management."
The 85 Fund didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
