Funder of Super Bowl "He Gets Us" ad also funds many groups including AIG and the DI via dark money

The funder of the “He Gets Us” ad broadcast during the Super Bowl also funds many groups including Answers in Genesis and the Discovery Institute via dark money techniques.

Several investigators have recently looked into The Servant Foundation because they funded the “He Gets Us” Super Bowl advertisements for Jesus (for example Americans United and Rebecca Watson, aka Skepchick). Both AU and Skepchick discovered that, in spite of the liberal-sounding nature of the Super Bowl advertising, the Servant Foundation also has donated to numerous fundamentalist Christian Nationalist hate groups. Apparently, the Servant Foundation is a “donor-advised fund” and receives donations for a number of worthy causes as well as cringeworthy hateful groups. Because of loopholes in the tax laws, people can donate to the Servant Foundation and see that their money goes to their favorite extremist groups via a “donor-advised fund” without their identity being revealed; this is basically “dark-money.”

Amazingly, The Servant Foundation, doing business as “The Signatry,” presently has assets approaching $1 billion. I looked at their publicly available IRS Form 990’s for 2016 to 2020 and, besides a handful of small donations to worthy organizations, and many organizations of whom I am unaware, there were a number of donations to far-right, generally Christian Nationalist, organizations. I have mentioned below a number of them that are listed in the Form 990 from 4/1/20 to 3/31/21.

Both Answers in Genesis and the Discovery Institute have received monies from The Servant Foundation, presumably via a “donor-advised fund.” Since 2016, Answers in Genesis has received $19,349,691.00, and the Discovery Institute, $750,600.00.

Although AIG seems to have difficulty with the shrinking number of paid tickets at the Ark Encounter, they will never go broke because of donations, including these by The Servant Foundation’s donor-advised fund. So who is supplying this dark money to the creationists? Without donor transparency, this question may be impossible to answer. Kentucky media are shrinking and only rarely cover AIG and the Ark.

Supporting information below:

The Servant Foundation’s IRS Form 990’s are available via this website .

The Servant Foundation doing business as The Signatry:

Form 990, 4/1/20 and ending 3/31/21

End of the year assets $974,727,606.00 Form 990, Schedule I, Part II, Grants and Other Assistance to Domestic Organizations and Domestic Governments.

Answers in Genesis: $10,552,200.00

Other groups that interested me and are listed as receiving donations (this is a far from a comprehensive list) include:

Academy for Climate and Energy Analysis, Inc. Shawnee, Kansas, $5,500.00 (a tiny group run by a former TV weatherman that promotes anti-climate change disinformation. Seems mostly to be repeating Heartland Institute disinformation. https://aceanalysis.org/).

Alliance Defending Freedom, $16,657,150.00 (far right fundamentalist organization in spite of the Orwellian name, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/alliance_defending_freedom.

American Center for Law and Justice, $44,636.00 (basically, Pat Robertson’s legal arm, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Center_for_Law_%26_Justice)

American Family Association, $8,550.00 (a huge fundamentalist Christian Nationalist organization, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Family_Associatio).

Creation Instruction Association, Inc., Juanita, Nebraska, $5,500.00 (a creationist organization that has a “Seismosaurus Mobile Museum” in an 18 wheeler truck. Lots of dinosaurs with humans dioramas, and also some real and replica fossils, https://www.creationinstruction.org/). A minor player, but still…

Discovery Institute, $250,500.00 (the leading “intelligent design” creationist organization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Institute. Yep, they are still out there).

Edchoice Kentucky, Inc., Frankfort KY, $10,000.00 (a small organization here in Kentucky that advocates governmental support for charter and “non-public ” schools, https://edchoiceky.com/).

God’s Not Dead Foundation doing business as Pure Flix, $15,000.00 (Pure Flix is partnered with Answers in Genesis so you can watch Ken Ham videos to your heart’s content if you join).

Institute for Creation Research, Dallas, TX, $11,000.00 (the granddaddy of creationist “science” organizations. Relatively tiny now that AiG is the biggest creationist ministry).

Jordan B. Peterson Institute, Witchita, Kansas, $12,500.00 (Peterson has an inexplicable right wing young male anti-feminist following as a psychologist and amateur philosopher).

Prager University Foundation, Owings Mills, Maryland, $220,750.00 (a “university.” Note that I use scare-quotes here, as actual universities are not based on a large collection of YouTube videos, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PragerU).

Form 990, 4/1/19 and ending 3/31/20

End of the year assets, $699,516,453.00 Form 990, Schedule I, Part II, Grants and Other Assistance to Domestic Organizations and Domestic Governments.

Answers in Genesis, $7,764,000.00

Discovery Institute, $250,000.00

Form 990, 4/1/18 and ending 3/31/19

End of the year assets, $666,786,525.00 Form 990, Schedule I, Part II, Grants and Other Assistance to Domestic Organizations and Domestic Governments.

Answers in Genesis, $1,025,575.00

Discovery Institute, $250,100.00

Form 990, 4/1/17 and ending 3/31/18

End of the year assets, $3,516,408.00 Form 990, Schedule I, Part II, Grants and Other Assistance to Domestic Organizations and Domestic Governments.

Answers in Genesis, $0

Discovery Institute, $0

Form 990, 4/1/16 and ending 3/31/17

End of the year assets, $4,471,589.00 Form 990, Schedule I, Part II, Grants and Other Assistance to Domestic Organizations and Domestic Governments.

Answers in Genesis, $7,921.00

Discovery Institute, $0

Nothing in older IRS Form 990’s that are available.

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