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For-profit

Arabella Advisors

Website:

www.arabellaadvisors.com
Location:

Washington, DC
Formation:

2005
Type:

Philanthropy Consulting Firm
Founder:

Eric Kessler
Chief Executive Officer:

Sampriti Ganguli
Headquarters:

Washington, D.C.
Other Locations:

California

Illinois

New York

Washington
Managed Funds:

New Venture Fund

Windward Fund

Sixteen Thirty Fund

Hopewell Fund

Arabella Advisors (commonly called “Arabella”) is a philanthropic consulting company that guides the strategy, advocacy, impact investing, and management for high-dollar left-leaning nonprofits and individuals. [1] Arabella provides these clients with a number of services that ease their operations and that enable them to enact policies focused on environmentalism and other left-of-center issues. [2] The company was founded in 2005 by Eric Kessler, a Clinton administration alumnus and long-time staffer at the League of Conservation Voters who remains a senior managing partner and principal at the firm. [3]

Arabella Advisors manages four nonprofits that serve as incubators and accelerators for a range of other left-of-center nonprofits: the New Venture Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Windward Fund. These nonprofits have collectively hosted hundreds of left-wing policy and advocacy organizations since the network’s creation (referred to by critics as “pop-up groups” because they are little more than websites.) [4] [5]

In 2020, Arabella’s nonprofit network boasted total revenues exceeding $1.67 billion and total expenditures of $1.26 billion, and paid out $896 million in grants largely to other left-leaning and politically active nonprofits. [6] In 2019, Arabella’s four nonprofits reported combined revenues of $731 million. [7]

Altogether, between 2006 and 2020 Arabella’s network reported total revenues of $4.7 billion and total expenditures of $3.3 billion. [8] A January 2020 profile of Arabella Advisors’ network by Inside Philanthropy noted that the company “handles over $400 million in philanthropic investments and advises on several billion dollars in overall resources.” [9]

These funds originate primarily with major left-of-center foundations and individual donors, not with the company Arabella Advisors, and are controlled by the nonprofits, which in turn “hire” Arabella Advisors to consult in exchange for a fee. Many of Arabella’s top officials, including firm founder Eric Kessler and former managing director Bruce Boyd, are current or former principal officers on the nonprofits’ boards of directors. [10] Between 2008 and 2020, Arabella’s nonprofits paid the company over $182 million in contracting and management services fees. [11]

Arabella’s nonprofit network has implemented over 300 different “pop-up” projects targeting a range of issues, including net neutrality, free speech, abortion access, Obamacare, and President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, and was highly active in funding pro-Democratic Party advertisements in the 2018 and 2020 elections. Its groups were also active in trying to manipulate the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Census in left-leaning states and the subsequent 2021-22 redistricting process, when state legislative and congressional districts were redrawn by state legislatures. [12] [13] [14] Multiple former Arabella employees have also been traced to the Biden administration. [15]

Arabella Advisors specifically highlights projects in which it has helped its clients divest millions of dollars from traditional energy companies, invest in risky experimental companies, boycott the historically Republican-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce, enact a ballot initiative that freed 4,000 criminals in California, and lobby for a labor union-friendly policy in Oregon that was supported by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the Oregon Nurses Association. [16]

Arabella and its nonprofit network have been criticized as “dark money” funders both for channeling hundreds of millions of dollars from left-leaning foundations to left-wing organizations and for hosting hundreds of “pop-up groups”—websites designed to look like standalone nonprofits that are really projects of an Arabella-run nonprofit. [17] However, Arabella’s nonprofit network also manages a number of “philanthropic projects” engaged in genuine charity, not political advocacy. [18]

In April 2021, the New York Times criticized Arabella’s “system of political financing, which often obscures the identities of donors,” as “dark money,” calling the network “a leading vehicle for it on the Left.” [19]

