Arabella Advisors
Arabella Advisors is a Washington, D.C.-based for-profit company that advises left-leaning donors and nonprofits about where to give money and serves as the hub of a well-funded politically liberal "dark money" network. It was founded by former Clinton administration appointee Eric Kessler.
Organizations incubated by and affiliated with Arabella Advisors include the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the New Venture Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Windward Fund. These groups have been active in various efforts to oppose the Trump administration and to organize opposition to numerous Republican politicians and policies.
Structure and funding
In 2018, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the New Venture Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Windward Fund had combined revenue of $635 million. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in 2018 the Sixteen Thirty Fund had "thirteen multi-million dollar secret donors." One donor gave $51.7 million to the group in 2018, while another donor gave $26.7 million and a third gave $10 million. The group is not required by law to reveal its donors and it has not disclosed who its funders are. Known donors to the group include Nick Hanauer, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Wyss Foundation. Michael Bloomberg gave $250,000 to a super PAC linked to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and Democratic donor group Democracy Alliance, whose members include billionaire George Soros, has recommended that donors give generously to the Sixteen Thirty Fund.According to Politico, the Sixteen Thirty Fund's activities are "a sign that Democrats and allies have embraced the methods of groups they decried as 'dark money' earlier this decade, when they were under attack from the money machines built by conservatives including the Kochs".
The Sixteen Thirty Fund
The Sixteen Thirty Fund is a liberal "dark money" nonprofit headquartered in Washington D.C. that had revenue of $143.8 million in 2018. That year, the group spent $141 million on more than 100 left-leaning and Democratic causes, making it a large source of money for nonprofits pushing a variety of changes to state and federal law. The Sixteen Thirty Fund supports Democratic lawmakers and candidates and criticizes Republicans. The group spent money opposing the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and other Trump judicial nominees and supporting various ballot measures.The Sixteen Thirty Fund was behind several groups that ran issue advocacy ads to benefit Democrats during the 2018 midterms. The group also funded Demand Justice, which spent millions of dollars on ads attacking Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Sixteen Thirty Fund and New Venture Fund "have fiscally sponsored at least 80 of their own groups, bankrolling those entities in a way that leaves almost no paper trail."
The Sixteen Thirty Fund was active in the battle for the House of Representatives in 2018, assisting "Democrats trying to seize back power after Trump's rise." According to Politico, "The election featured dozens of Democratic candidates who decried the influence of money in politics on the campaign trail."
The Sixteen Thirty Fund operates under dozens of different trade names with "benign-sounding local titles like Arizonans United for Health Care and Floridians for a Fair Shake," or "Michigan Families for Economic Prosperity" and "North Carolinians for a Fair Economy." These groups have collectively spent millions of dollars to pressure Republican members of Congress on their stances on health care and economic issues through advertising and activism.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund spent almost $11 million dollars in the 2018 Colorado elections on ballot measures, lobbying, and Democratic super PACs.
In 2020, the fund gave half a million dollars to the group Colorado Families First to support a proposed ballot initiative requiring paid family leave in the state.
