Bisexual fundaising and earmarked donations

No, not those kind of earmarks--I mean donations made to a charity but designated to benefit an individual. Typically such gifts are not tax-deductible, since the gift is going to serve specified persons rather than an indefinite charitable class. But this law-related fundraiser going around the blogosphere is claiming otherwise. The cause: a blogger alleged by his ex-wife to be an unfit parent because he is bisexual.

I'm not going to state an opinion on the case itself, but I personally would be a bit more cautious re the claims of deductibility in the fundraising. The IRS does not tend to look kindly on deductions for personal earmarks, and if it gets the sense that the charity is little more than a flow-through fundraising for private parties going through divorce and custody battles it could get a bit cranky with the 501(c)(3) as well.

There's at least one way you could structure the distribution so that it that might--no guarantees--survive an audit or appeal, but who wants to go through that? At the very least, I'd omit the second sentence in the following appeal, which is something of a red flag:

Please consider a tax-deductible contribution to help us help him and others similarly situated. Contributions earmarked for this case will be disbursed accordingly.

Of course, your legal mileage may differ, as the SFLDEF's apparently does, so do what you feel you can and don't listen to me, because, let's face it, I'm just some dopey blogger. If you want to learn more about the case itself, here's a post that folks are linking back to as a hub for the effort, but you might not want to click there unless your boss is into vividly illustrated online Sex Carnivals.