Center for Urban Renewal and Education

The Center for Urban Renewal and Education is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was founded in 1995 to promote “market-based solutions to fight poverty,” with particular focus on black communities. In its IRS tax filings, CURE describes itself as promoting these solutions to “fight poverty in African-American and urban communities in order to dismantle government dependency and advance economic growth through faith, family, and local governance.” CURE was founded by Star Parker, who had “seven years of first-hand experience in the grip of welfare dependency” before consulting on federal Welfare Reform in the mid-90s and founding CURE. CURE is legally incorporated in California, though it works out of Washington, DC.

According to its 2022 IRS tax filing, CURE is composed of three centers of focus: the policy center; the media center; and the clergy center, also known as the National Clergy Network. By revenue outlays, the media and policy centers are each about double the size of the clergy center. According to CURE’s 2022 tax filing:

• The Policy Center is described as having consulted with “elected officials and allied organizations to help change federal laws that affect our nation’s low-wage workers and welfare dependents, empowering them to live lives of freedom and economic independence.” They also launched a “collaborative study” with the Claremont Institute called “The State of Black America” which explored “the latest scholarship into the character, shape, and tendencies of life in the U.S. for blacks.”
• The Media Center addresses “issues of race, poverty, and culture from a Judeo-Christian perspective.” CURE runs two media outlets: a TV show called CURE America with Star Parker (CASP) and a daily news site called blackcommunitynews.com (BCN). The show CASP’s launch “coincided with George Floyd’s death and the riots around our country, showing CASP to be the shining light of reason in the midst of chaos.” The Media Center is also responsible for messaging campaigns through billboards.
• The Clergy Center “engages, educates, and equips a network of conservative pastors that serve our nation’s at-risk, poor, and most vulnerable.” The goal of these efforts is “to prove that the answer to poverty is freedom, not a welfare state.” CURE also hosts an annual policy summit for members of the clergy network.
  

News and Controversies

Connections to Hate Groups and Anti-LGBTQ Views

In promoting what it refers to as its “Judeo-Christian worldview,” CURE advocates against LGBTQ people, in particular trans people; against access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion. CURE also promotes stories of LGBTQ people who provide testimony of “how God worked in their lives to bring them out of the homosexual lifestyle.”

At the 2023 CURE National Policy Summit, CURE invited representatives from Susan B. Anthony List and the Family Research Council to speak on issues of “Rebuilding Traditional Families.” Representatives from both groups frequently appear as questions on CURE’s TV show.

On their media program, they have also hosted representatives from Liberty Council Action, “a legal organization advocating for anti-LGBT discrimination under the guise of religious liberty” that has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

On their TV program “CURE America with Star Parker,” trans individuals and families have been pushed aside in favor of discussing “transgenderism,” a right-wing framework that dehumanizes trans people, casts doubt on their choices, and calls for legal and medical interventions to prevent people, in particular youth, from accessing gender-affirming care. “CURE America” has had a handful of episodes that fixate on what they call “transgenderism,” or, in their words, “this troubling new trend in our society.” Trans individuals, the episode claims, are “denying the scientific and Biblically based reality of creation.”

Promotion of Conspiracy Theories

The TV program “CURE America” has promoted conspiracist views such as how U.S. foundations and the Biden administration have a eugenicist plan to prevent poor Africans from reproducing. “Frankly, the truth behind the abortion expansion plan of organizations like the Gates Foundation and of the Biden administration is to target our world’s poor and uneducated with their more enlightened and elite views of whether they should be having children,” one episodes’s show notes purport.

Connections to the Council for National Policy

A number of members of CURE’s board and leadership are members of the Council for National Policy, a secretive right-wing Christian nationalist organization. CURE leadership with ties to the CNP include Star Parker, a Gold Circle Member of CNP; Rev. Marc T. Little (chair of CURE’s board of directors); board member John Bedrosian, a Gold Circle Member of CNP; national advisory board member J. Kenneth Blackwell, who sits on CNP’s executive committee; national advisory board member George Gilder, a former member of CNP; national advisory board member Kay Cole James, a member of CNP’s board of governors; national advisory board member Edwin Meese III; national advisory board member Mathew D. Staver, a member of CNP’s board of governors.

Media Presence

CURE runs two media outlets: a TV show called CURE America with Star Parker (CASP) and a daily news site called blackcommunitynews.com (BCN). The show CASP’s launch “coincided with George Floyd’s death and the riots around our country, showing CASP to be the shining light of reason in the midst of chaos.”

Star Parker frequently publishes opinion essays in a variety of outlets on subjects related to race relations, demography, and anti-LGBTQ talking points, among other things. For example, in a 2023 op-ed published in the Tribune-Democrat titled “Our ticking ethnic time bomb,” Parker wrote, “An ongoing shift of the population toward non- white demographics means that, assuming no change in voting behaviors of these various groups, electing Republicans will become harder and harder.”

Core Financials

2022

• Total Revenue: $3,108,098
• Total Expenses: $2,650,718
• Net Assets: $833,997

2021

• Total Revenue: $2,622,861
• Total Expenses: $2,792,155
• Net Assets: $376,617

. 2020

• Total Revenue: $2,580,060
• Total Expenses: $2,128,830
• Net Assets: $545,911

2019

• Total Revenue: $2,126,233
• Total Expenses: $1,973,394
• Net Assets: $94,681

2018

• Total Revenue: $1,819,882
• Total Expenses: $1,924,875
• Net Assets: $174,293

2017

• Total Revenue: $1,687,385
• Total Expenses: $1,671,710
• Net Assets: $279,286

Funding

A review of publicly-available IRS filings from 2017 through 2022 found that the following organizations provided funding in amounts of at least $25,000 to CURE:

• American Endowment Foundation: $30,250 (2021)
• Donors Trust: $782,000 (2020-2021)
• Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund: $713,870 (2017-2021)
• Gulf Coast Community Foundation Inc: $252,000 (2017-2020)
• John Christopher Bunting Foundation: $35,000 (2017)
• National Christian Charitable Foundation: $625,350 (2017-2021)
• National Philanthropic Trust: $36,000 (2017)
• Schwab Charitable Fund: $109,450 (2021)
• Thomas D Klingenstein Fund: $200,000 (2021)
• Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program: $72,500 (2021)

Personnel

Staff

As of December 2023, CURE’s staff includes:

• Star Parker: President/CEO
• Martin Dannanfelser: Director of Governmental Relations

Board of Directors

As of December 2023, CURE’s board includes:

• Rev. Marc T. Little: Chair
• T.W. Shannon: Vice-Chair
• John Bedrosian
• James Golden
• Rev. Rosey Grier (Emeritus)
• Angela Minter: Secretary
• John Strauss
• Jack Brewer
• Brian Stone

National Advisory Board

As of December 2023, CURE’s national advisory board includes:

• Dr. William B. Allen
• J. Kenneth Blackwell
• John D. Ashcroft
• Judy Bedrosian
• Nancy Epperson
• Robert P. George
• George Gilder
• Rev. Rosey Grier
• Kay Coles James
• Larry Kudlow
• Michael Medved
• Edwin Meese III
• Marvin N. Olasky
• Mathew D. Staver

Contact Information

EIN: 31-1467594

Center for Urban Renewal and Education
1317 F. Street NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20004

Phone: 202-479-2873
Email: info@curepolicy.org

Website: www.curepolicy.org

Resources and Articles

IRS Filings

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

Tax-Exempt Application (2001)