THE LIST
Leo-Funded Project 2025 Advisors
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(Creative Responsive Concepts Advisors, formerly CRC Strategies)
President: Keith Appell
Leo and his business partner Greg Mueller rebranded the advocacy organization CRC Strategies in 2020, led then by Meuller, and launched a $10 million advocacy campaign targeting judges. CRC Advisors serves as Leo’s for-profit lobbying firm; he contracts services to the 85 Fund, Concord Fund, and other entities he helped create and pass money through. (CRC Advisors; SourceWatch)
Victory Highlights: CRC Strategies helped Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an advocacy organization formed in 2004, to oppose John Kerry's U.S. presidential campaign.
In 2018, CRC Strategies helped conservative legal activist Ed Whelan to exonerate SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh from accusations of sexual assault.
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Administrative Trustee: Tyler Green. Leo formed and leads the Marble Freedom Trust as a 501(c)(4) “social welfare organization.” Longtime Leo associate Neil Corkery keeps Marble’s books.
o Trust administrator Tyler Green is a Federalist Society member, former Utah Solicitor General and member of the Consovoy McCarthy legal firm that represented Trump in his attempts to shield tax records from New York prosecutors and Congressional investigators; Green also defended Utah Governor Gary Herbert’s 2015 decision to cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood. (Utah Attorney General web page; NYT 8.22.22; Above The Law 11.17.21)
o The Trust has provided a quarter of a billion dollars to conservative groups, often passed to Leo-managed entities, notably The Concord Fund and the donor-advised 85 Fund and Schwab Charitable Trust in 2022. The Trust gave $153 million to Rule of Law Trust to push the appointments of conservative judges.
o Leo has used the Trust to fund groups pushing voter suppression efforts and abortion bans. Bookkeeper Corkery is a former President of the Catholic Association Foundation; CAF got big funds routed through The Concord Fund and Schwab Charitable that funded post-Dobbs advocacy to ban the abortion pill, mifepristone.
o The Trust also paid Leo $350,000 for his consulting services in the year after its launch. (The Guardian 9.4.22; NYT 10.22.22; The 19th 2.4.24 and 1.4.24) -
(replacing Judicial Crisis Network – JCN in 2019)* (Note: The Judicial Crisis Network still houses a “fictitious” entity retaining the JCN name)
President: Carrie Severino, former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas and married to Greg Severino, a Project 2025 author. The Concord Fund is a large dark money funding source also set up by Leonard Leo and Greg Mueller in 2020 as a rebranding of the JCN. An unnamed tech mogul donated $ 1.6 billion to the fund in 2021. (Politico 10.19.23). The Marble Freedom Trust provided $28.9 million to the Fund in 2022 (see below).
The Concord Fund has paid millions to Leo’s CR Advisors for-profit consulting services. The Fund uses OneMessage Inc. for federal lobbying. It gave a $ 1 million grant to the Foundation for Fair Courts, linked to far-right Restoration for America, funded by billionaire conservatives Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein (of Uline shipping) to install a conservative majority in South Carolina’s legislature. Richard is a Schlitz beer heir and major donor to Liberty Principles PAC. (NYT 3.3.20; Illinois Sunshine)
The Fund is a top contributor to the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) (Koch Industries is another RAGA donor). RAGA’s 501C4 affiliate is the Rule of Law Defense Fund; its 501C3 affiliate is the Center for Law and Policy. (Center for Media and Democracy. 8.1.23; Open Secrets 5.27.20; Accountable US)
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(formerly Judicial Education Project - JEP)
o Director: Carrie Severino (see The Concord Fund). Leo and Greg Mueller rebranded the JEP in 2020. It channeled $20 million to various conservative groups that year, including Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Campus Project (see below).
o The bulk of its funds since 2011 have been from The Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund. It has worked with the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust; the latter is a dark money fund linked to former Trump acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. In 2022, the 85 Fund routed $200,000 to the Honest Elections Project (see below) (Donors Trust 990 for FY 2022)
o Staffers include: Ann Corkery; Oramel Skinner (also executive director of Alliance for Consumers, an 85 Fund affiliate); and Trent England (also with Save Our States). (Axios 1.7.20; CNBC 1.18.21, Accountable US 11.28.23)
o Leo’s for-profit consulting firm, CRC Advisors, was the 85 Fund’s highest paid contractor. Leo was paid $33.8 million over two years starting in 2020. DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb began investigating the 85 Fund and Leo’s role after reports alleged that Leo arranged gifts to SCOTUS Justice Samuel Alito. (Politico 3.2.23; Accountable US 11.28.23)
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(rebranded from America Engaged) and Donors Capital Fund (DTF)
o President and CEO: Lawson Bader, an evangelical Christian and ex-employee of the Mercatus Center and Competitive Enterprise Institute; he is linked to anti regulatory and climate change denial policy positions. (Donors Trust; DeSmog)
o DT is a 501(c)(3) donor-advised fund described as a “dark money ATM” for the US conservative movement; it took in $1 billion in 2021 (DeSmog; Politico).
o DT provided $17.1 million to the 85 Fund and spent $192 million in 2021. It provided an estimated $16.5 million to Project 2025-linked groups in 2022.
o Tax records identify Koch, DeVos, and Bradley family foundations as major donors.
o DT gave the Federalist Society $3.7 million in 2021 and $3.8 million to the Constitutionalist Defense Fund, set up to fight abortion.
o Other recipients: Fair Lines Redistricting Trust (pro-GOP gerrymandering); the Foundation for Government Accountability (“election integrity efforts”); True the Vote, pushing voter fraud; Consumers’ Research (anti-woke ads); the State Policy Network; Project Veritas; Turning Point (partial list). DT gave $28 million to entities pushing misinformation about the 2020 presidential election results. (Politico 11.16.22; Mother Jones 2.5.13, IRS 990s for FY 2022)
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(a business alias for ex- Judicial Education Project, now 85 Fund)
o Executive Director: Jason Snead, ex-Heritage Foundation staffer with Ed Meese, a Project 2025 author. HEP shares staff with The Concord Fund, including Carrie Severino.
o HEP formed as a tax-exempt voter restriction project in 2020 (calling voter suppression a “myth”) and has filed amicus briefs pushing state power in federal elections. (NPR 8.12.22)
o HEP big donors: Donors Trust (Leo), Betsy Devos, Koch Fund, now defunct Wellspring Committee. HEP also funded the now defunct BH Group.
o HEP received $50,000 from Donors Trust in 2022, routed via the 85 Fund.
