# Jeffersonian Project The **501(c)(4) sister organization** of [[ALEC]], created in 2013 to absorb overtly political and lobbying activity that could threaten ALEC's core 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. ## Founding context ALEC's 501(c)(3) classification — the "educational" category that allows tax-deductible contributions — prohibits substantial lobbying. For decades ALEC had operated in a gray zone, claiming that its model-bill drafting and legislator-education work did not constitute lobbying. By the early 2010s, with IRS scrutiny of right-wing tax-exempt groups intensifying after the [[Citizens United v. FEC]] era and with watchdog groups like [[Common Cause]] and the Center for Media and Democracy filing complaints, the internal legal risk was rising. The Jeffersonian Project was created in 2013 — per *The Guardian* and internal ALEC documents obtained by Center for Media and Democracy — to insulate ALEC's core entity from that exposure. The Guardian quoted the setup memo: ALEC "has set up a separate sister group called the 'Jeffersonian Project' [designated as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization] amid concerns over possible government inquiries into whether its activities constitute lobbying." ## Structural design The Jeffersonian Project is a common right-wing-movement structural pattern: | Entity | Tax status | Activity | |---|---|---| | American Legislative Exchange Council | 501(c)(3) | "Education" — model bill drafting, conferences, publishing | | Jeffersonian Project | 501(c)(4) | Lobbying, advocacy, political positioning | Same staff. Same members. Same board overlap. Different IRS forms. The (c)(3) protects tax-deductible donations; the (c)(4) allows political work. This is the same template used by [[Council for National Policy]] (CNP / CNP Action), [[Heritage Foundation]] (Heritage / Heritage Action), [[Federalist Society]], and most major right-wing movement organizations. ## Significance Jeffersonian Project is structurally minor in the sense that it has no independent programmatic identity. But it is strategically essential: it is the legal firewall that allows ALEC to operate in the lobbying-adjacent gray zone without jeopardizing its primary funding vehicle. Without it, the IRS pressure of the early 2010s might have forced ALEC to reorganize far more disruptively. ## See Also - [[ALEC]] — Parent - [[American City County Exchange]] — Sister program at the local level - [[ALEC Ecosystem]] — Full ecosystem map