

When enders game came out there was a big issue about the author of the books bring very homophobic because of his religion. I made a donation for the same price as the tickets to a pro LGBTQ+ org and still went. If your MIL gets snarky just put the donation under her name and put her email in. I would do that the next day so there is no fight and it messes up the kids time.
I would guess someone that no one knows about. He just has to say this is a good person and the Mega group will fall in line,
ifwhen things go bad he has someone to blame.