IRS Records Show Huge Disparities for Coweta Charity

In 2023, the Luanne Elise Foundation told the IRS its gross receipts were less than $50,000. That same year, a nonprofit that manages charitable giving told the IRS it sent the Coweta charity $894,369.

The pattern repeated in 2024, when the foundation again reported less than $50,000 in revenue and the same nonprofit, the Pledgeling Foundation, reported sending it $263,838. In six years of IRS filings, the foundation has submitted nothing more than an e-postcard, Form 990-N.

Where those auction proceeds went is unclear.

Bruce and Catherine Keltner run the foundation from a residence they own, according to the Wagoner County Assessor’s Office. The website lists only the two of them as board members. Although the IRS recommends a minimum of three directors who are unrelated to the charity’s daily operations, Oklahoma law requires only one director and does not stipulate how that person can be related to the organization.

The Luanne Elise Foundation was established with the Oklahoma Secretary of State by Bruce Keltner, Catherine Keltner and their son, Bradley Keltner. The organization has benefited from celebrity auctions tied to Goats Only, a company owned by Bradley Keltner, which is facing a federal lawsuit.

“You always have to start with dual oversight,” said attorney Jeri Holmes, president of Nonprofit Solutions Law. “A public charity is like a three-legged stool. It has to have a public purpose, it has to be supported by the public and it has to have an independent board of directors that are loyal to the public. So if there is no dual oversight, and there’s only one family managing it, that does not make for a public charity.”

The Luanne Elise Foundation

The Luanne Elise Foundation says on its website that it was founded in 2017. State records show it was incorporated Dec. 31, 2019, and its state registration became effective Jan. 14, 2020. IRS records date back only to 2020, when the organization received approval as a 501(c)(3) public charity.

Named after Luanne Elise Keltner, Bruce and Catherine Keltner’s daughter who died in 2010 at age 34, the foundation says on its website that it helps Oklahoma children and adults facing a wide variety of challenges.

“Since our inception in 2017, the Luanne Elise Foundation has focused on helping children in areas of rural Oklahoma where poverty, drugs, and family dysfunction have stifled opportunity and educational development,” the website reads.

The organization claims 30,000 meals were delivered to rural children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the only available confirmation is an April 5, 2022 blog post by Growing the Grocer, an online marketing agency. The post said former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski supported the charity.

The Luanne Elise Foundation’s website was stripped down, with broken links and a single page explaining what the foundation is about and providing a phone number, until an earlier version of the site reappeared Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026.

The revived website says “The Luanne Elise Foundation is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide charitable grants, material goods, or monies to individuals (or other charitable entities, locally, nationally, or internationally) to promote personal growth, educational development, restoration of health, getting a new start in life, and/or for any other need they may have to help individuals become productive, responsible, and healthy members of society.”

Bruce and Catherine Keltner (Screenshot)

It includes six testimonials with partial names: Mrs. O.V., John J., The Browns, Amy H., Deborah and Marla.

Multiple calls to the foundation went unanswered, messages received no response, and emails to its information address were returned as undeliverable.

On Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, Oklahoma Watch visited the residence. Bruce Keltner, the foundation’s secretary and treasurer, sat outside.

Asked about the foundation, he said the organization was tied up in a court case.

Oklahoma Watch could not confirm any cases against the Luanne Elise Foundation, though an active lawsuit exists against Goats Only.

When Goats Only was mentioned, Bruce Keltner hurried inside to get his wife, Catherine Keltner, president of the Luanne Elise Foundation.

“You just have to talk to our lawyers,” Catherine Keltner said.

She did not answer questions from Oklahoma Watch, though she said their attorneys would be in contact and were aware of the information requests. The attorneys did not contact Oklahoma Watch by publication time.

Goats Only, a Delaware limited liability company, also has a stripped-down website with one tab promoting an events calendar it says will launch soon. The organization has an Instagram account with a few photos of celebrity athletes, including Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

In 2025, Charitybuzz promoted an auction that included a chance to catch a pass thrown by Mahomes and have the moment memorialized with an autographed photo. The auction beneficiary was listed as the Luanne Elise Foundation via Pledgeling.

An image used to promote a Goats Only event on Charitybuzz to benefit the Luanne Elsie Foundation. (Screenshot)

That wasn’t the only item on the auction block. Charitybuzz lists 3,140 closed auction items benefiting the Luanne Elise Foundation. Among the experiences and memorabilia up for sale were a Barry Sanders-signed Detroit Lions helmet, a John McEnroe-signed tennis ball, a weekend in Montana with Billy Bob Thornton and The Boxmasters, a Big Dog Car Garage tour led by Jay Leno, a tennis game with Andre Agassi and a baseball signed by Donald Trump.

Some of those items appear to be in a promotional video made for the Goats Only Patrick Mahomes event.

The Pledgeling Foundation’s website says that Charitybuzz implemented a management system with Pledgeling that handles disbursements to 501(c)(3) organizations, indicating that if bids were made on the Luanne Elise Foundation items on Charitybuzz, Pledgeling would manage and distribute the money to the charity.

Oklahoma Watch’s attempts to reach Pledgeling and Charitybuzz were unsuccessful.

Allied Debt Collection of Virginia filed a federal lawsuit against Bradley Keltner and Goats Only in March, alleging the company failed to deliver on a $57.7 million star-studded video production contract.

Filing Discrepancies

According to Pledgeling’s tax return, the Pledgeling Foundation forwarded more money to the Luanne Elise Foundation in 2023 than to well-known beneficiaries such as The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Clooney Foundation for Justice.

In 2024, the foundation again filed only a postcard, attesting its income was less than $50,000, even though Pledgeling’s IRS filing shows it received money that year as well.

“When you have income that does not match your tax return, that’s when you get into an unfiled tax return,” Holmes said. “That means the IRS can go back as many years as they want to assess penalties and interest.”

Holmes said failing to report income is a crime.

“Because you don’t report that income, you don’t have to report where it goes,” Holmes said. “That’s why the IRS gets involved and gets curious about where it went, because you’re not filing the correct tax return.”

Jake Ramsey covers evictions, housing and homelessness. Contact him at (405) 370-3798 or jramsey@oklahomawatch.org.

The post IRS Records Show Huge Disparities for Coweta Charity appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.