In November 2019, Politico criticized the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the 501(c)(4) advocacy wing of Arabella’s nonprofit network, as a “little-known,” “massive ‘dark money’ group [that] boosted Democrats” in the 2018 midterm elections with $140 million. “The money contributed to efforts ranging from fighting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and other Trump judicial nominees to boosting ballot measures raising the minimum wage and changing laws on voting and redistricting in numerous states,” the left-leaning website reported. Politico also noted that Sixteen Thirty Fund’s biggest single donation (made anonymously) was for $51.7 million, “more than the group had ever raised before in an entire year before President Donald Trump was elected,” adding that “the group’s 2018 fundraising surpassed any amount ever raised by a left-leaning political nonprofit.” [20] However, Politico failed to fully connect the Sixteen Thirty Fund to Arabella Advisors’ nonprofit network.

The left-leaning Washington Post further criticized Arabella’s Sixteen Thirty Fund as a “big campaign donor” in a November 24, 2019 opinion by the editorial board, which called on Congress to change nonprofit disclosure laws, noting in particular a $26.7 million anonymous donation to the Fund. [21] However, the Post also failed to connect the Sixteen Thirty Fund to Arabella Advisors and its other three nonprofits.

In a November 24, 2019 letter to the editor published by the Washington Post, Capital Research Center (CRC) president Scott Walter identified the $26.7 million donation as originating with the New Venture Fund, the largest of Arabella’s in-house nonprofits, and confirmed Politico’s suspicion that the Sixteen Thirty Fund is “part of a larger network of dark money.” [22]

Organizational Overview

Arabella Advisors is a strategic consulting and management company founded in 2005 that works with individual donors and large left-of-center nonprofits. [23]

Arabella has an estimated 150 employees across its three offices in Washington, DC, San Francisco, California, and Chicago, Illinois. [24] [25] The company helps its clients implement center-left political agendas through (sometimes risky) programming investments or the creation and incubation of new agenda-driven initiatives or organizations. [26] Arabella claims to have carried out more than 150 domestic and international projects for clients with combined assets worth more than $100 billion. [27] More current estimates place the number of projects Arabella’s nonprofits have initiated at between 300 and 400; the company has not disclosed an exact figure. [28]

Arabella boasts of helping its clients develop and implement programs and campaigns that produce left-of-center-social and policy changes, bringing its wide-range of left-wing nonprofits together to collaborate and exchange ideas on how to implement left-of-center policies. [29]

In 2017, in response to the election of President Donald Trump, Arabella founder Eric Kessler called for donors to increase their support for organizations that planned to take bold actions on liberal environmentalist, gender-preferential, and government-funded healthcare policies. [30]

In 2020, Arabella launched a podcast hosted by senior staff members featuring guests from various nonprofit and for-profit organizations centered on race and gender equity. The podcast discusses the guests’ organization and their professional work, along with the subjects of racial and sexual discrimination. [31]

“Fake” Groups

In practice, Arabella Advisors’ fiscal sponsorship means sponsoring hundreds of “fake” groups via Arabella’s four in-house nonprofits; these “fake” groups are little more than websites designed to look like standalone nonprofits. Since the Arabella network’s inception, it’s sponsored at least 340 such groups. These “fake” groups rarely disclose their relationship to Arabella Advisors or any of its four in-house nonprofits; nevertheless, many of them accept donations from the public, funds which go to Arabella’s nonprofits. This system also allows these groups to hide their funders, since it’s virtually impossible to trace individual grants to Arabella’s four nonprofits to any particular “fake” group. [32]

Controversies

“Dark Money” Criticism

Arabella and its nonprofit network have been criticized as “dark money” funders both for channeling hundreds of millions of dollars to left-wing organizations and for hosting hundreds of “pop-up groups”—websites designed to look like standalone nonprofits that are really projects of an Arabella-run nonprofit. [33] [34]