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o President: The Heritage Foundation is a 501(c)(3), led by President Kevin D. Roberts, a lead author of Project 2025.
o Heritage Action was set up 2010 as a 501(c)(4) sister arm. CEO: Jessica Anderson. GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer is on its board. Project 2025’s Ed Feulner and ex-Attorney General Ed Meese were listed as part time employees in 2022.
o It lobbies for voter suppression, against abortion, LGBTQ, DEI issues, among other issues. (SFOExposed; SourceWatch)
o Heritage Action launched a major campaign against Obamacare in 2013; that year, the Koch brothers donated $500,000 to the campaign. (Human Events 12.31.10; Politico 5.17.17).
o Heritage Action channeled over $180 million in 2023. It works with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and State Policy Network to push model conservative legislation for states. (The Guardian 1.13.23; Documented; NYT 3.23.21)
o In 2022, Heritage got $407,780 and $50,000 in two grants from Donors Trust.o Every Tuesday, Heritage Action leads an organizing call with right-wing groups targeting swing states (Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Tea Party Patriots, Freedom Works).
(Mother Jones 3.13.21; 990s Heritage, DT FY 2022) -
o President: The Heritage Foundation is a 501(c)(3), led by President Kevin D. Roberts, a lead author of Project 2025.
o Heritage Action was set up 2010 as a 501(c)(4) sister arm. CEO: Jessica Anderson. GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer is on its board. Project 2025’s Ed Feulner and ex-Attorney General Ed Meese were listed as part time employees in 2022.o It lobbies for voter suppression, against abortion, LGBTQ, DEI issues, among other issues. (SFOExposed; SourceWatch)
o Heritage Action launched a major campaign against Obamacare in 2013; that year, the Koch brothers donated $500,000 to the campaign. (Human Events 12.31.10; Politico 5.17.17).
o Heritage Action channeled over $180 million in 2023. It works with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and State Policy Network to push model conservative legislation for states. (The Guardian 1.13.23; Documented; NYT 3.23.21)
o In 2022, Heritage got $407,780 and $50,000 in two grants from Donors Trust.o Every Tuesday, Heritage Action leads an organizing call with right-wing groups targeting swing states (Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Tea Party Patriots, Freedom Works).
(Mother Jones 3.13.21; 990s Heritage, DT FY 2022) -
o Co-founded in 2023 by Leo (Chairman) and tech entrepreneur Evan Baehr, a former employee of right-wing tech mogul Peter Thiel. Teneo aims to become a mega-umbrella “Silicon Valley” network for conservative donors.
o Prominent members: cofounder Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH); three Florida Ron DeSantis aides; and, states Baehr, “many, many dozens” of White House, State Department, Justice Department, and Pentagon employees.
o Teneo’s annual revenue jumped from an early $2.3 million to $5 million in 2021, with over $3 million from Leo’s Donors Trust. In 2022, it got $3,049,000 from Donors Trust.
o Other funders: Charles Koch, Paul Singer, Home Depot cofounder Bernie Marcus, and the Bradley and DeVos family foundations.
(Teneo Network; ProPublica 3.9.23; Open Secrets, (IRS Donors Trust 990s FY 2022)) -
o President, CEO: Kelly Schackelford; he is on the board of the Supreme Court Historical Society and an influencer for the Truth and Liberty Coalition.
o First Liberty is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2010 to litigate religious freedom and First Amendment disputes; has partnered with the Institute for Justice. Affiliate of State Policy Network.
o FLI led the infamous anti-LGBTQ wedding “Sweet Cakes” case, fought for federal funds to benefit religious private schools, and fought Covid vaccine mandates.
o Funds come from a variety of sources, some anonymously routed through Schwab Charitable and Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift funds. (Influence Watch, NPR 8.16.23; Texas Tribune 8.16.23)
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o CEO: Lisa Nelson, a former Newt Gingrich aide. Founded by Henry Hyde, a noted abortion foe, the late Paul Weyrich, cofounder of The Heritage Foundation, and Mark Rhoads.
o A right-wing 501(c)(3) think tank that serves the largest voluntary membership association for state legislators; also open to private sector companies. One quarter of state legislators are ALEC members. ALEC belongs to the State Policy Network. (Influence Watch).
o ALEC provides model conservative state legislation on issues. It is pro big oil and pro-private management of prisons, and anti-union, anti-climate protections; anti woke capitalism (anti-DEI and anti-ESG) policies.
o An ALEC-offshoot, the American City County Exchange, provides a similar program for local officials.
o Key funders: Koch brothers, including the Claude R. Lambe Foundation (Charles Koch, his wife and children) and Charles G. Koch foundation, as well as
ExxonMobil and pharma lobby PhRMA; also Coors, Bradley and Richard Scaife family foundations, and larger corporations on ALEC’s board: Kraft, Coca Cola, AT&T, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, and ExxonMobil, among them. LEO-funded entities closely allied to ALEC: Consumers’ Research, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, the Honest Elections Project.
(Lisa Graves and True North Research; Center for Media and Democracy 7.13.11; Exposé by CMD 7.26.23) -
an offshoot of ALEC
o CEO: Lisa Nelson, a former Newt Gingrich aide. Founded by Henry Hyde, a noted abortion foe, the late Paul Weyrich, cofounder of The Heritage Foundation, and Mark Rhoads.
o A right-wing 501(c)(3) think tank that serves the largest voluntary membership association for state legislators; also open to private sector companies. One quarter of state legislators are ALEC members. ALEC belongs to the State Policy Network. (Influence Watch).
o ALEC provides model conservative state legislation on issues. It is pro big oil and pro-private management of prisons, and anti-union, anti-climate protections; anti woke capitalism (anti-DEI and anti-ESG) policies.
o An ALEC-offshoot, the American City County Exchange, provides a similar program for local officials.
o Key funders: Koch brothers, including the Claude R. Lambe Foundation (Charles Koch, his wife and children) and Charles G. Koch foundation, as well as
ExxonMobil and pharma lobby PhRMA; also Coors, Bradley and Richard Scaife family foundations, and larger corporations on ALEC’s board: Kraft, Coca Cola, AT&T, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, and ExxonMobil, among them. LEO-funded entities closely allied to ALEC: Consumers’ Research, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, the Honest Elections Project.
