Documents show Chick-fil-A did not backtrack on donation recipients

Chick-fil-A storefront Philadelphia — Shown is a Chick-fil-A location in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. (AP)

An Instagram post targets Chick-fil-A for allegedly backtracking on a promise to not donate to “anti-LGBTQ groups.”

The company’s foundation previously donated to the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, groups that have vocally opposed same-sex relationships.

The company’s philanthropic arm eventually changed its policy on donating to these groups, but the Instagram post claims the company misled the public.

“After Promising Not to, Chick-fil-A Donates Another $1.8 Million to Anti-LGBTQ Groups,” said an April 20 Instagram post.

The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

In November 2019, the foundation said that it would donate only to organizations that work exclusively in education, homelessness and hunger.

The foundation also said it will no longer make multiyear commitments — which it had made to the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

However, the company said that it would still consider faith-based and nonfaith-based organizations for donations.

The headline in the Instagram post is from a 2019 article on The WOW Report, a website run by the entertainment company World of Wonder.

The WOW Report article cited tax documents from 2018 — a year before Chick-fil-A said it would stop donating to the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The records show donations of about $1.8 million; about $1.6 million to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and $115,000 to the Salvation Army.

Chick-fil-A Foundation Inc.’s tax filings for 2020, the most recent publicly available, do not show donations to Salvation Army or the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Bryan Malenius, a Chick-fil-A spokesperson, told PolitiFact the company did not donate to those two organizations after 2019.

We rate the Instagram post’s claim False.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

Truth-o-meter Ruling

False

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

The donations to the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes amounting to $1.8 million were made in 2018, a year before the company said it would no longer donate to the organizations.