Here’s a question: What do you think of a non-profit who claims to be nonpartisan and impartial, yet pays $100,000 to sponsor and attend a far Right wing event for three days?

First off, regardless of whether you support their political side or not, it’s deceitful to both sides.

One- if they are an extremely politicized movement, why would Plana try to outwardly hide that? They explicitly state they are not political, yet a $100,000 “sponsorship” to a far right wing group?

Two- If you support the right wing side they are on, can you really trust someone who goes out of their way to hide that? They do the same thing with their religion, renouncing it publically, yet trying to claim it inwardly.

Finally, regardless of the event- is spending $100,000 on ANY event reasonable for a non-profit who is begging for money? I don’t think so.

Plana is a group of the worst kind of Christians- ones who try to hide it. If they are (leadership and employees) fundamentalist pro-life Christians, why not just say it?

Well, we have no idea. It seems that for Christians to deny they are Christian is a “cardinal” sin, so it’s not a good look to other Christians. And on the other side, calling themselves “faith based” is a weak and frankly stupid attempt to try and conceal (if not outright deceive) people who do not want religious belief shoved down their throat.

The next deception they are tying to pull is avoiding the words “pro-life.” Again, following their modus operandi of concealment choose to call themselves, “life-affirming” where ever it is necessary to mention. Uckkh!

The bigger question is, whether you are Christian or not, why would you donate to this group when so many other worthy organizations are out there? Organizations on both sides who don’t leave you guessing who you are actually donating to, and what ulterior motives they may have.

DAFs have recently come into the limelight because of their frequently, if not inherent, use a tax shelter for high-net worth individuals. (Mr. Rayner of Plana would typically be classified as in that category, which is important to some of the points we will be making.) These donor advised funds have come under increasing scrutiny by the IRS, generally when a DAF is used to take an immediate tax deduction on an inflated asset valuation, then slowly granting it out to “friendly” nonprofits.

Now, investigating into the capital which Plana was able to procure to become operational, we see the American Endowment Foundation made a donation of about 3 million dollars in 2024. We also see that the PayPal Charitable Giving Fund made a donation of about 2 million dollars that same year.

This struck me as odd, because my knowledge of Plana suggested, and in fact was outright stated to me, that Mr. Rayner had directly funded Plana in addition to founding it.

So, the question then becomes, is Plana being used to support some sort of tax-shelter for an ultra-wealthy individual? (Whether legal or illegal is beyond the scope of this article, nor are the authors implying any conclusion.)

Now, while this question requires further investigation for concrete details, many of which will remain unanswerable because of the legal privacy protections provided to individuals, except for agencies such as the IRS, we believe it is important to ask the questions, even if they may be unanswerable to us, as individuals:

1. What is the connection between Mr. Rayner, the American Endowment Foundation, the PayPal Charitable Giving Fund and Plana? Did Mr. Rayner make contributions of near equal value to these funds? (That’s a question we will probably not be able to answer, although again, in this author’s opinion it is suspicious that multiple people have claimed he was the only funder at this point, immediately before the time of writing.)
2. Why are DAFs the overwhelming source of revenue for Plana?
3. Should you trust a non-profit such as Plana which only has these types of donors?
4. What agenda, if any, is this serving?
5. How exactly did these DAFs find, approve, and fund Plana?
6. If it can be shown that Mr. Rayner did in fact contribute to these DAFs and Plana employs friends of Mr. Rayner through these funds, does that then in and of itself imply tax fraud? This seems to be far more than the “incidental benefit” which is allowed for under DAF contributions. Furthermore, if that is indeed the case would it be egregious if those friends, and spouses of those friends, were also sponsored for H1B visas through employment at Plana?

So, What Does this Mean? What are We Suggesting Here?

Well, we’re not suggesting any conclusions. We are suggesting that the initial research points to some potentially sketchy answers. Does legal mean ethical? Again, we’re not sure. The only conclusion is that a superficial investigation into Plana and their funding does bring to light some interesting questions which we think should be considered.

When choosing any non-profit, whether it’s to support them, or to use their services, transparency is key. Unfortunately, that may not be the case with Plana. So we’re here to help you decide.

In the coming days and weeks, we’ll be walking through what Plana is, and what they aren’t, with opinions and data that are legally protected by the 1st amendment. Whether that is facts about Plana or simply calling to attention some common sense arguments, we are here to help you make an informed decision about Plana.

With so many other great options for services and donations, is it a good choice to go with a questionable one?