McCain has appeared at events for the institute, including its fundraising efforts and its annual, invitation-only conference held in Sedona, Arizona. The annual conference has also featured Vice President Joe Biden and a 2014 appearance by Clinton before she was officially a presidential candidate.
Some of the institute’s larger donors, including hedge fund manager Paul Singer and investor Ron Perelman, also contributed $100,000 to Arizona Grassroots Action PAC, a super-PAC that’s supporting McCain as he seeks his sixth term in the Senate.
Donor Disclosures
The McCain Institute for International Leadership began voluntarily disclosing its donors on its website after an inquiry from USA Today in 2014. Donations are solicited by the institute’s own foundation, as well as the fundraising arm of Arizona State University, the ASU Foundation.
The website listed dozens of donors, including Chevron Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., FedEx Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the nonprofit arms of General Electric Co. and Freeport-McMoRan Inc. It also listed a small donation, of less than $25,000, from the Danish embassy.
The institute didn’t originally disclose the 2014 donation from the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. After an inquiry from Bloomberg News, the website was updated to note that the institute received more than $100,000 from the Saudi embassy. Documents filed with the IRS state that the donation totaled $1 million.