House Republicans advanced a dark money bill last week that could force new disclosure on Freedom 250. The proposal would make charities spell out fiscal sponsorship details on their tax returns, putting a Trump-linked project under a brighter legal spotlight.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent backed the measure last week, saying it “complements Treasury's work to improve transparency, strengthen tax administration, and provide cle.” The bill would hit funds routed “improperly” through fiscal sponsorship with a 20% tax, rising to 100% if the money is not corrected.
Freedom 250 and the Park Foundation
Freedom 250 sits inside the National Park Foundation as a “wholly owned subsidiary.” The foundation created the special subsidiary in October 2025 and established it in Delaware.
President Trump said Freedom 250 would throw America “the most spectacular birthday party you've ever seen.” The National Park Foundation said the unit provided the Park Service with “access to the expertise needed for planning and executing the events” for the 250th.
Freedom 250 is organized as a limited liability company and files no tax return of its own. Money raised in its name legally belongs to the National Park Foundation, which received roughly $90 million in federal dollars to support the celebration.
House Ways and Means Committee
Under the bill, the National Park Foundation would likely have to report how much money moved through Freedom 250 and who manages it. It would not have to list Freedom 250’s individual donors, but the arrangement would no longer sit behind the same level of silence on the annual return.
That gap is the point of the fight. Freedom 250 separately solicited seven-figure donations from corporate sponsors without filing any public financial disclosures of its own, and there is no standalone accounting for how much flowed through the project or how it was spent.
Brian Mittendorf, an Ohio State University professor who specializes in nonprofit accounting, said, “There's always been this challenge for transparency,” about charity disclosure rules. The bill would push that issue onto a project tied to America’s 250th anniversary while leaving one blunt question hanging: how much money has Freedom 250 actually raised and how has it been spent?
