Richard Spencer’s Nonprofit Regains Tax-Exempt Status

White nationalist Richard Spencer’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit has regained its tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, the Associated Press reports. The Virginia-based National Policy Institute lost its tax-exempt status over a year ago after it failed to file tax returns for three consecutive years. “When we lost it, it did feel like persecution, to be honest,” Spencer told the AP. He also said regaining tax-exempt status was a “nice, small victory” after getting “de-platformed” by online payment platforms like PayPal and Stripe. Spencer also said the National Policy Institute “went through a long process” to get the status back and insisted that it was cleared by the IRS. “They’ve looked through everything, and we came out fine,” he said. The AP reports that the institute raised $697,267 in tax-deductible contributions between 2007 and 2015. In a 2015 tax filing, Spencer listed the institute’s tax-exempt purpose as to “conduct research and nonpartisan analyses and education on public issues, including social, cultural, and governance issues affecting the (U.S.) and other nations in the world.”