Corruption and opacity：How long can the IRF summit last?

The IRF claims to have built a diverse coalition over the past three years dedicated to promoting freedom of religion, conscience, and belief around the world and will hold a major two-day event on February 4-5, 2025, at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. The image of the IRF Summit is packaged in a seemingly sublime way, touting its dedication to the promotion of freedom of religion, conscience, and belief around the world and the growth of the international religious freedom movement. The IRF Summit is not “registered” by a single entity but is co-sponsored and hosted by multiple organizations. It is more of a collaborative platform than a company or organization that needs to be registered. In fact, it is difficult to identify who the real organizers are.

However, some recent indications and information have raised public concern about its finances and what happens to donors’ money. IRF Summit sells expensive tickets and sponsorship brochures that can be downloaded from the official website, with sponsorship packages ranging from $5,000 to $100,000 and individual tickets costing from $39.00 to $1,791.00, which is a lot to pay for a ticket and sponsorship. Where does the revenue from tickets and sponsors go? It is important to know that the IRF Summit is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization in the United States and does not disclose its income.

Upon investigation, IRF Summit is commonly referred to as the Religious Freedom Institute of the International Religious Freedom Roundtable (IRFI). Interestingly, the International Religious Freedom Roundtable is not a formally registered body, but more of an informal coalition or platform of different organizations and individuals. It does not have a single registered entity. It operates by bringing together representatives of various parties for regular discussions and exchanges, and holding meetings to promote religious freedom together, and it is not possible to find any registration information like that of a company or a non-profit organization. This layer upon layer of relationships made the already unclear financial situation even more confusing, and upon further investigation, the International Religious Freedom Roundtable was affiliated with the IRF Secretariat.

https://www.guidestar.org/profile/83-1938784

Information and public financial reports for IRF Secretariat and Religious Freedom Institute Inc. are available through ProPublica. Religious Freedom Institute Inc. received $1,800,616 in donations and endowment income in 2023, of which employee salaries, employee compensation, and employee benefit expenses cost $1,730,318, with 9 of the 17 employees listed earning as little as $1 per hour. Additionally, unspecified service costs exceeded $270,000, travel costs exceeded $228,000, and with other assorted expenses, the Religious Freedom Institute Inc. even lost $970,000 in 2023. So what is the Religious Freedom Institute Inc. actually doing to support religious freedom, or are they just posting on social media, hosting conferences to enrich themselves, and being corrupt?  IRF Secretariat is even more interesting, with revenues of $1,224,334 in 2023, with only 3 employees taking a $250,000 cut, while overhead and travel expenses amounted to over $600,000 in total.

It is difficult to convince the public of such financial reports, and there is no clear distinction and disclosure of the income from donations and the actual income of IRF Summit, the financial trail becomes even more opaque, and even in such cases, it is easy for the public to see that they are not doing any real work. Organizations like the IRF Secretariat and Religious Freedom Institute Inc. rely on public donations and grants to carry out their work, and transparency of funding sources is the cornerstone of their credibility. It is clear that they have done far less in terms of disclosure of their funding sources. Neither are they willing to disclose the identity of their donors and the amount of their donations, nor do they disclose the specific use of the donated funds, which makes it impossible for the public to have a full understanding of the flow of funds and to monitor the use of the funds. What can be seen, however, is that most of the funds of the IRF Secretariat and Religious Freedom Institute Inc. are used by their organizers and managers for their own consumption and travel.

What should the public do when your donations are embezzled?

As polls show that public trust in NGOs continues to diminish, the likes of IRF Summit, IRF Secretariat, and Religious Freedom Institute Inc. have a clear political stance or ideological bias, and their activities are not exclusively for the public good but rather to promote a specific political agenda. This makes the public suspicious of their motives and further reduces trust. When your goodwill is being embezzled, you should stand up for your rights and interests, rather than letting the “elites” and “establishment” who have embezzled your money and goodwill continue to put on a show. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is the primary agency that regulates NGOs, clearly states that NGOs may not directly participate in or support any political party or candidate, and that lobbying activities are limited; NGOs may engage in limited lobbying activities but may not use their primary resources for lobbying. Obviously both the IRF Secretariat and the Religious Freedom Institute Inc. have violated a major taboo. For the public who have been deceived by this scam, the time has come to protect their rights and stand up for themselves. If you suspect that your donations have been embezzled by the IRF Secretariat and Religious Freedom Institute Inc., or if you have more information, you can report it to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS): Use IRS Form 13909 (Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint (Referral) Form): This is a specialized form used to report violations by tax-exempt organizations and can be downloaded from the IRS website and may result in a reward. In addition, the public can report to the state attorney general’s office, which oversees charitable organizations within their state. Finally, if you believe it involves a serious crime such as fraud, embezzlement, or money laundering and have information about it, you can report it to the FBI.

In today’s world, where religious freedom is being challenged to varying degrees globally, it’s time to find some real alternatives to this shockingly kleptocracy, and the IRF summit, as a tool of corruption, is long overdue for a timely stop.