Those are two different questions though. "What a donor (or buyer) thinks happens to their money after they spend it" is not the same as "What the recipient does or is legally allowed to do with that money".
Many nonprofits prey upon donor naivete. Even if they don't funnel it to some other cause altogether, there is no guarantee they actually spend your donations on the services they advertise in their marketing (vs funneling to employees or funds or other nonprofits or for-profits they own or whatever).
Many corporations do the same. It's not like Amazon the bookseller invested all their profits into bookselling, or we'd never have seen AWS.
Or churches, another common form of nonprofit. It's not like tithes go to the man in the sky, they get spent on whatever the organization decides to spend it on.
The key point I'm trying to make is that nonprofit status is not some magical protection bestowed upon your funds. The moment you give your money to another organization, even if they are a nonprofit, they have a LOT of leeway to spend it however they please. 501 status has SOME limitations, not like being able to turn it into shareholder profit and restrictions on political activities (depending on the specific 501 type), but by and large the recipient still has a lot of freedom.
If, as a donor or buyer, you are concerned about where that money goes... you have to do your own deep digging and due diligence. Neither the organization nor the law will protect you here and ensure that the funds are spent how you wish.
So it appears you don't understand what a donor advised fund is, and how that hides the way the money is used. Charities have strict financial disclosures on how their money is used, with the one exception being donations they make to a donor advised fund like the Tides Foundation which can be directed to be used for anything, and there is zero transparency on it. I can look at Gleaners Food Bank for instance, and see how every dollar is spent. That is not the case with Wikimedia because of their use of dark money vehicles.
And that's why they are known as dark money vehicles, and that is why they are not in fact just like any other donation. It's a black box, there are no required disclosures to donors other than the fact the money was given to Tides, which is actually not covered under their mission statement either.
Also, stop trying to compare 501(c)3's to Walmart, it's silly and hurts your case.
Many nonprofits prey upon donor naivete. Even if they don't funnel it to some other cause altogether, there is no guarantee they actually spend your donations on the services they advertise in their marketing (vs funneling to employees or funds or other nonprofits or for-profits they own or whatever).
Many corporations do the same. It's not like Amazon the bookseller invested all their profits into bookselling, or we'd never have seen AWS.
Or churches, another common form of nonprofit. It's not like tithes go to the man in the sky, they get spent on whatever the organization decides to spend it on.
The key point I'm trying to make is that nonprofit status is not some magical protection bestowed upon your funds. The moment you give your money to another organization, even if they are a nonprofit, they have a LOT of leeway to spend it however they please. 501 status has SOME limitations, not like being able to turn it into shareholder profit and restrictions on political activities (depending on the specific 501 type), but by and large the recipient still has a lot of freedom.
If, as a donor or buyer, you are concerned about where that money goes... you have to do your own deep digging and due diligence. Neither the organization nor the law will protect you here and ensure that the funds are spent how you wish.