The Milton Hershey School has a dilemma many charities want: too much money. But the question is how much of that fortune is being used to support its charitable mission. 

Federal tax law does not require organizations like the Milton Hershey School to spend a particular amount each year in support of charitable goals.

But Spotlight PA and The Inquirer report the widening chasm between what the Hershey school could spend to help poor children and what it actually spends has led alumni, a local probate judge, and the state attorney general to call for the institution to do more. 

Hershey’s fortune, which funds the school, has ballooned to be larger than that of the Ford Foundation. But the school has faced persistent criticism for helping only a fraction of the vulnerable children it could reach with its vast wealth. 

THE CONTEXT: The charity’s board members say they are doing what Milton Hershey wanted and are bound by the school’s founding document, which says the board can spend only the income earned by the endowment, not the endowment itself.

So while the school’s total assets are worth $17.4 billion, $16 billion of that — Hershey Co. stock, real estate holdings, and other investments — cannot be spent, according to the deed.

Even by that metric, though, the school hasn’t been as generous as it could be, and lingering questions over its spending have been renewed with a lawsuit filed by former board chair Robert Heist in April.

Heist, who still sits on the board, is suing for access to financial documents he says he’s been denied for more than a year and which he says are needed to ensure that school funds aren't being wasted.

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