If so please explain why the article says this donation is listed as part of Trump’s tax return and not the apprentice winners.
I’m not sure I get your question. The donations in the article and what I posted about were the donations made by the Donald J. Trump Foundation. These would appear to be separate, over and above the winners’ donations of their winnings on the show. The DJT Foundation donations to the charities that correspond to the top 7 contestants’ charities for the 2012 season of the show are all in $10,000 amounts except for the $20,000 donation to GLSEN.
From the article:
The Donald J. Trump Foundation donated $30,000 to "gay" activist organisations in 2012, according to his filed tax returns. $20,000 of the amount went to the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) while the remaining $10,000 went to the Gay Men's Health Crisis, according to a form 990 posted online and available for public review.
http://pdfs.citizenaudit.org/2013_12_PF/13-3404773_990PF_201212.pdf
The Celebrity Apprentice winners/finalists’ tax returns are not a matter of public record unlike those of a charity or charitable foundation.
And I’m not 100% sure how this works from a tax perspective. If the person on the show never received their “winnings” from the show and were directly donated to the charity by the TV show, would the winner would have to claim the “winnings” as income, pay tax on it and then donate it and claim the deduction vs. if they never actually received it and the TV show or network made the donation directly to the charity? Not an expert in this part of tax law but I think that if the contestant is clearly playing up front for a charity, the donation wouldn’t show up on their personal tax return but would on the Celebrity Apprentice production company’s or on NBC’s tax return or the tax returns of the donors – neither of which are public. As I understand those appearing on the show are paid $25,000 but all monies they raise plus the “prize” money from the show goes to their charity.
FWIW – here is the 2012 Form 990 for the charity Clay Aitkens chose – The National Inclusion Project (see page 23 where it lists as revenues from fundraisers in the 1st column - Celebrity Apprentice - $55,000)
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2012/200/146/2012-200146446-094cc363-9.pdf
Note that Wiki said he raised $361,500 in total he raised for his charity but as I understand, the celebrity contestants actually raise the money so not all of the donations come from the TV show but also from individuals or from corporations. The source of contributions are not enumerated on the Form 990 but are in total on line 8 of Part I of the form.