(Lisa Graves and True North Research; Center for Media and Democracy 7.13.11; Exposé by CMD 7.26.23) -
o Executive Director: Will Hild III (for both entities), a lawyer and former Federalist Society and Philanthropy Roundtable employee. Hild is a Leo protege.
o A nonprofit that has launched big campaigns against the Consumer Protection Safety Commission, the Federal Election Commission, and “wokeism” (through Consumers First Initiative).
o It belongs to a right-wing coalition backing The Heritage Foundation’s State Pension Fiduciary Duty Act, aimed at eliminating ESG and climate change policies in public pensions. It rolled out “woke alerts” campaign urging shoppers to avoid products from companies with “woke” agendas.
o CR set up a multibillion-dollar smear campaign against BlackRock funder and CEO Larry Fink, who has publicly embraced sustainable investing; CR set up a website WhoIsLarryFink to oppose Fink. It also launched a Wall Street campaign to oppose climate change/ESG factors in investment decisions, aimed at Vanguard, one of the world’s top three financial asset managers; Vanguard manages a $7 million portfolio.
o CR is one of the largest funders of the State Financial Officers Foundation.
o Major donors include Leo’s Donors Trust ($6 million in 2021); Donors Capital Fund; Bradley, Searle and Rowling foundations, and National Philanthropic Trust.
o Wild helped cofound Cause of Action, a public action law firm. (SFOF Exposed; Center for Media and Democracy; NYT 1.30.23)
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o President, CEO: Kent Lassman. Director: Daren Bakst. A nonprofit libertarian think tank advancing free market principles with a major focus on pro-fossil fuel, anti climate change, anti-EPA regulations.
o A Project 2025 board member. Has offshoots Center for Economic Freedom; Center for Litigation.
o A CEI-funded subgroup, GlobalWarming.org works to challenge the “myth” of global warming; SafeChemicalPolicy.org fights chemical industry regulation.
o Major funders: Donors Trust (Leo) (over $4 million as of 2013); also, Charles Koch Institute, The Heartland Institute, Freedom Works, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, and Judicial Watch; and before 2019, Robert Murray of Murray Energy. Also energy, technology, auto, alcohol, and tobacco companies. Google, Amazon, Verizon, PhRMA, T-Mobile, Uber, Philip Morris funded a 2019 CEI gala (partial list).
o In 2022, CEI received $1,333,350 from the Donors Trust. (DT 990s FY 2022)
(DeSmog; CEI website and IRS 990s; Mother Jones 2.5.13; The Intercept, NYT and Political - all 12.17.19)
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o President and Founder: Carrie Ann Donnell. Legal Director: Elliott Engstrom. A right-wing think tank that supports public litigators to advocate for First Amendment rights and has fought anti-labor cases. Allied Leo-backed groups include The Heritage Foundation.
o Board member Peter Bisbee is former Executive Director of two Leo-funded Project 2025 backers (RAGA and Rule of Law Defense Fund) and is a former Federalist Society employee. Another board member, Tony Woodlief, is Executive Vice-President of the State Policy Network, president of the Bill of Rights Institute (the Leo-funded Mercatus Center), and Vice-President for education projects at the Charles G. Koch Foundation.
o Major donors: Koch Foundation, Leo’s Donors Trust, Bradley family foundation.
o In 2022, the group got $200,000 from Donors Trust. (DT IRS 990s FY 2022) (Influence Watch; Linked In for Bisbee, Graves, Woodlief)
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(GMU’s law school was renamed the Antonin Scalia School of Law)
o President: Trishana E. Bowden. Set up to support GMU students. Leo and Charles Koch gave GMU over $50 million, including $10 million to rename its law school after late justice Scalia. This transformed GMU into “the nation’s nerve center for libertarian-conservative law and policy,” said Slate.
o GMU Foundation and its Antonin Scalia Law School and sub-entities (Butler Chair in Law and Economics; C. Bowden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State) have received major funding from Leo-backed entities.
o Koch was accused of directly intervening to influence GMU’s internal affairs after the group UnKoch My Campus revealed emails of his GMU donations; Leo was accused of interfering with the law school’s curriculum. (Slate 2.2.18; Daily Beast 7.24.18; Accountable US; Unlock My Campus; George Mason University)
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o President: David Martin MacIntosh. Cofounders: Harlan Crow, Steven Moore (former Heritage Foundation staffer), Thomas L. Rhodes, Richard Gilder.
o A Koch-backed 501(c)(4) PAC and super PAC (Club for Growth Action) focused on conservative economic policy: cutting taxes, federal assistance programs; tort reform, deregulation, anti-climate change, and school choice.
o It was largest single funder of Republican House and Senate candidates in 2023 outside of the GOP. (CNBC)
o Main funders: Billionaire Richard Ulhein and libertarian Jeff Yass of Susquehanna International; Yass also funds Protect America PAC. (The Guardian 1.15.21)
o Billionaire Harlan Crow was exposed by a ProPublica investigative team for having paid for private jet trips for Clarence Thomas, who also failed to disclose he sold real estate to Crow, prompting the first SCOTUS ethics code in November 2023. A ProPublica team was awarded the USC Annenberg School of Journalism Selden Ring “Friends of the Court” Award for its series on the Thomas scandal.
(Club for Growth, ProPublica 2.12.24; Influence Watch) -
o President: Terren Brangdon, a former CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center.
o A conservative Florida 501(c)(3) think tank focused on reducing the welfare state and health policy reform; it’s also pushed teen labor. Member of the State Policy Network.
o Top donors: 85 Fund and Donors Trust (Leo), Ed Uihlein, Scaife and Searle family foundations. (Washington Post 2.27.19 and 4.27.23) -
o Founder: Linda Chavez; director Devon Westhill, a former Trump official.
o A small, right-of-center 501(c)(3) think tank opposing affirmative action, DEI, CRT, bilingual education in public schools, and immigration. It advances a “colorblind” view of society, arguing that affirmative action is actually racist and harms those it intends to help – a view Project 2025 puts forward.
o Founder Chavez is now a “Never Trumper.”
o Funders: Koch family’s Claude Lambe Foundation; Bradley, and Scaife family foundations (and now-defunct Olin) (Source Watch; Real Clear Politics 10.28.21)
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o A Project 2025 advisory board member. Founder: Beverly LaHaye, married to the late Tim LaHaye, author of the Christian apocalyptic book series Left Behind.
