Nothing has defined Carly Fiorina's presidential campaign quite like her outspoken opposition to Planned Parenthood — a point she has brought up repeatedly at debates and press conferences. It might seem odd, then, that her Fiorina Foundation is run by an organization that has given half a million dollars to Planned Parenthood since 2011.
The Fiorina Foundation isn't actually, legally, a foundation, per se; it's an account Fiorina and her husband hold with The Ayco Charitable Foundation, a "donor-advised fund" that stashes charitable donations for clients in case they want to quickly receive tax benefits, The Daily Beast explains. One expert on the topic described it as "a charitable savings account"; Fiorina's account just happens to be run by a charitable foundation, Ayco, that gives money to her supposed archenemy, distributing money to five Planned Parenthoods across New York, Connecticut, and Indiana:
If Fiorina feels as strongly as she claims that it's an abomination for American tax dollars — including hers — to be forced to help fund Planned Parenthood, it's perplexing that she would elect to be associated with any group that feels comfortable giving money to Planned Parenthood by choice — on behalf of an individual or not.Asked if Fiorina has a problem with Ayco distributing funds to Planned Parenthood, and if she's ever lobbied them to stop, [Fiorina's deputy campaign manager Sarah Isgur] Flores said, "Carly has no control over those clients and their giving preferences."Asked why Fiorina doesn’t just find a donor-advised fund that vows never to give money to Planned Parenthood on behalf of anyone, Flores didn't respond. [The Daily Beast]
The anonymity factor makes it hard to sort through Fiorina's possible motivations. As nonprofit consultant Al Cantor told The Daily Beast, it's a bit of an unsolved mystery. "[Fiorina] may be very generous and we don’t know it, or she may have not given any money out of her fund but got the charitable deduction [anyway], or she may have given to organizations she would rather not be associated with," Cantor said.
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Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Fiorina Foundation had donated directly to Planned Parenthood. It has since been corrected. We regret the error.
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