By Joe Schoffstall , Cameron Cawthorne
The forms further show that the secret money network, managed by Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm Arabella Advisors, pushed an astounding $896 million in contributions and grants to liberal groups last year.
The Arabella-managed network has solidified how Democrats quietly benefit from massive amounts of anonymous donations as they simultaneously rail against the influence of dark money in the political sphere.
The left’s pinnacle big-money network
The network’s web of groups sits under four Arabella-managed nonprofits: the New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Windward Fund and Hopewell Fund.
Each of the funds acts as a fiscal sponsor to other liberal nonprofits, meaning they provide their tax and legal status to the nonprofits housed beneath the funds. This arrangement allows the fiscally sponsored groups to avoid filing tax forms to the IRS, which would shed light on their financials.
The funds do not disclose donors on their tax forms.
“Arabella is proud to work for these nonprofits, providing HR, legal, payroll, and other administrative services,” Steve Sampson, spokesperson for Arabella Advisors, told Fox News. “They make their own decisions on their strategy, programmatic work, and fundraising.”
The New Venture Fund is the network’s largest nonprofit incubator in terms of sheer cash. In 2020, the fund raised $965 million in anonymous contributions, its tax forms show.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund hauled in $388 million, the Windward Fund raised $158 million and the Hopewell Fund facilitated $150 million in secret donations, their respective tax forms show.
The funds funneled a combined $1.6 billion from secret donors in 2020 – a drastic increase of $885 million over what the funds had raked in throughout 2019.
The Capital Research Center found the four funds have implemented more than 300 “pop-up” projects to boost Democratic causes and attack Republican initiatives since their inception.
The groups push efforts ranging from health care to climate initiatives, work on state-level advocacy and ballot measures, and spent big last year to defeat former President Trump.
Shadowy funding of left-wing groups
As the Arabella-managed funds garnered astronomical donations last year, they passed large sums of cash to nonprofits in and outside its network.
The New Venture Fund disbursed $447 million in 2020, its tax forms show. The contributions include $44 million to America Votes, $25 million to the election reform group Center for Tech and Civic Life and $1 million to the Center for American Progress, which has produced dozens of Biden White House staffers.
“In response to the urgent global and nationwide challenges of 2020, we were proud to work on all major issues in philanthropy last year, including addressing climate change, election security, racial justice, youth empowerment and education, and global health and international development,” Lee Bodner, president of the New Venture Fund, told Fox News.
Bodner said the New Venture Fund does not engage in partisan activities or support any political campaigns.
Meanwhile, the Sixteen Thirty Fund provided $325 million to liberal endeavors, according to tax forms. Its lucrative grants went to groups such as America Votes ($128 million), Defending Democracy Together ($10 million), a Bill Krystol-directed group, and American Bridge 21st Century Foundation ($2.1 million), led by liberal operative David Brock.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund also financed attack ads against President Trump and other Republicans, Politico reported.
Amy Kurtz, president of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, told Fox News that last year the group “helped progressive changemakers quickly and efficiently launch new initiatives to address existential threats of historic proportion: a global pandemic, a long-overdue reconning with racial justice, and a climate crisis that we are now living month after month.”
Kurtz said the fund is dedicated to “reducing the influence of special interest money in politics” and “leveling the playing field for progressives.” She added that they support the For the People Act, which calls for tackling dark money.
The Windward Fund, which primarily focuses on environmental initiatives, pushed $44 million into causes, its tax forms show. Despite their primary focus, the fund moved money to voter engagement groups such as the Missouri Organizing and Voter Engagement Collaborative and the National Vote at Home Institute.
“As the effects of climate change continue to impact communities across the United States and world, the Windward Fund incubated and supported a range of water, climate, and environmental initiatives last year,” the group told Fox News in a statement.
“We are proud that we connected and supported groups across diverse geographies, sectors, and communities like never before in 2020, enabling them to mobilize efficiently and elevate the voices of those impacted most by the environmental crisis,” the Windward Fund said.
