Abstract
<jats:p>EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) is a Berkeley, California–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Since the October 7, 2023 attacks, it has emerged as a critical U.S. charitable fundraising vehicle promoted across the pro-Palestinian activist ecosystem, including organizations within the Neville Roy Singham network, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), and a range of progressive philanthropic institutions. As MECA's public profile and fundraising accelerated, so too did questions regarding the destinations of its foreign grantmaking. Between FY2017 and FY2025, MECA's tax filings report approximately $35 million in foreign grant disbursements. This report identifies a persistent pattern of funding organizations with documented ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the United States designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 1997. It further documents personnel overlap between MECA and organizations affiliated with the PFLP, as well as longstanding organizational and coalition relationships suggesting these connections are structural rather than incidental. The structure may partially shield the extent of collaboration with the PFLP from activist networks in the United States who both raise money for MECA and ideologically support the PFLP. We also find that donor-advised funds (DAFs) have become a significant mechanism for MECA's financial support: approximately 67 percent of the money flows through donor-advised funds and giving platforms that obscure donors' names. That an entity can use donor-advised funding to support entities with documented militant or terrorist affiliations without consequence underscores the need for greater transparency, regulatory scrutiny, and oversight of charitable grantmaking.</jats:p>