Clinton Foundation to continue accepting some foreign money

The board of the Clinton Foundation said that it will continue accepting donations from foreign governments, but only from six nations, a move that appears aimed at insulating Hillary Rodham Clinton from controversies over the charity's reliance on millions of dollars from abroad as she ramps up her presidential campaign.
Clinton, who resigned from the foundation's board last week, officially launched her campaign Sunday and is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.
She has faced mounting criticism over the charity's ties to foreign governments. Her campaign for the Democratic nomination referred questions about the board's decision to the foundation.
The board of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation said yesterday night that future donations will only be allowed from the governments of Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK -- all nations that previously supported the charity's health, poverty and climate change programmes.

While direct contributions from other governments would be halted, those nations could continue some participation in the Clinton Global Initiative, a subsidiary programme that encourages donors to match contributions from others to tackle international problems without direct donations to the charity.
But the foundation will stop holding CGI meetings abroad after a final session scheduled for Morocco in May. And most foreign governments will no longer be allowed to sponsor programmes.

The foundation also will begin disclosing its donors every quarter instead of annually -- an answer to long-standing criticism that the foundation's once-a-year lists made it difficult to view shifts and trends in the charity's funding.

Former President Bill Clinton and other foundation officials have long defended the charity's transparency, but the new move signalled sensitivity to those concerns, particularly as his wife begins her race for the White House.
Last month, while she was still a foundation board member, Hillary Clinton defended the family charity to questions about its reliance on donations from foreign governments, saying the foundation had "hundreds of thousands of donors."
An Associated Press analysis of Clinton Foundation donations between 2001 and 2015 showed governments and agencies from 16 nations previously gave direct grants of between USD 55 million and USD 130 million.

Those governments include the six nations that will be allowed to continue donating.
The remaining 10 are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Kuwait, Italy, Brunei, Taiwan and the Dominican Republic.