The Hopewell Fund funneled $80 million to Democratic causes in 2020, its tax forms show. Its most significant contribution was $8 million to ACRONYM, a progressive-media group.
Tara McGowan, who led ACRONYM, launched a new project this year called Good Information, Inc. to counter “fake news” and disinformation. ACRONYM funded Courier Newsroom, which has been called a “fake news” site by watchdogs. Good Information acquired Courier Newsroom as part of its operations.
“The Hopewell Fund is proud of the work we did in 2020 to help make the world a more equitable place through fiscal sponsorship, charitable initiatives, and grant making,” the group wrote in a statement to Fox News. “Our work last year helped nonprofit projects address some of the most pressing issues our society is experiencing, including income inequality, civic engagement, and health care access.”
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of the watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, attempted to gather the fund’s tax forms in person last week but was escorted out by security.
“No wonder Arabella Advisors called security on Americans for Public Trust when we requested these tax returns,” Sutherland told Fox News. “They were delaying the release of documents that would show they funneled over $1 billion to liberal and left wing causes.”
“After years of railing on the evils of dark money, all while being bankrolled by a Swiss billionaire, it is clear liberals are the main beneficiary of undisclosed donations,” Sutherland said.
Conduit for powerful Democratic donors
A host of influential Democratic donors use the Arabella-managed funds as a conduit to funnel cash to projects, including billionaires George Soros and Hansjorg Wyss, a Swiss national who said in 2014 he did not hold American citizenship.
The Open Society Policy Center, Soros’ advocacy nonprofit, was an early funder of the judicial advocacy group Demand Justice, which the Sixteen Thirty Fund fiscally sponsored until this year.
Demand Justice has been at the forefront of Republican judicial fights, including pushing back against the nomination of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Shortly before Demand Justice publicly launched in 2018, Brian Fallon, the group’s leader, mingled at an Atlanta Democracy Alliance donor club gathering, which counts Soros as a member. He was in attendance to promote his group, and Soros’ donation flowed to the group around that time.
The Democracy Alliance has also recommended that its members, who largely remain hidden, provide donations to initiatives housed at the Arabella-managed funds in its internal documents.
Soros added millions more to projects housed at the Sixteen Thirty Fund last year, including the Governing for Impact Action Fund and Trusted Elections Action Fund, an Open Society Foundations database shows.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund also paid the Democracy Alliance hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting services in the past.
At least one Arabella Advisors employee, Scott Nielson, its managing director of advocacy, worked with Soros’ nonprofits and the Democracy Alliance before joining the consulting firm.
Meanwhile, Wyss, the Swiss billionaire, is also connected to the Democracy Alliance and is a significant financial backer of the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
Between 2016 and early 2020, Wyss directed $135 million into the Sixteen Thirty Fund through the Wyss Foundation’s advocacy arm, the Berger Action Fund, the New York Times reported.
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Another group closely related to the Sixteen Thirty Fund and Wyss is the Hub Project, a behind-the-scenes group that has received millions of dollars from the Wyss Foundation. The Wyss Foundation is one of the top donors to the Hub Project, which has a history of distributing funds from the Sixteen Thirty Fund to state-level groups.
One of the state-level groups was Floridians for a Fair Democracy, which received $3.95 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund to help restore voting rights for more than a million felons through a ballot initiative in 2018.
Another billionaire, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, disclosed giving $45 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund for a group called the Civic Action Fund last year, Politico reported.
Arabella rakes in tens of millions managing the funds
Arabella Advisors collected large sums from the four funds for administrative, operations and management services in 2020, making it a highly lucrative business.
The tax forms show the New Venture Fund paid nearly $27 million to Arabella, while the Sixteen Thirty Fund disbursed $9 million to the firm. The Windward Fund doled out almost $3 million for its services, while the Hopewell Fund added $6.6 million to Arabella.
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Arabella was paid $45 million between the funds for their management services.
Eric Kessler, a former Bill Clinton appointee and member of the Clinton Global Initiative, is the founder and head of Arabella Advisors.