The Texas Organizing Project Education Fund is the fundraising counterpart to the Texas Organizing Project, a left-of-center political advocacy group oriented towards organizing Black and Latino residents of Texas’s largest metropolitan areas through statewide advocacy campaigns. 1
Background
The Texas Organizing Project Education Fund (sometimes styled “Taking Texas to the TOP”), was founded after its parent organization the Texas Organizing Project in October 2010 as 501(c)(3) charitable fundraising and educational advocacy organization. 1
In August 2012, Cause of Action, a center-right nonprofit watchdog group, submitted a request to then-Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner Douglas Shulman to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund. The request alleged, among other things, that the organization was not adequately complying with public disclosure requirements and that it was serving as a conduit for tax-deductible contributions to its parent group the Texas Organizing Project. 2
Funding
In 2017, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, a center-left private foundation based in San Francisco, California, made a grant of $50,000 to the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund. 3
In August 2018, the Open Philanthropy Project, a center-left funding nonprofit based in Palo Alto, California, recommended a grant of $56,000 to the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund to support its work with MOVE, a left-of-center voter-mobilization nonprofit. 4
Leadership
Debra Walker was the acting president of the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund as of 2021. Walker was also the president of the East Sunnyside Court civic association. 5
References
- “TEXAS ORGANIZING PROJECT EDUCATION FUND.” ProPublica. Accessed May 3, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/271481855
- “Request for Revocation of Tax-Exempt Status and Investigation of Texas Organzing Project and Texas Organzing Project Education Fund.” Cause of Action. August 21, 2012. Accessed May 3, 2021. http://causeofaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/2012-8-21-Request-for-Revocation-of-Tax-Exempt-Status-of-TOP-and-TOP-ED.pdf?e129f2
- [1] “Texas Organizing Project Education Fund.” Walter and Elise Haas Fund. 2017. Accessed May 3, 2021. https://haassr.org/grant/texas-organizing-project-education-fund/
- “Texas Organizing Project Education Fund.” Open Philanthropy. August 2018. Accessed May 3, 2021. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/criminal-justice-reform/texas-organizing-project-education-fund-working-with-move-san-antonio-foundation
- Lewis, Brooke A. “In the ’60s, Sunnyside thrived. Debra Walker wants that again.” Houston Chronichle march 2, 2016. Accessed May 3, 2021. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Sunnyside-6851488.php?t=da46fe2229438d9cbb&cmpid=twitter-premium&fbclid=IwAR1P3wCYccVmJ1eDl4PmQ71GkPMYjXKNfXrCxw8frCyGgdW8wy7q53K7fzw