In April 2021, the New York Times criticized Arabella’s “system of political financing, which often obscures the identities of donors,” as “dark money,” calling the network “a leading vehicle for it on the Left.” [35] In May 2021, the New York Times criticized Arabella’s New Venture Fund and its 501(c)(4) “sister” nonprofit, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, for their close ties to and funding from the foreign-funded Wyss Foundation, calling Sixteen Thirty Fund one of the “leading dark money spenders on the Left” responsible for distributing more than $63 million in super PAC donations that hurt Republicans and aided Democrats in the 2020 election, as well for “help[ing] create and fund dozens of groups, including some that worked to block Mr. Trump’s nominees and push progressive appointments by Mr. Biden.” [36]

In November 2019, Politico criticized the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the 501(c)(4) advocacy wing of Arabella’s nonprofit network, as a “little-known,” “massive ‘dark money’ group [that] boosted Democrats” in the 2018 midterm elections with $140 million. “The money contributed to efforts ranging from fighting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and other Trump judicial nominees to boosting ballot measures raising the minimum wage and changing laws on voting and redistricting in numerous states,” the left-leaning website reported. Politico also noted that Sixteen Thirty Fund’s biggest single donation (made anonymously) was for $51.7 million, “more than the group had ever raised before in an entire year before President Donald Trump was elected,” adding that “the group’s 2018 fundraising surpassed any amount ever raised by a left-leaning political nonprofit.” [37] However, Politico failed to tie the Sixteen Thirty Fund to Arabella Advisors and its other three nonprofits.

The left-leaning Washington Post further criticized Arabella’s Sixteen Thirty Fund as a “big campaign donor” in a November 24, 2019 opinion by the editorial board, which called on Congress to change nonprofit disclosure laws, noting in particular a $26.7 million anonymous donation to the Fund. [38] However, the Post also failed to connect the Sixteen Thirty Fund to Arabella Advisors and its other three nonprofits.

In a November 24, 2019 letter to the editor published by the Washington Post, Capital Research Center president Scott Walter identified the $26.7 million donation as originating with the New Venture Fund, the largest of Arabella’s in-house nonprofits, and confirmed Politico’s suspicion that the Sixteen Thirty Fund is “part of a larger network of dark money.” [39]

Unlawful Private Funding of Elections Lawsuit (2020)

Also see Center for Secure and Modern Elections (Nonprofit) and Center for Tech and Civic Life (Nonprofit)

On October 2, 2021, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry sued the New Venture Fund (the parent organization of the Center for Secure Modern Elections, or CSME), the Center for Technology and Civic Life (an allied organization), and the consulting firm Full Circle Strategies (which represented both organizations locally) “to prevent the injection of unregulated private money into the Louisiana election system and to protect the integrity of elections in the State by ensuring against the corrosive influence of outside money on Louisiana election officials.” According to the lawsuit, “private contributions to local election officials are unlawful and contrary to the methods for election funding established by law in the State of Louisiana”; the Attorney General sought to have CTCL’s funding declared illegal and be permanently enjoined. [40]

The lawsuit alleged that CTCL and New Venture Fund (under the name “Center for Secure and Modern Elections”) had unlawfully “targeted 13 parishes” for elections grants, some of which exceeded $500,000, requiring local registrar’s offices to provide “detailed information about [their] operations, conduct, and expenses” in turn. These transactions were allegedly facilitated by Dawn Maisel Cole, the principal for Full Circle Strategies, who “directly solicited registrars and clerks of court to accept contributions from CTCL and New Venture for the operation of their respective offices.” Besides breaking state law, the Attorney General’s office argued that private funding of elections is barred by the Louisiana state legislature and U.S. Congress for “obvious” reasons: [41]

