Congress says Harvard built a nonprofit to dodge foreign gift disclosure law

Harvard is the single largest recipient of foreign money in American higher education, and if the disclosure law meant to track that money can be bypassed by routing it through a separate nonprofit, then nobody — not Congress, not the Education Department, not the public — actually knows who is funding research at the country's most influential university.

By Ashe Short

Published: August 14, 2026 10:56pm

Harvard University operates a nonprofit that accepts research grants from foreign governments that the university itself cannot take based on law.

Harvard is required to disclose to the public and the federal government any foreign income reaching the university through the nonprofit, Harvard Global, but investigations from the U.S. Department of Education and the House Education and Workforce Committee have found the university is not always transparent in its reporting.

“Harvard created an entity in a blatant attempt to get around federal foreign funding disclosure laws. That’s unacceptable, especially given Harvard’s history of failing to comply with these requirements. The American people deserve to know where foreign money is flowing on our college campuses," Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, R-Mich., said in a press release announcing the results of the investigation.

Universities required to disclose foreign funding

Section 117 of the Higher Education Act requires universities receiving federal funds to report any gifts or contracts with foreign sources worth more than $250,000 or more from any single source in a calendar year. Universities must report this information even if the money passes through a separate legal entity if the money provides a benefit to the university.

A Harvard University spokesperson told Just the News that it shares the committee's concerns about national security.

"Harvard follows national security standards and guidance set by the federal government for its international collaborations. Additionally, where appropriate, federal agencies who are best able to assess real-time national security risks work with Harvard to put in place agency approved risk mitigation measures for federally funded research," the spokesperson said in an email.

"Harvard disagrees with the report’s mischaracterizations that fail to reflect the University’s documented record of compliance, cooperation, and commitment to protecting and advancing U.S. interests, national security, and global standing," the spokesperson added.

Harvard Global lists operations in Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, South Africa, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was created in February 2012, years before the Education Department began the enforcement push that has now twice reached Harvard.

In April 2025, the U.S. Department of Education initiated a records request from Harvard after it found the university provided “incomplete and inaccurate disclosures” regarding its foreign funding. The investigation is ongoing.

“As a recipient of federal funding, Harvard University must be transparent about its relations with foreign sources and governments. Unfortunately, our review indicated that Harvard has not been fully transparent or complete in its disclosures, which is both unacceptable and unlawful,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “This records request is the Trump Administration’s first step to ensure Harvard is not being manipulated by, or doing the bidding of, foreign entities, which include actors who are hostile to the interests of the United States and American students.”

The “Seven Sons of National Defense"

The House Select Committee on China, which also contributed to the latest investigation into Harvard’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), found that researchers affiliated with Harvard co-authored more than 140 publications with researchers affiliated with a group of Chinese universities referred to as the “Seven Sons of National Defense”, Fox News reported.

The Seven Sons are identified by the Pentagon and U.S. officials as a network of universities that are central to China’s defense research and military modernization.

The report also found that Harvard received more than $600 million under Section 117 reporting, more than any other American university.

Harvard is not accused of doing anything illegal, but the House committee did suggest that Harvard’s relationship with Chinese researchers has put American national security at risk by allowing China to advance its military capabilities.