New Venture Fund
The New Venture Fund had revenue of $405 million in 2018, up from $350 million annually in the three preceding years. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the New Venture Fund "has fiscally sponsored at least 80 groups and acted as a pass-through agency funneling millions of dollars in grants for wealthy donors to opaque groups with minimal disclosure."Projects and funding recipients
Demand Justice
Demand Justice is a courts-focused group headed by former Hillary Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon. The group spent millions of dollars opposing Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. The group "projected a video of Christine Blasey Ford accusing Kavanaugh of assault on the side of a truck outside a Washington gala where Kavanaugh was speaking."Fix the Court
The New Venture Fund provides all of the funding for Fix the Court, a judicial advocacy group that seeks reform of the U.S. federal court system. When Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, Fix the Court bought several Internet domain names related to Kavanaugh and redirected them to websites including End Rape On Campus, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. Fix the Court's executive director, Gabe Roth, said he purchased and redirected the websites because he believed the sexual assault allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford against Brett Kavanaugh and by Anita Hill against Clarence Thomas.Defend American Democracy
Defend American Democracy spent six figures on television advertisements pressuring Republican members of Congress to vote to impeach President Donald Trump for what they called "abusing his office and risking national security for his own gain." This group "primarily targets swing-district Republicans, prominently features military veterans in its ads and presents itself as a veterans group to local media outlets." The Center for Responsive Politics reported that "A veterans group urging Republican lawmakers to 'put country over politics' amid the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump is the project of a well-funded liberal 'dark money' network." Defend American Democracy's advertisements contained disclaimers that they were "paid for by a group called Protect the Investigation. But Protect the Investigation doesn't legally exist — it's one of dozens of fictitious names registered by the Sixteen Thirty Fund."The Hub Project
The Hub Project is an initiative that passes on funding to and coordinates 14 groups out of a single office in Washington D.C., "with the goal of battering Republicans for their health care and economic policies during the midterm elections." The Hub Project is run by Obama administration official and public relations specialist Leslie Dach and former Center for American Progress political strategist Arkadi Gerney. The Hub Project "set up an array of affiliate groups around the country, many with vaguely sympathetic names like Keep Iowa Healthy, New Jersey for a Better Future and North Carolinians for a Fair Economy. The Hub Project then used them to mobilize volunteers and run advertising on policy issues against Republican members of Congress many months before the election."America Votes
The Sixteen Thirty Fund gave America Votes, which describes itself as "the coordination hub of the progressive community", $27 million in 2018. The $27 million grant was nearly twice the amount America Votes had previously ever raised in a single year.Ballot measures
The Sixteen Thirty Fund urged passage of a Nevada ballot measure promoting automatic voter registration and a Michigan redistricting ballot measure. The group also supported a Florida constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to felons and minimum wage increases in Arkansas, Missouri, and other states. The way the groups structure their funding creates "an incomplete picture of where support for candidates and ballot initiatives are coming from" and allows these groups to "avoid public scrutiny by registering trade names to carry out their work. The groups pose as grassroots activist organizations... while being connected to much larger organizations." They adopt 'trade names' meaning voters have little way of knowing who is controlling or funding the organizations until after an election is over. In a 2018 ballot measure campaign in Michigan, a Sixteen Thirty Fund donor group didn't report a "trade name" they had used in a campaign "until 12 days after voters went to the ballots."League of Conservation Voters
The Sixteen Thirty Fund gave $8 million to the League of Conservation Voters in 2018.ACRONYM and the Courier Newsroom
In 2018, the New Venture Fund gave $250,000 to ACRONYM, described by the Center for Responsive Politics as "a liberal dark money group with an affiliated super PAC called PACRONYM." As of 2019, ACRONYM was the full owner of Courier Newsroom, a digital for-profit media company which publishes "websites that appear to be free-standing local news outlets" but that are "actually part of a coordinated effort with deep ties to Democratic political operatives." According to the CRP, "Courier has faced scrutiny for exploiting the collapse of local journalism to spread 'hyperlocal partisan propaganda.'"In 2018, the Sixteen Thirty Fund "sponsored social media pages and digital operations for five pseudo local news outlets." These outlets appeared to be independent but ran nearly identical digital ads. Associated Facebook pages "gave the impression of multiple free-standing local news outlets with unique names and disclaimers...But the sponsors of those ads are merely fictitious names used by the Sixteen Thirty Fund." The Sixteen Thirty Fund is also tied to Supermajority News, whose associated super PAC, Democracy PAC, was created by George Soros in 2019. Democracy PAC gave $1.75 million to PACRONYM, the super PAC arm of ACRONYM. ACRONYM gained notoriety as the majority owner of Shadow Inc., a political technology company whose software failed during the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses.