Dark Money On The Left

See The Left’s Lucrative Nonprofits: ‘Powerful interests’ and ‘dark money’ are mostly on the Democratic side by Kimberley A. Strassel. Excerpts:

"In 2018 the nonprofit watchdog Capital Research Center analyzed grants handed out in the 2014 election year by six big foundations on the right (including the Bradley and Charles Koch foundations) versus six on the left (including the Open Society and Tides foundations). Liberal public-policy charities, organized under chapter 501(c)(3) of the tax code, bagged $7.4 billion of this foundation money in 2014. For conservative charities, the figure was a mere $2.2 billion. That $7.4 billion also dwarfed total 2013-14 campaign receipts to federal, state and local campaigns ($4.1 billion) and spending that cycle by independent groups ($830 million)."

The book showcases Planned Parenthood, which according to its tax filings has for at least eight years spent tens of millions of dollars in total on contracts with Grassroots Campaigns Inc. GCI is a for-profit political outfit, which brags about activating Democratic voters. Technically, Planned Parenthood hires GCI for “consulting” and “fundraising.” The latter involves rolling out GCI employees to knock on doors or stand on the street asking for Planned Parenthood donations. This solicitation is netting someone somewhere an extraordinary list of potential Democratic voters and recruits. And here’s the kicker: Tax filings show that Planned Parenthood consistently pays more to GCI annually than GCI raises for Planned Parenthood. Other enormous liberal charities use GCI in the same way, and consistently run losses.

Dark, powerful money? The left has a monopoly here, too, via the creation of a new “sponsor” model. Take Arabella Advisers, also the subject of a Capital Research Center report. Arabella is a for-profit, privately held entity. It manages four generously funded liberal nonprofits, which according to tax filings between 2013 and 2017 received $1.6 billion in donations. Those four entities in turn collectively “sponsor” dozens of political outfits. The beauty of this arrangement, for the left, is that the “projects” don’t have to disclose any information—salaries, vendors, original funders, boards, nothing. They are black holes.

And they are influential. Just one of these recent “pop-up” groups is Demand Justice, a “project” of Arabella’s Sixteen Thirty Fund. The outfit got rolling in early 2018, with the express purpose of combating Republican judicial nominees, and was a major player in the drive-by hit on Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Almost nothing is known about Demand Justice beyond that it is run by former Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon. Where are all those media sleuths when you need them to sniff out “dark money”?"