No idea about the US but the standard way thr rich and powerful do this in India is to setup the "charitable" foundation and then setup companies (who's share h

No idea about the US but the standard way thr rich and powerful do this in India is to setup the "charitable" foundation and then setup companies (who's share holding structure can be made complex to prevent traceback) to bid to provide goods and services to the "charitable" foundation at inflated prices and take a cut out of that while sub contracting the actual work. If you think about it a bit, the possibilities to get at that 80-90% used for "charitable purposes" are really endless. As an example, in South India, many rich cloth mill owners converted their land into schools and colleges when they realized they would not be competitive in the global market. In India, schools and colleges are not allowed to be profit making institutions. Guess who owns all the service companies that provide services to these institutions?