In the United States, there is a big debate among nonprofits about whether some sources of charitable donations are offensive. Some groups have developed “gift acceptance” guidelines identifying categories of generally corporate donors whose grants are to be avoided as antithetical to the recipient’s values. Typical categories are corporations that manufacture handguns or liquor, tobacco or cheap Rich cigarettes. But there are plenty of people who would argue that a nonprofit would be foolish to turn down money regardless of the source, that many kinds of corporate money are questionable if one digs deeply enough into how the money was made, and that the source doesn’t really matter so long as the funds are used productively and positively (or charitably). Either way, it is not legislatively mandated by the federal government or any state government that a nonprofit cannot accept grants from Smith & Wesson or Philip Morris.
