To think, I spent all those years giving to charity without funneling the money back to my family!

I wasn't aware you could do this.

Donate money to a charity, but stipulate the funds go to a family business?

Take the tax break AND the profits, too?

Awesome!

Me and my sis are gonna keep those Katrina victims in HoGear t-shirts from now on, baby.

LATimes:

HOUSTON — In a city housing thousands of Katrina evacuees, Barbara Bush's donation to a local hurricane relief fund normally would not seem controversial.

But more than a few eyebrows were raised when the former first lady stipulated that part of her contribution was to be spent on educational software purchased from her son Neil's company, Ignite Learning of Austin, Texas.

"I would think if she wants to do something beneficial for Katrina victims, she shouldn't be making the decision that the vendor is her son," said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity watchdog group.

"Other education experts need to be making that decision, not somebody who has a family interest in the success of her son's business.""If everybody started doing that, it would ruin our whole system for tax-exempt organizations, because people would be using them to benefit their business rather than for the public benefit. That's not why our government gives tax deductions for donations," he said. "I hope other donors across the country don't start dictating that their contributions go to their family business. That would be a rip-off of our tax system."