> The NRA Foundation and the Heritage Foundation are also registered as 501(c)(3).

Yeah, organizations like think tanks (Heritage Foundation) are supposed to influence policy/public thought/elite thought. That’s obviously not a for-profit enterprise.

EDIT: My personal feelings about conservative think tanks aside: any and all think tanks are supposed to spread ideas. The altruism is where in that goal? It could be evil, good, neutral. It’s simply a not-for-profit enterprise.

It’s a bit hard to wrap my head around this original idea of altruistic non-profits.