o CWA was established to promote traditional (Biblical) values for women and families, and is against abortion, feminism, sex education, in schools, LGBTQ equality. It works to influence elected leaders and the public.
o CWA claims 500,000 members and 400 US chapters and is allied with the Council for National Policy; the anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel (set up by Anita and Matthew D. Staver); and anti-gay activists Peter LaBarbera, Robert Knight, and Matt Barber. (Sources: SPLC; GPAHE)
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o A Project 2025 advisory board member and 501(c)(3) anti-“radical” feminist think tank. Cofounders: the late Rosalee Silberman, Barbara Olson, Anita K. Blair.
o President: Writer and ex-journalist Heather Richardson Higgins, who is also president of the Randolph Foundation in NYC and vice-chair of The Philanthropy Roundtable. Kellyanne Conway is on IWF’s board.
o IWF helped back Clarence Thomas’s SCOTUS nomination and fight Anita Hill’s charges of sexual harassment against Thomas.
o The Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) is its sister 501(c)(4) lobby arm. Higgins has attacked the FDA and federal nutrition regulations, among public policy efforts.
o Major funders: Donors Trust (Leo), Koch Institute, Dick Devos (Amway cofounder; spouse of ex-Trump Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos), and the Walton family. (Business Insider 2.2.18; DeSmog)
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o A Project 2025 advisory board member and 501(c)(3) anti-“radical” feminist think tank. Cofounders: the late Rosalee Silberman, Barbara Olson, Anita K. Blair.
o President: Writer and ex-journalist Heather Richardson Higgins, who is also president of the Randolph Foundation in NYC and vice-chair of The Philanthropy Roundtable. Kellyanne Conway is on IWF’s board.
o IWF helped back Clarence Thomas’s SCOTUS nomination and fight Anita Hill’s charges of sexual harassment against Thomas.
o The Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) is its sister 501(c)(4) lobby arm. Higgins has attacked the FDA and federal nutrition regulations, among public policy efforts.
o Major funders: Donors Trust (Leo), Koch Institute, Dick Devos (Amway cofounder; spouse of ex-Trump Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos), and the Walton family. (Business Insider 2.2.18; DeSmog) -
o President: Brian Blase, ex-Trump White House Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy; CEO Anthony Mollica. A conservative health policy institute set up in 2021 to promote free market solutions and privatization of health care.
o Paragon has helped shape health care reform proposals promoted in Project 2025: overhaul HHS, boost private Medicare Advantage as a default option for new enrollees, cap Medicaid funding, expand patient choice to favor more private providers. Paragon teamed with CEI to critique CDC Covid-19 policy.
(Paragon Health Institute; Axios 8.31.23, 9.6.22) -
o A free market “deregulation” think tank founded in 1978 by the Koch brothers and given $30 million of Koch money; its sister organization is the Koch-backed Institute for Humane Studies. Charles Koch and Koch Executive Vice-President Charles Fink are board members.
o The Center is housed at George Mason University, which also houses the Antonin Scalia School of Law. Wendy Gramm, married to Senator Phill Gramm (R-TX) directs its “regulatory studies program” and is chairman emeritus of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. (TPPF got $585,000 from Donors Trust in 2022.)
o The Center has led attacks on federal environmental regulations and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and EPA policies – also Project 2025 targets.
o It has ties to the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council and National Federation of Independent Business.
o Big donors: Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund (Leo), Koch foundation. (NYT 8.30.10; Clean Air Trust 12.02; ALEC Exposé; DT IRS 990s for FY 2022)
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o President: Phil Kerpen. A Koch-led 501(c)(4) political arm nonprofit set up to fight net neutrality and the FCC in regulating disinformation and hate speech on the web – stated Project 2025 goals.
o Kerpen chairs the Internet Freedom Coalition and strongly lobbied FCC chairman and former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai to overturn both FCC web policies.
o It received $50,000 in 2016 from ally Freedom Partners Commerce, the financial arm of the Koch donor network. Kerpen’s member organizations got $550,000 in National Cable and Television Association grants. (Open Secrets, NPR 1.21.17)
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o A Project 2025 board member. A conservative free market advocacy organization long allied with Ginni Thomas and Frontliners for Liberty.
o Former Trump campaign member and conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell chairs FreedomWorks’ multimillion-dollar National Election Protection Initiative.
o Major donors: Leo. (NBC News 11.17.23; Newsmax)
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o Principal Officer, cofounder: Timothy Bausch, a Catholic activist who considers himself an Opus Dei “cooperator,” or supporter. This 501(c)(3) was set up in 2016 to promote the teachings of Jesus Christ; it hosts a Napa Mirage Resort and Spa summer conference for Catholic conservatives; Charles Koch and Brent Bozell have been speakers.
o Spinoffs are the Napa Institute and Napa Institute Legal Foundation; Leo runs the latter and is on the foundation’s board.
o Bausch has hosted critics of Pope Francis and organized a lecture series at University of Notre Dame with Clarence Thomas; Opus Dei centers for men and women are located near the university. Bausch is involved with Catholic University of America, and other Catholic entities. (The Press Democrat 2.26.22; Opus Dei; The National Catholic Reporter 6.12.19)
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(formerly Susan B. Anthony List)
o President: Marjorie Dannenfelser; Executive Director: Emily Buchanan. SBA Pro Life America is the 501(c)(4) nonprofit successor to the Susan B. Anthony List anti-abortion organization that was rebranded after the Roe abortion ban victory.
o SBA Pro-Life Candidate Action Fund PAC supports anti-choice female candidates and proposes to fully ban abortion in the US and end funding for Planned Parenthood. It has also opposed the Affordable Care Act. It publishes a National Pro-Life Scorecard, tracking Congressional votes on key legislation. Post-Dobbs, it has expanded with state-affairs teams.
o Big funders: Leo-funded groups: the former JCN (now The Concord Fund), 85 Fund, now-defunct America Engaged and now-defunct Wellspring Committee (closed in 2018). SBA has promoted research by Leo’s CRC Advisors consulting firm. In 2022, it invested $1.3 million to educate Kansas voters about a state abortion
amendment.
