A civic accountability infographic series · Massachusetts · Entry II
MassFiscal: a three-entity map.
In 2017, one of the Fiscal Alliance’s three nonprofits granted $460,000 to a sister entity — ≈70% of that sister’s contributions for the year. Eight years earlier, OCPF had ordered MassFiscal to disclose a single $500 donor. A decade later the order is still unenforced. Eight panels on an operation whose numbers are all public and whose donors are not.
One grant. One year. Between sister nonprofits.
In 2017, Fiscal Partners Inc. — a 501(c)(6) business league — granted this amount to Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a 501(c)(4). It was ~70% of MassFiscal's contributions that year.
“I’ve never seen a (c)(6) used this way.”— Bruce R. Hopkins, nonprofit tax-treatise author
Three entities. One address. One paid operator.
A 501(c)(4) political arm, a 501(c)(6) business league, and a 501(c)(3) litigation shop — all sharing a Boston address, overlapping directors, and a single paid executive. Plus a for-profit auto-parts company whose chairman founded the first entity.
Political arm: lobbying, electioneering mailers, scorecards, commissioned polls
Business-league funding conduit: routes dues → grants to MassFiscal (c)(4); pays Craney
Litigation / amicus / FOIA / polling / "education" — Public Interest Law classification
Co-owner Rick Green founded MassFiscal in 2012 and chaired it through his 2018 congressional run. Between campaigns, Republican candidates land at 1A Auto (see Panel 08).
- Paul Craney
- President, Fiscal Partners + Fiscal Alliance Foundation · MassFiscal spokesman · only paid operator across the three
- Rick Green
- Founder + chair, MassFiscal (2012–2017) · Fiscal Partners chair (2017 filing) · 1A Auto co-owner
The documented money flow, 2014–2024.
Source contributions (left) into the three nonprofits (center) into their documented uses (right). The 2017 arrow is the only middle-column edge — and the one Stanford nonprofit-tax scholars called unprecedented.
- $5.2MDues + contrib. (c6) → Fiscal Partners (c6)
- $5.3MContributions (c4 direct) → MassFiscal (c4)
- $4.2MContributions (c3) → Fiscal Alliance Fdn. (c3)
- $1.1MFiscal Partners (c6) → Craney compensation
- $3.7MFiscal Partners (c6) → Operations / staff / polling
- $26KMassFiscal (c4) → Ballot opposition (OCPF)
- $5.2MMassFiscal (c4) → Operations / staff / polling
- $2MFiscal Alliance Fdn. (c3) → Litigation / amicus / FOIA
- $2.2MFiscal Alliance Fdn. (c3) → Operations / staff / polling
- $400KMassFiscal (c4) → Ballot opposition (OCPF)2014 legislative-race spending (aggregate, MPP 2021)
Eleven years of combined revenue.
The three nonprofits took in roughly $14M combined between 2014 and 2024. The pattern: the c4 peaks early, the c6 arrives in 2016 and pops in 2017, and the c3 sets a record in 2024.
2017 Fiscal Partners revenue debuts at $825,931 and begins grant-funding MassFiscal.
2024 Foundation sets a record at $754,008 — its largest year to date.
One paid operator. Two payers.
Paul Craney is the only substantially-compensated position across the network. His paycheck moved from the c4 to the c6 in 2017 — the same year the c6 began grant-funding the c4.
Ten years. One ignored disclosure order.
In August 2016, OCPF ordered MassFiscal to disclose a single $500 donor. MassFiscal refused. A decade later the order is still unenforced — what academics now call the MassFiscal Precedent.
- Aug 2016OCPF Public Resolution Letter
Disclose a $500 donor. MassFiscal refuses.
- Mar 2019Bickford complaints
OCPF + IRS + MA DOR — no public enforcement followed.
- 2016–2022≥3 complaints total
≥3 total complaints over 6 years re donor disclosure and electioneering ◊ reported
- Year 10Still non-compliant with the 2016 order.
10 years since the unenforced order.
OCPF’s only remaining recourse is an Attorney General referral. None has been made.
One bipartisan lane in eleven campaigns.
Every substantive ballot, litigation, and legislative fight MassFiscal has taken up since 2018 has been a conservative position — with one honest exception. Legislative transparency is the coalition lane.
The bipartisan lane — audit-the-Legislature, roll-call disclosure, public records for lawmakers — is the single issue where MassFiscal coalitions with progressive and independent allies. It is what gives the “nonpartisan watchdog” branding its surface plausibility.
Candidates between campaigns.
Rick Green's $200M+ auto-parts company has hired Republican candidates between campaign cycles. The state party once held a chairmanship vote in the company's parking lot.
The 2021 state-committee leadership election that re-elected Jim Lyons as chair was held in the parking lot outside 1A Auto’s Littleton distribution center, members voting by radio from their cars.— report_02 §3