Nonprofit organizations on which Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama served as a board member in the 1990s gave money to support organizations and causes that could be considered controversial, reports Fox News.

The groups — the Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund of Chicago — made donations or grants to organizations that included Acorn, the voter-registration group that has come under scrutiny recently for problems with its records; Trinity United Church of Christ, whose outspoken pastor is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright; and an institute at Northwestern University run by the wife of William Ayers, the Chicago professor who was once a member of a radical group, the news organization reports. Fox examined the tax returns of these and other organizations to develop its report.

An Obama spokesman responded by saying: “This is another pathetic attempt by Fox News to distract voters from the economic challenges facing this nation by patching together tenuous links to smear Barack Obama.”