(National Review 6.1.22; Influence Watch; Kansas Reflector 7.19.22) -
o President: Marjorie Dannenfelser; Executive Director: Emily Buchanan. SBA Pro Life America is the 501(c)(4) nonprofit successor to the Susan B. Anthony List anti-abortion organization that was rebranded after the Roe abortion ban victory.
o SBA Pro-Life Candidate Action Fund PAC supports anti-choice female candidates and proposes to fully ban abortion in the US and end funding for Planned Parenthood. It has also opposed the Affordable Care Act. It publishes a National Pro-Life Scorecard, tracking Congressional votes on key legislation. Post-Dobbs, it has expanded with state-affairs teams.
o Big funders: Leo-funded groups: the former JCN (now The Concord Fund), 85 Fund, now-defunct America Engaged and now-defunct Wellspring Committee (closed in 2018). SBA has promoted research by Leo’s CRC Advisors consulting firm. In 2022, it invested $1.3 million to educate Kansas voters about a state abortion
amendment.
(National Review 6.1.22; Influence Watch; Kansas Reflector 7.19.22) -
o President: M. Edward Whelan, a former law clerk for the late Antonin Scalia, and a general counsel in the former Trump Department of Justice. Leo is on EPPC’s board.
o A right-of-center nonprofit 501(c)(3) advocacy group that promotes Judeo Christian family values in public policy and religious freedom, and opposes LGBTQ rights, gender ideology, and the Equality Act.
o EPPC led a push to censor big tech on the web and change Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, arguing that Big Tech’s products and web access harm children, with a focus on exposure to LGBTQ content. Project 2025 makes similar arguments.
o Major Donors: Donors Trust (Leo), the Bradley family foundation, and John Templeton Foundation. (Influence Watch)
o In 2022, EPPC received $235,000 from Donors Watch. (DT IRS 990s FY 2022)
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o Founders: Neil and Ann Corkery and Leo in 2018 as a 501(c)(4); Leo is its sole employee. The Corkerys, open Opus Dei members (see Who Is Leonard Leo?) have served as directors and fiscal managers of several Leo-funded entities. Neil helped Leo set up and direct the JCN (now The Concord Fund), while Ann is a staffer at the 85 Fund and was President of the now-defunct Wellspring Committee.
o The Corkerys now help run a loose network of Catholic nonprofits including Catholic Voices USA and help Leo manage the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, an annual conservative meeting of world and business leaders. Leo is its Co Chairman; Pat Cippoline is a Founder’s Circle member; so is Austin Ruse (also Opus Dei). (National Catholic Prayer Breakfast; Daily Beast 4.24.17)
o The Trust received a $153 million grant from Leo’s Marble Freedom Trust, itself the recipient of $1.6 billion in 2021 from Chicago billionaire Barre Seid. Before closing down, the BH Fund transferred almost $3 million in publicly traded securities, over $1 million in stocks to the Trust. (Accountable US 10.28.23; BH Fund 990s FY 2022)
o The Trust gave over $33 million to Leo-linked groups, the bulk to the (former) JCN (now 85 Fund), and helped SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett when Leo was a legal advisor to Donald Trump. (Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington; Salon 3.30.21; DeSmog; Center for Responsive Politics).
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o President: Eugene Mayer. Co-Chairman Leo is a longtime leader and prime funder for the Society (see Who Is Leonard Leo?). Early donors: Scaife and Olin family foundations; the free market Institute for Economic Affairs, among others.
o Donors Trust (Leo) has channeled millions into the Society, including $3.7 million in 2021; the Mercer family donated $6 million over several years. (The New Republic 7.11.22)
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(now defunct)
o The nonprofit BH Fund was set up in 2016 by Leo and conservative legal firm Holtzman Vogel (along with Leo’s Freedom and Opportunity Fund, America Engaged). Leo partly owned the Fund and was its President; Jonathon Bunch was Treasurer.
o Spinoff BH Group served as a private liability corporation; the two organizations raised millions. The Fund allowed Leo to receive millions in contracting services and fund other entities.
o The Fund anonymously donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. Leo transferred its funds and stock into the Rule of Law Trust before shuttering BH Fund and BH Group. (Accountable US; Monitoring Influence, McClatchy DC)
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(now defunct)
o The nonprofit BH Fund was set up in 2016 by Leo and conservative legal firm Holtzman Vogel (along with Leo’s Freedom and Opportunity Fund, America Engaged). Leo partly owned the Fund and was its President; Jonathon Bunch was Treasurer.
o Spinoff BH Group served as a private liability corporation; the two organizations raised millions. The Fund allowed Leo to receive millions in contracting services and fund other entities.
o The Fund anonymously donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. Leo transferred its funds and stock into the Rule of Law Trust before shuttering BH Fund and BH Group. (Accountable US; Monitoring Influence, McClatchy DC)
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o President and CEO: Michael P. Farris; he is also founding president of Patrick Henry College and the Home School Legal Defense Association. ADF was formed in 1994 by 35 Christian Right leaders, and has a longtime anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion agenda. Patrick Henry got $85,530 from the Donors Trust in 2022.
o ADL is identified as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the SPLC. It gained new prominence for its role in trying to ban mifepristone, the abortion pill, and help overturn Roe.
o ADL drew early support Christian anti-gay heavyweights: James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries; James Dobson of Focus on the Family; Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International (now Cru); and Donald Wildmon of AFA.
o The ADF has filed amicus briefs in a number of lawsuits to block abortion, including Dobbs (The New Republic 1.18.24; GPAHE), and anti-LGBTQ measures, especially anti-trans bills.
o It helped author at least 134 anti-LGBTQ bills in 34 states in 2022 including the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill passed by DeSantis in Florida. GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson was trained by ADF. (The New Republic 7.22.22).
o ADL set up the Blackstone Institute to train young lawyers and teach them about early “Christendomic” theology, or historic Christianity. (The New Republic 7.22.22)
o Leo entities fund ADF, including three grants from Donors Trust in 2022 ($124,000; $500,000; $10,000) (DT 990s FY 2022) Other major donors are: the National Christian Foundation in 2020; Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation; Bill and Berniece Grewcock, DeVos family foundations.