  1. The influence that would inevitably accompany private financial contributions to local elections officials;
  2. Outside donations to local election officials sow distrust in the administration of the election system;
  3. Private contributions would inevitably spawn competition for party and corporate control over local election funding and would lead to bidding for election favor by party and private interests;
  4. Private contributors are likely to be political parties or large corporations that have partisan and/or economic objectives to foster with their contributions to election officials;
  5. Private interests, as in this instance, fund particular parishes and particular aspects of the election that they believe advance their election goals and objectives;
  6. Should registrars and clerks become reliant upon private funding of their governmental activities, they may well be compelled to respond to the objectives of those providing the funding in order to ensure that the funding continues;
  7. Such private funding, washed through non-profit organizations, invites the potential for contributions from foreign governments to the Louisiana system and its election officials;
  8. Private contributions open the door to election suits and contests based upon perceived or actual influence on the part of local election officials in the conduct of an election.

A state judge ruled against the state on October 26, 2020, on the grounds that the Attorney General’s office had “no cause of action” for the lawsuit and it was dismissed. [42]

Hiding Political Agenda Behind “Fake News Sites”

The nonprofit watchdog OpenSecrets (published by the Center for Responsive Politics) reported in May 2020 on Arabella’s involvement in numerous “fake news sites,” pouring millions of untraceable dollars into advertisements and other digital content “masquerading as news coverage to influence the 2020 election.” [43]

OpenSecrets identified five Facebook pages (Colorado Chronicle, Daily CO, Nevada News Now, Silver State Sentinel, Verified Virginia) that “gave the impression of multiple free-standing local news outlets,” but are in fact “merely fictitious names used by the Sixteen Thirty Fund,” Arabella’s 501(c)(4) lobbying nonprofit. [44] These pages published Facebook political advertisements that favored Democrats and left-wing causes during the 2020 election. After the report was published a number of these pages were deleted.

States Newsroom, which runs another network of left-wing “fake news” websites, was originally created as “Newsroom Network,” a project of the Arabella-run 501(c)(3) Hopewell Fund. In June 2019, States Newsroom was spun off as an independent nonprofit with its own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, but a number of its local affiliates are used by the Hopewell Fund as its own legal aliases. [45]

While States Newsroom does not disclose its donors (and is not required to by the IRS), [46]

IRS application records obtained by OpenSecrets show the States Newsroom was offered a $1 million donation from the Wyss Foundation, a private foundation primarily funded by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, who made his fortune as CEO of a controversial medical device manufacturer called Synthes.

A financial statement in the IRS records obtained by OpenSecrets shows that the States Newsroom plans to bring in more than $27 million in contributions before the end of 2021.

And in 2018 the Hopewell Fund gave $1.72 million to News for Democracy, which OpenSecrets points out “was at the crux of a network of seemingly independent Facebook pages disguised as news outlets that started spending on digital ads in 2018,” with backing from the Sixteen Thirty Fund and Investing in US, an investment vehicle funded by LinkedIn founder and liberal billionaire Reid Hoffman. [47]

Also among these “dark money” groups was ACRONYM, which raised $9.4 million from “secret donors” through April 2019, including $250,000 from Arabella’s 501(c)(3) New Venture Fund. ACRONYM is affiliated with a super PAC, PACRONYM, which spent close to $18 million aiding Democrats and hurting Republicans through independent expenditures in the 2020 election. [48] ACRONYM also owns and operates Courier Newsroom, which in turn manages a network of left-wing websites that present themselves as local news outlets while spreading “hyperlocal partisan propaganda,” according to the centrist watchdog Newsguard. [49] Courier Newsroom spent at least $20,000 in digital advertising campaigns on Facebook between March 2019 and May 2020; its total spending in Facebook ads as of June 2021 is nearly $1.4 million. [50] [51]

Political Activism Masked as Philanthropy

Arabella’s increasing prominence as the head of a large and influential network of political groups has earned the company attention from both left- and right-leaning media, which respectively praise or criticize Arabella’s political activism as it exists in the guise of “philanthropy.”

