U.S. Family Network - Nature of Organization

Nature of Organization

"The fifteen-year lease on the skybox suggests that the group is doing a different kind of grassroots lobbying. Frances Hill, a University of Pennsylvania professor, who studies the political activities of tax-exempt groups, seemed bewildered by the group’s lobbying. 'What I can’t figure out is what type of lobbying they are doing,' Hill said. 'Usually a (c)4 is going to do expertise-type lobbying, which includes studies, reports and press conferences and publicly disseminating information. . . . They may have invented a way to turn lobbying into an entertainment activity, rather than an information activity. Have they really found a way to make direct lobbying a means to maintain what looks like a slush fund?'

"Hill also questioned the amount of money U.S. Family spent on fundraising: $665,863 in expenses in 1998, with 60 percent of it going to fundraising and consulting. In 1998 Buckham told Roll Call that he held the fundraising contract and raised money all over the country for U.S. Family. But fundraising in 1998 should not have been so labor-intensive and costly. One donor gave the group $1 million, and other large contributions included a $150,000, a $100,000, and two gifts of $50,000 – not the sort of contributions that require a big investment in mass mail and phone banks. 'They’re not mailing,' Hill said. 'They are going to the skybox. And one assumes that ordinary citizens are not going there.' (The PAC withholds the names of its donors.) The PAC’s mission statement on its tax return is the 'Promotion of social welfare for American Families' and funding projects to 'promote sound family values legislation.' The skybox, according to Thomas Susman, a lobbying law expert consulted by Roll Call, 'wouldn’t be grassroots.'"