(ADL; GPAHE; Accountable US; Oregon Capital Chronicle 12.12.23; DT 990s) -
(formerly Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute)
o President: Austin Ruse, a fervent anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion Catholic activist and publicly visible “supernumerary” member of Opus Dei; journalist and Breitbart contributor; and ex-Vatican diplomatic attaché to the UN. (See “Who’s Zooming Who?”)
o C-FAM is a rightwing US-based 501(c)(3) group focused on UN and foreign policy. It is identified as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the SPLC.
o C-FAM is a State Department emissary to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women status, where Ruse has worked to overturn the Human Rights Council and expressed support for Putin’s anti-gay policies and LGBTQ
criminalization in Africa; C-FAM is allied with anti-LGBTQ World Congress of Families.o Ruse allied himself with Trump; Steve Bannon helped set up Breitbart’s Rome bureau, with Ruse as a contributor.
o C-FAM was accused of being a front company for the scandal-ridden Human Life International, accused of seeking to imprison women in other countries seeking abortion and birth control.
(SPLC HateMap; SPLC 5.29.19; Case, “Trans Formations in the Vatican’s War on “Gender Ideology,” Signs 44 (3): 639-664, 2019; Washington Post 2.10.20; Reuters 3.15.17; Princeton Alumni Weekly 7.16.08; Political Research Associates; ProLies, a project of Equity Forward) -
o A Leo-funded public interest legal outfit with an annual $5 million budget that provides pro bono work on religious freedom, First Amendment cases, anti abortion, and anti-LGBTQ cases (Time 10.4.2014; Reckon News 9.10.23; Politico 1.4.24, NYT 10.22.22).
o Becket helped Hobby Lobby deny its women employees the right to emergency contraception in 2014 (Burwell v. Hobby Lobby), and helped Yeshiva University try to deny recognition to an LGBTQ student group (NYT 9.14.22). It is often allied with the Thomas More Society, also working on religious liberty court cases.
o In 2017, Leo, a Becket board member, was awarded Becket’s highest honor, the Canterbury Medal, for his role in promoting religious freedom, presented by Eugene Scalia, son of the late SCOTUS justice Antonin Scalia.
(The Nation 10.15.19; Becket Law press release 5.5.17). -
o Free to Learn was set up after 2021 as a 501(c)(3) think tank to fund opposition “anti-wokeism” ad campaigns (anti-DEI, intersectionality, and critical race theory) in Florida, Texas, Ohio, and elsewhere.
o Allied with the Claremont Institute (funded by Searle Freedom Trust) and its anti-DEI Fellow, Scott Tenora, and with the Manhattan Institute (Ryan Williams, President) and Fellow Christopher Rufo, an architect of the anti-CRT movement, and Fellow Heather MacDonald. (Vox 6.17.23; NYT 1.20.24; Center for Public Integrity - CPI)
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o Free to Learn Action is the 501(c)(4) political sister arm to Free to Learn for racist, anti-DEI/CRT campaigns. Since late 2022, dozens of anti-DEI bills were introduced across the US and became law in Texas, Florida, North Dakota, and Tennessee. (TruthOut; The Hill 4.30.23; Insight Into Diversity)
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o President: Robert Doar. AEI is a powerful, well established neoconservative think tank set up in 1938 that advocates for lower taxes and cuts to welfare, and fights against consumer and environmental protections. It is a scholarly rival to The Heritage Foundation.
o Major corporate donors include American Express, State Farm Insurance, Dell.
o Of note: AEI reposted a conservative Op Ed by James C. Capretta and Jack Rowling warning against Trump’s plan to weaponize Project 2025’s proposal to use Schedule F to fire federal workers. (Real Clear Policy 11.7.23; Influence Watch; see Summary of Project 2025 on our website for details on Schedule F.)
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(refiled with IRS in 2017 as Tea Party Patriots Action)
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o National Coordinators: Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler. TPP was founded in March 2009. It opposed Obamacare and immigration reform, a flat tax and election security, and later, Covid-19 lockdowns.
o Funded by Freedom Works, a Koch-funded conservative advocacy organization.
o TPP gained media attention with their “Stop the Steal” and Turning Point campaigns to push Trump’s fraudulent election claims in 2020. It was listed on the website of the Jan. 6, 2020, pro-Trump rally that led to the Capitol insurrection. (Open Secrets; Influence Watch)
o In 2011, a Mother Jones exposé revealed TPP financial mismanagement practices, leading to reorganization. The rebranded Tea Party Patriots Action is a spinoff tax exempt organization.
o The Tea Party Patriots Foundation raises funds for training and education to Tea Party groups; the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund is a TPP Super PAC. (Tea Party Patriots; Mother Jones 2.15.21)
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Director: Tarren Bragdon, former Maine legislator (and ex-CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center). The FGA, based in Naples, FL, is a right-wing advocacy group advocating free market policies and cutting welfare programs.
o Bragdon created the FloridaOpenGov.org website as an FGA project.
o The FGA has pushed to loosen labor regulations and expand child labor in several southern states, working with its lobbying arm, Opportunity Solutions Project
o Donors include the Bradley family foundation. (Source Watch; Center for Media and Democracy)
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o President: Roger Ream. A Georgetown University conservative educational nonprofit that promotes liberty, limited government, and free market economics
o Ream is on the board of Donors Trust’s sister Donors Capital Fund. Several staffers worked at Leo-linked Heritage Foundation and Mercatus Center.
o Major donors: Donors Trust (Leo), Bradley Foundation, Earhart Foundation.
o It is a member of the State Policy Network. (Influence Watch)
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o A conservative 501(c)(3) media advocacy group, MRC is aimed at exposing liberal bias in the media and opposing climate change policies. Affiliated with the Business and Media Institute (BMI).
o Both the MRC and BMI oppose mainstream media coverage of climate change, and view global warming as a “myth.”
o Major MRC donors include Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund (Leo); Scaife, Mercer, Bradley, and Uihlein family foundations; DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative; Hickory Foundation; and Exxon Mobil. (DeSmog, Greenpeace)
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o Chairman: Brent Bozell, father of Executive Director David Bozell. A nonprofit Facebook “digital army” for the conservative movement, ForAmerica boasted seven million Facebook members in 2014. It led social media campaigns against Obamacare and immigration.
o Brent Bozell also set up conservative news sites CNSNews.com and Newsbusters.
o The Bozells have worked closely with tech whiz Mike Thompson, then senior vice president at CRC Public Relations, Leo’s firm. CRC provided $1.15 million to ForAmerica in 2012 and 2013. (The Atlantic 12.8.14)
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o Founder: Charlie Kirk. TPUSA is a youth MAGA wing that has worked to organize Trump supporters and TPUSA chapters on US college campuses.
