Contours explicitly describes its 527 grants as indirect political-campaign activity selected around candidate/public-official alignment

Contours' Sept. 4, 2025 IRS response provides unusually direct primary-source language about how it selects and accounts for grants to political organizations. Contours states that it makes two grant types: grants to 501(c)(4) social-welfare organizations and grants to Section 527 political organizations. It says the 527 grants are intended to constitute indirect political campaign activity rather than social-welfare spending. For 527 grants, Contours says it typically seeks organizations that support candidates or public officials that complement Contours' social-welfare mission and purpose. It further states that it does not apply procedures intended to ensure those 527 grants promote social welfare because it treats the grants as indirect political-campaign expenditures. As of Sept. 4, 2025, Contours reported two 527 grants: $50,000 to Fight For Us PAC and $650,000 to Government That Works PAC, $700,000 total. It projected that in 2026 and future years as much as 30% of annual expenditures might be grants to 527 political organizations, while separately estimating total political-campaign activity at 40% or less. This is important for interpreting later Contours-funded PAC activity: Contours itself characterizes this category of spending as political-campaign activity and describes candidate/public-official alignment as a grant-selection criterion. The statement does NOT establish that Contours selected or directed any Idaho candidate, that its 501(c)(4) grant to Western Futures Fund had the same political purpose as its 527 grants, or that downstream WFF/Way Back Idaho expenditures were directed by Contours. The 501(c)(4) and 527 grant categories must remain analytically separate unless transaction-specific documents connect them.