WHAT WAS CLAIMED
The University of Auckland received $US297 million from USAID.
OUR VERDICT
False. The funding was provided by the New Zealand government.
AAP FACTCHECK - The University of Auckland did not receive nearly $US300 million in funding from the US government's humanitarian aid agency, despite claims online.
The claims misinterpret a tax form filed by the university.
It's being shared as the Trump administration attempts to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which delivers foreign aid.
A Facebook post claims the University of Auckland "received $500M NZD ($297M USD) from USAID".
The post includes a list of universities in England, Canada and NZ that supposedly received funding from the agency.
Much of USAID's budget is spent on health programs, delivering food and water packages, vaccinations and education.
There's no evidence it provided $US296,974,111 to the University of Auckland.
The figure is listed under the "Government grants (contributions)" section in a tax form (Page 9) filed by the university to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The University of Auckland explained that it held a tax-exempt status with the IRS in order to receive philanthropic donations from individuals and foundations in the US.
"This has been in place since 2015," a spokesperson told AAP FactCheck.
"We are required to file an annual 'Form 990' return, based largely on publicly accessible information in our annual report, to retain that tax-exempt status."
The spokesperson said that the $297 million has been misinterpreted as USAID funding.
"The US$297m cited refers to income received by the University of Auckland from NZ government funding."
The university's 2023 annual report declared $NZ484,067,000 in government grants (p72), which equated to about $US297 million based on exchange rates for that year, according to the spokesperson.
AAP FactCheck found no evidence the University of Auckland had received USAID funds by searching on usaspending.gov, an official dataset compiling federal funding information.
The university has received grants from other US government agencies, including the defence and the health and human services departments.
Those included support for a study on children at risk of low blood sugar, establishing a cardiac MRI database, and a scientific conference.
AAP FactCheck has debunked other false claims about USAID spending, including that the agency paid celebrities to visit Ukraine and provided funding to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
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