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o Turning Point Action is a spinoff 501(c)(4) political arm of TPUSA. Turning Point UK is a British nonprofit chapter.
o Kirk and TPUSA have been accused of racism and promotion of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, and misogyny. They work to sow doubt about elections, and engage in misinformation, charge watchdog groups.
o In 2018, TPUSA had $28 million in its coffers, versus $10.8 million a year prior. In 2021, the 85 Fund, via the Donors Trust (Leo) gave Kirk’s TP campus project $200,000. In 2022, it got $ 1,437,380, and $10,000 from the Donors Trust.
o Bigger donors are: Uihlein, Rauner, Bradley, Leven, Mike Miller foundations. Also, TPUSA event sponsors The Heritage Foundation, National Rifle Association, ADF, PragerU, The Reason Foundation, and others. (SPLC, GPAHE; Influence Watch; CNBC 11.8.21)
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(formerly Act Right Legal Foundation)
o Founder: J. Christian Adams, former DOJ attorney who litigates cases it views as threats to election integrity; also founder of the Election Law Center. Cleta Mitchell, married to Newt Gingrich, is PILF’s Board Chairman. Hans Spakovsky, a Project 2025 author (chapter on FEC) and Senior Fellow at The Heritage
Foundation, is on PILF’s board. Adams and Mitchell are both members of the Board of Governors of the Council for National Policy. PILF belongs to the State Policy Network.o PILF’s mission is to purge voter rolls. It’s been accused of racism by voter watch groups. (Talking Points Memo 1.17.19)
o Major funders include Leo’s 85 Fund ($400,000 in 2020) and Sarah Scaife Foundation ($1,175,000 from 2016-20). Smaller donors include the American Constitutional Rights Union, Bradley Impact Fund, and other family foundations. (SourceWatch; Public Interest Legal Foundation)
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o Cofounders: Rev. Dean Nelson, Troy Rolling, Dr. Timothy Johnson. A Black-led conservative advocacy 501(c)(3) based in Washington, DC, with 20 state chapters.
o Agenda: anti-choice, anti-feminist, free market. It has backed anti-abortion billboard campaigns and partnered with the Leo-funded Family Research Council.
o Cofounder Nelson is linked to the anti-choice Human Coalition and is on the board of the Virginia Christian Coalition. He founded the Douglass Leadership Institute, active in twenty-five states. (Cincinnati Inquirer 8.3.23)
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(now defunct)
o President: Leonard Leo. Tied to now defunct BH Fund and Freedom and Opportunity Fund. Created in 2016, closed in 2022.
o Rebranded in 2020 by Leo, business partner Mueller, and prominent Republican operatives to give dark money to conservative fights. The fund paid Leo’s Creative Response Concepts PR firm $100,000 in 2017.
o Funded Susan B. Anthony List (now SBA Pro-Life Action Fund), Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, NRA Institute for Legislative Action ($2.7 million), Americans for Limited Government. (partial list).
(Source Watch; America Engaged 990s; Washington Post 3.21.19; Open Secrets 2.27.19) -
o A private consulting firm established in 2009 by Virginia (“Ginni”) Thomas, an attorney and wife of Clarence Thomas, affiliated in 2012 with the now defunct Judicial Education Project (now 85 Fund). Ginni was paid up to $80,000 over 12 months.
o Liberty filed an amicus brief in a critical voting rights case, Shelby County v. Holder. Justice Thomas issued a ruling in that case and was later critiqued for his failure to recuse himself given his wife’s role and financial benefit.
o The firm was a Tea Party affiliate that organized a 2011 petition drive to successfully oppose an Islamic center near the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York.
o Donors: Leo, Harlan Crow.
(Daily Beast 7.24.18; The Legal Times 2.23.10; Washington Post 4.4.23; Politico 2.4.11; NYT 6.18.11) -
(closed in 2018)
o A Leo-helmed dark money fund started in 2016 with an anonymous $2 million donation. The Fund later gave $4 million to the Independent Women’s Fund that year – half its then revenue – to back Brett Kavanaugh as a SCOTUS nominee and defend him against sexual assault allegations by Christine Blasey Ford.
o The Fund gave $600,000 to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX); $500,000 to Trump’s Making America Great campaign, led by Rebekah Mercer; $325,000 to Koch-backed Center for Individual Freedom; $100,000 to FreedomWorks; and $60,000 to the 60 Percent Association (Washington Post 5.21.19; Open Secrets 2.27.19; Center for Responsive Politics; MapLight)
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o A 501(c)(3) nonprofit Leo set up in 2013 with Steve Bannon and Rebekah Mercer to advance conservative grassroots public policies about New York’s future.
o RNY Initiative is RNY’s political arm.
o Former Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani helped set RNY up; Leo served as Vice President; Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was its founding director; Lawrence Mone, President of the Manhattan Institute, was on the founding team.
o Media reports tied RNY to Cambridge Analytica, also funded by the Mercer family; the groups shared an office floor in Manhattan.
o Funders: Leo, Koch brothers, Mercer family. (SourceWatch; Center for Media and Democracy June 2018; State Policy Network; WNYC 2.12.18)
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o President: Ryan Williams. A 501(c)(3) arch-rich nonprofit conservative Catholic think tank that has heavily backed Donald Trump and is leading the anti-DEI charge.
o Former president Larry P. Arnn is also president of Hillsdale College. It is a member of the Council for National Policy (CNP).
o Claremont has played a major role as an influential think tank that has funded and employed virulently anti-LGBTQ scholars and legal activists. Many of their view are mirrored in Project 2025’s “anti-wokeism” agenda. (NYT 9.3.22)
o The institute’s online American Mind magazine trumpets alt-right, far-right, and anti-wokeism perspectives. Contributors include many former Trump officials.
o It also publishes the Claremont Review of Books, edited by Senior Fellow Charles R. Kesler, a member of Trump’s 1776 Commission.
o John Eastman, a well-known conservative legal scholar and Catholic activist, is director of its Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. He is a proponent of “originalism,” a legal doctrine that insists on the original meaning of the
Constitution.o Eastman is under Congressional investigation for his role in backing Trump’s effort to deny and overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. He was reportedly the person who urged Mike Pence to overturn the result (which Pence refused to do). (New Statesman 10.4.22; The American Conservative 5.20.22)
o Right-wing Claremont Fellow Christopher Rufo also gained notoriety for his activism against Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the teaching of gender-related classes in schools. Senior Fellow Micheal Anton
o The institute has garnered more controversy with its Sheriff’s Fellowship, which recruits law enforcement members and advances the notion that the law should be enforced for some, but not others – such as militia members. (New Statesman 10.4.22)
o Leo has long ties with Claremont and Eastman. In 2022, Claremont received $105,000 from the Donors Trust. (NCR online 5.19.23; DT 990s FY 2022) (New Statesman 10.4.22, Claremont Institute; Public Accuracy 9.25.20; NYT 9.3.22).
