Making tax-deductible donations to Meduza A breakdown of our partnership with Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress

For the first time ever, thanks to our new partnership with Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress, it is now possible for U.S. residents to make tax-deductible donations to Meduza. You can send your donations by credit card, check, bank transfer, wire transfer, or gift of stock.

How may you donate? 

For Donors Outside the United States: To receive instructions on making donations using international wire transfers or stock transfers, please write to support@meduza.io, and we will provide all the necessary details.

Absolutely not! We have our own dedicated crowdfunding page here, where you can pledge one-time or recurring donations using a credit card, bank transfer, crypto, or PayPal account. To claim a tax deduction in the United States on your donations, however, you will need to support Meduza through Mother Jones.

Recurring donations help us the most! And if you can’t afford to support Meduza at this time, we also benefit greatly from readers who spread the word about our work, expanding our audience and alerting potential future donors to our need for crowdfunding. And please tell your friends and colleagues about the opportunity to make tax-deductible donations to Meduza!

If you know Meduza but aren’t familiar with Mother Jones, bless your heart. Founded in 1976, Mother Jones is America’s oldest investigative news organization. Today, it reaches millions of people each month via its website, social media, videos, email newsletters, and print magazine. Based in San Francisco with offices in Washington, DC, and New York, Mother Jones is a nonprofit, reader supported news organization. Like Meduza, its mission is to deliver hard-hitting reporting that inspires change and combats “alternative facts.”

Mother Jones is an award-winning news outlet that focuses on money in politics, democracy and voting rights, climate change, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, and gun safety in America.

The Foundation for National Progress is the nonprofit parent organization that publishes Mother Jones.

A tax-deductible donation allows you to deduct cash or property you transfer to a qualified organization. A qualified organization includes nonprofit religious, charity, or educational groups. A tax exemption excludes certain income, revenue, or even taxpayers from tax altogether.

The exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) are charitable, educational, literary, and a whole lot more (even fostering national or international amateur sports competitions).

In the United States, the term “charitable” is used in its generally accepted legal sense and includes advancement of education or science; defending human and civil rights secured by law; eliminating prejudice and discrimination; and again a whole lot more.

Charitable contributions to an IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) public charity can only reduce your tax bill if you choose to itemize your taxes. Generally, you’d itemize when the combined total of your anticipated deductions — including charitable gifts — add up to more than the standard deduction.

The standard deduction in the U.S. for married couples filing jointly for tax year 2023 is $27,700. For single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately, the standard deduction is $13,850, and for heads of households, the standard deduction is $20,800.

Meduza is based in Europe, not the U.S., and a fiscal sponsorship involves an existing 501(c)(3) nonprofit (in this case, the Foundation for National Progress) offering to provide its tax-exemption and associated benefits to another group (in this case, Meduza). The project should generally be aligned with the overall mission of the sponsoring charity, which in this case is true, as we’re both committed to independent journalism.

Donors wishing to support the activity give directly to the sponsoring organization, designating their gift to the activity. Tax-deductibility of the gift is provided by the fact that the sponsor has 501(c)(3) status.

The fiscal sponsorship is just the latest example of Mother Jones’ efforts to aid Meduza. Last year, it led the U.S. portion of an international campaign of solidarity in which newsrooms encouraged their readers to support the Russian outlet.

Mother Jones has a history of helping mission-oriented news outlets and organizations that need administrative support to get off the ground. It currently is a fiscal sponsor for the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism, and We the People; and previously assisted Freedom of the Press Foundation, Climate Access, Pop-Up Magazine (later known as The California Sunday Magazine), and Hyphen Magazine.

Yup. Fiscal sponsorship is a contractual relationship that allows a person or organization that is not tax-exempt to advance charitable or otherwise exempt activities with the benefit of the tax-exempt status of a sponsor organization that is exempt from federal income tax under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501(c)(3).

Fiscal sponsorship can be a great tool for fulfilling a client’s charitable goals without necessarily requiring the formation of a new nonprofit entity, application for tax-exempt status, or compliance with ongoing filing and registration requirements.

Write to us at support@meduza.io or meduza@motherjones.com, and we’ll answer any remaining questions!