Beyond rubbing shoulders with contributors, Mr. McCain could use the chairman’s perch to score points with important Republican figures  he presented Freedom Awards to President Bush, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, in 2003, the incoming Senate majority leader, Bill Frist. At least seven board members have been involved in his presidential campaign, along with the institute’s president, Lorne W. Craner, a former Senate aide whose father was in the same Hanoi prison as Mr. McCain.

Mr. McCain declined to be interviewed for this article. Brian Rogers, a campaign spokesman, said the senator “has never requested nor offered to take a position on legislation in exchange for, or because of, contributions to I.R.I.” He added that Mr. McCain was “proud of I.R.I.’s work in countries from Peru to Serbia to Mongolia.”

“In traveling overseas,” Mr. Rogers said, “Senator McCain has repeatedly been complimented on I.R.I.’s work by prime ministers and presidents, U.S. ambassadors and ordinary citizens. Many have told him that freedom in their country would not have been possible without I.R.I.’s work.”

The institute’s work in some of those countries resonates with important ethnic voting blocs at home.

When Mr. McCain’s Democratic rival for president, Senator Barack Obama, traveled to Miami in May to address Cuban-Americans, Republicans circulated a memorandum to reporters that quoted an anti-Castro group criticizing Mr. Obama’s willingness to talk to Cuba’s communist leaders. Not mentioned was that the group, the Cuban Democratic Directorate, was financed for years by the International Republican Institute  it got more than $8 million during Mr. McCain’s tenure. Though the directorate does not endorse candidates, its leaders are effusive in praising Mr. McCain.

“I want to stress that we are very thankful to Senator McCain for everything he has done through I.R.I. to support our cause,” said Janisset Rivero, joint national secretary of the directorate.

A Leadership Shift

Shaken by the loss of the White House in 1992, Republicans scrambled to reinvigorate their party by giving higher profiles to some of its promising prospects. Mr. McCain, just re-elected by a convincing margin, was given two new positions: head of fund-raising and recruiting for the Senate Republicans and chairman of the International Republican Institute.