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o President: Peter Kilpatrick. A private Catholic research university in Washington, DC, founded by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is long allied with the Knights of Columbus and is committed to financially supporting the Knights.
o Leo is a lay board member; most are clerics. Leo directed a $4.25 million anonymous gift to the university to set up the Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition at its Columbus School of Law. SCOTUS judge Alito gave its inaugural lecture.
o Leo facilitated another anonymous $4 million donation for an endowed chair there, in partnership with the Knights of Columbus. (Columbus School of Law alumni magazine Fall 2022; National Catholic Reporter 12.15.22)
o Leo secured $13 million from an anonymous donor for the university’s Business School, where Leo sits on the board; the school has also received over $10 million from Charles Koch Foundation over the years. (National Catholic Reporter 12.15.22)
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o President: Anthony (Tony) Perkins; also past president of the Council for National Policy; former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. FRC has also funded the CNP. (Shadow Network book, by Ann Nelson)
o FRC is an influential right-wing think tank that focused on traditional family values and led anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-“wokeism” activism, particularly anti-trans advocacy.
o FRC has been labeled an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the SPLC. FRC is a leader in the anti-LGBTQ movement, and allied with Focus on the Family and FreedomWorks.
o FRC publishes The Washington Stand and produces the Outstanding! podcast; Perkins also hosts a syndicated TV and radio program, Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.
o FRC has led opposition to reauthorization of the US HIV global AIDS program, PEPFAR, arguing it funds groups that have pro-LGBTQ and abortion positions. FRC is pushing to insist that no new money be given to PEPFAR until it adds “pro-life” protections – namely elimination of any funding for abortion or LGBTQ programs.
o Major donors include: Donors Trust, Donors Capital Fund; Bradley, Fidelity and Schwab Charitable Investments; Hills Bank donor-advised fund; It Takes A Family; Heinz; Harrington; Natan; Vanguard Charitable foundations.
o FRC got $11,100 from the Donors Trust in 2022 (DT IRS 99) FY 2022).
o FRC teamed with the Frederick Douglass Foundation on an anti-abortion billboard campaign. (Family Research Council; Open Secrets; IRS 990s; Influence Watch; SourceWatch; Washington Watch with Tony Perkins)
o Family Policy Councils are independent entities with no corporate or financial
relationship to one another, but a shared pro-marriage, anti-abortion ideology.o FRC has 39 FPC affiliates, as of February 2024.
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o President: Anthony (Tony) Perkins; also past president of the Council for National Policy; former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. FRC has also funded the CNP. (Shadow Network book, by Ann Nelson)
o FRC is an influential right-wing think tank that focused on traditional family values and led anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-“wokeism” activism, particularly anti-trans advocacy.
o FRC has been labeled an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the SPLC. FRC is a leader in the anti-LGBTQ movement, and allied with Focus on the Family and FreedomWorks.
o FRC publishes The Washington Stand and produces the Outstanding! podcast; Perkins also hosts a syndicated TV and radio program, Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.
o FRC has led opposition to reauthorization of the US HIV global AIDS program, PEPFAR, arguing it funds groups that have pro-LGBTQ and abortion positions. FRC is pushing to insist that no new money be given to PEPFAR until it adds “pro-life” protections – namely elimination of any funding for abortion or LGBTQ programs.
o Major donors include: Donors Trust, Donors Capital Fund; Bradley, Fidelity and Schwab Charitable Investments; Hills Bank donor-advised fund; It Takes A Family; Heinz; Harrington; Natan; Vanguard Charitable foundations.
o FRC got $11,100 from the Donors Trust in 2022 (DT IRS 99) FY 2022).
o FRC teamed with the Frederick Douglass Foundation on an anti-abortion billboard campaign. (Family Research Council; Open Secrets; IRS 990s; Influence Watch; SourceWatch; Washington Watch with Tony Perkins)
o Family Policy Councils are independent entities with no corporate or financial
relationship to one another, but a shared pro-marriage, anti-abortion ideology.o FRC has 39 FPC affiliates, as of February 2024.
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The 501(c)(4) political arm of the anti-LGBTQ ACLJA run by Jay Sekulow, a longtime Trump attorney. It was founded by the late Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition of America, the Christian Broadcasting
Network, and Regent University. The ACLJA is among US groups promoting conservative Christian anti-gay legislation in Africa, including Uganda; it is also anti-Muslim, according to GPAHE. (Source: GPAHE) -
(Formerly National Federation for Decency). Founder: the late Donald Wildmon. Director: Tim Wildmon, his son. Director of Issues Analysis: Bryan Fisher, former Idaho Values Alliance Executive Director. A pro-life 501(c)(3) media nonprofit promoting “a Biblical worldview training for cultural transformation,” and linked to
Protestant fundamentalist evangelism.o It launched One Million Moms and One Million Dads websites and campaigns to mobilize parents to limit their children’s access to the media.
o The AFA is identified as an anti-gay hate group by the SPLC. It focuses on anti-LGBTQ activities, equating homosexuality with pedophilia, opposing gay people in the military, and is anti-pornography. It has initiated anti-gay letter-writing
campaigns, boycotts, anti-gay and anti-DEI lawsuits in federal courts, while advocating for early voting in presidential elections.o AFA has many active state chapters. Scott Lively of the anti-gay hate group Abiding Truth Ministries was trained in an AFA chapter; Lively helped lead US evangelical support for anti-gay legislation in Uganda.
o The AFA owns 200 AFA Family Radio stations in 33 states, seven affiliates, and one affiliate television station, KAZQ, in New Mexico, and has a Journal, and One News Now news division.
o In 2015, Fisher was officially repudiated by AFA for his racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, and virulent anti-LGTBQ views and remarks. (American Family Association; Wayback Machine 3.7.12; National Journal 12.4.04; SPLC Extremist Files; Right Wing Watch - People for the American Way 1.29.15; SPLC News 1.29.15; GPAHE)