Astroturfing and Nonprofits

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Newspapers that are really just PR magazines are just one side of the ‘Fake News’ coin. But there are still plenty of other levels of ‘Fake’ out there. A few years ago, Last Week Tonight had an episode about the topic of “Astroturfing” or “Fake Grassroots”. It’s basically when a corporate or other interest hides behind a name or message that might make them look like real grassroots organizations or organizations with real grassroots interests. Other names for this phenomenon have been ‘front-group stealth campaigns’. They might look legitimate, but they might also try to distract with one thing and do the complete opposite.

The TV show used examples like:

“Americans Against Food Taxes”, which is actually an organization run by the beverage industry selling sugary drinks
“Save our Tips” is a group of restaurant owners with an Anti-Minimum-Wage background
“The National Wetlands Coalition”, which Time called “a big-biz coalition against wetlands” because it’s run by oil companies and real estate agents.
“The American Council on Science and Health” takes money from companies dealing in fracking, soda, e-cigarettes, chemicals
Humanewatch.org is run by PR expert Rick Berman, who might or might not go by the nickname “Dr. Evil.” It’s probably meant as a compliment.
“Citizens for Fire Safety” – run by three chemical companies

They also mentioned “Crowds for Hire” – a company that provides “paid crisis actors” and speakers if you need more ‘public pressure’. This doesn’t necessarily have to be all bad. The American Council of Science and Health might have some good and solid research, but it also might be mixed in with bizarro science paid for by e-cigarette companies. The “Americans Against Food Taxes” are really against food taxes; it’s just not regular people. And if there was a law against false advertising, one of these front groups would have to change its name to “The National Anti-Wetlands Coalition“.

Business Insider has a few more examples

According to Business Insider these groups aren’t what they seem to be:

“Working Families for Walmart” is really Walmart
“The Alliance of Australian Retailers” was Philip Morris
Comcast paid people to block seats at an FCC hearing about net neutrality
Exxon was behind a YouTube effort to make fun of “An Inconvenient Truth”

It’s not always easy to tell the difference between real grassroots and front-group efforts.

A few historic examples to confuse everybody even more

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) might or might not have been created by Big Game hunters to protect their favorite hobby. To this very day, the WWF has made good and bad excuses about its support of trophy hunting. But if protecting animals is the main goal, does it matter if environmentalists or big game hunters are working on that goal?

Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, was a proponent of birth control but also closely connected to the Eugenics Movement and white supremacy. This begs the question, was pretending to like white supremacy giving her cover to help women? Was bringing birth control to black communities meant as a project promoting equity, or was it driven by her background of ableism and white supremacy?

Do we really have to care about the background of these organizations if they are successful at what they promise to do? History tells us it is better to look behind the curtain and check twice. NPOs can take the weirdest turns depending on who is running them.

NPOs should come with a Warning

Many philanthropists are eager to tell the world that they support Habitat for Humanity, The American Red Cross, Public Radio, Médecins Sans Frontières, Second Harvest, etc. Having a foundation doling out money to charities is important for many altruists, companies, and organizations. That kind of virtue signaling is an important currency in many circles. However, when companies are eager to hide their involvement with certain NPOs as a secret, something could be a little off.

According to Last Week Tonight, PR expert Rick Berman explained to oil industry executives how he could run campaigns for these companies without ever naming them, which kind of sounds shady. His solution was: “We run all of our stuff through nonprofit organizations [NPOs] that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity.“

That is true. Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) can take in mountains of grant money and donations from people or companies and don’t have to disclose them. This is almost as disastrous as the Citizen United decision was for campaign financing reforms. This way, the outside world can’t really tell how much influence these donors have on the people running those nonprofits. All messaging becomes muddy.

“The realms of advertising and public relations, and the nowadays closely related realm of politics, are replete with instances of bullshit so unmitigated that they can serve among the most indisputable and classic paradigms of the concept.“
[Harry G. Frankfurt]

Clues to find Astroturfing NPOs

This is all very complex and confusing and full of tripping hazards. However, there are a few things to check with non-profit organizations (NPOs) to recognize if something is off. Some of the clues would be:

How long does the NPO exist already?
What are their goals, mission statement, and desired outcomes?
Is there a clear and known path to success?
Are there Best Practices to achieve this success?
Is the NPO following those Best Practices?
Is the NPO successful?
Is there amateur or professional leadership?
Is there a ‘virtue signaling’ side hustle going on, something shiny to distract with?

Checking out Local NPOs

While peeking at plans and researching topics, I found many simple solutions to major local problems. But time and again, I kept running into local NPOs. They weren’t much help, but looked like they were self-sabotaging. Of course, this can happen in real grassroots organizations run by inexperienced, unprofessional volunteers. But once you have 5, 10, or 20 salaried employees, a board full of professionals, and grant givers who clearly should know better, any NPO starts to look really, really weird.

In a future post, we will examine a few examples of local NPOs and play a game of ‘Astroturfing or Not’.

More Information

Research: The Influence of Corporate Front-Group Stealth Campaigns
Last Week Tonight: Astroturfing
Business Insider: Fake Grassroots Movements Started By Corporations
News Literacy Project: As Fake As It Sounds

Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in all blog posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Redwood City Pulse or its staff.