Challenge Overview
I was trying to track some political donations and quickly realized that most of the money moves through a layered system of nonprofits and committees. The challenge asks for the name of the CEO of the organization that donated the most to the Senate Leadership Fund during the 2023-2024 cycle.
Finding the Top Donor
The Senate Leadership Fund is a major Super PAC. Its FEC page for the 2023-2024 cycle is here:
https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00571703/?cycle=2024&tab=raising
Looking through the receipts, the largest organizational donor is One Nation, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that appears repeatedly with very large contributions. A 501(c)(4) can accept unlimited donations and does not need to disclose its original funders, but it can donate to super PACs, which do have to disclose contributors. Because of that structure, the public sees One Nation listed as the donor, but not the individuals or companies behind the money. This is the type of shell game the challenge description refers to.
Checking One Nation’s Leadership
To identify One Nation’s CEO, the most reliable source is its IRS Form 990. You can find these in a variety of places, such as the one from the 2022 filing, which is hosted here:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24489787-one-nation_990_2022/
Opening the PDF and looking at the first page shows the principal officer listed as Steven Law. The signature block confirms he is the President and CEO. What makes the setup interesting is that Steven Law is also the CEO of the Senate Leadership Fund, the very super PAC receiving the money. One Nation can move money into the PAC while keeping its own donor list private, and both groups are run by the same person, which helps illustrate why the process feels like a shell game.
Final Answer
Steven Law