InsidePhilanthropy, a left-leaning website that examines trends in charitable giving, praised Arabella Advisors founder Eric Kessler in July 2021 as one of the 100 “most powerful players in philanthropy” for aiding “progressive causes” through his nonprofit network: [52]

Since he founded Arabella Advisors in 2005, Kessler has built a complex network of nonprofit funds and pass-through entities that now channel hundreds of millions toward progressive causes annually—giving that soared under Trump.

Fiscal Sponsorship: The Arabella Advisors Network

Arabella Advisors manages four nonprofits, three of which are 501(c)(3) entities and one of which is a 501(c)(4) organization. All serve as incubators and accelerators for a range of other left-of-center activist groups, almost none of which become fully-fledged standalone nonprofits. [53] Since the network’s inception, Arabella’s four “sister” nonprofits have sponsored roughly 340 such groups targeting a number of different issue areas, including healthcare, net neutrality, abortion access, gun control President Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court confirmations, and others. [54] [55]

These four nonprofits form a single network that provides funding to other left-of-center nonprofits as well as fiscal sponsorship (or “incubation”) services to hundreds of activist groups associated with Arabella Advisors:

The New Venture Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the oldest of Arabella Advisors’ four nonprofits, originally created in 2006 as the “Arabella Legacy Fund.” The New Venture Fund is the largest of Arabella’s nonprofits by revenues, expenditures, and number of activist groups it’s sponsored; as such, it’s been described as the “flagship” of Arabella’s nonprofit network. [56] The New Venture Fund claims it has sponsored over 280 projects across a range of left-of-center issues. [57] In 2020, NVF reported $975 million in revenues. [58]

The Sixteen Thirty Fund is Arabella’s sole 501(c)(4) advocacy nonprofit and the second-oldest of its nonprofits, created in 2009. The Sixteen Thirty Fund sponsors lobbyist groups such as the judicial advocacy group Demand Justice, and engages in political advocacy, including independent expenditures targeting Republican politicians during elections. [59] [60] [61] In 2020, the Sixteen Thirty Fund reported $389 million in revenues. [62]

The Hopewell Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created in 2015 that primarily sponsors activist groups focused on abortion access and other social issues. [63] In 2020, the Hopewell Fund reported revenues of $152 million. [64]

The Windward Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in 2015 that primarily sponsors environmentalist groups. [65] In 2020, the Windward Fund reported revenues of $159 million. [66]

Network Financial Overview

Arabella Advisors’ four “Funds” have grown rapidly since their inception, reporting total revenues of $4.7 billion and expenditures of $3.4 billion between 2006 and 2020. [67] A summary is available below:

Total Revenues:

Arabella Advisors Nonprofit Network: Revenues
New Venture FundSixteen Thirty FundHopewell FundWindward FundAnnual Total
2020$975,483,022$389,684,866$152,371,332$158,611,799$1,676,151,019
2019$460,798,902$138,371,684$86,964,726$44,404,708$730,540,020
2018$405,281,263$143,837,877$66,892,414$19,238,519$635,250,073
2017$358,858,641$79,559,836$130,616,293$12,656,323$581,691,093
2016$357,581,316$21,258,592$16,552,056$15,812,062$411,204,026
2015$318,405,056$5,617,209$6,895,271$1,297,000$332,214,536
2014$179,424,945$16,523,735--$195,948,680
2013$112,942,320$5,269,965--$118,212,285
2012$52,519,099$812,500--$53,331,599
2011$36,542,348$93,600--$36,635,948
2010$16,813,261---$16,813,261
2009$26,812,567$4,828,000--$31,640,567
2008$6,011,782---$6,011,782
2007$1,663,363---$1,663,363
2006$545,100---$545,100
Sum:$3,309,682,985$805,857,864$373,327,366$252,020,411
Grand Total:$4,740,888,626

Total Expenditures:

Arabella Advisors Nonprofit Network: Expenditures
New Venture FundSixteen Thirty FundHopewell FundWindward FundAnnual Total
2020$658,874,215$410,038,247$127,636,237$70,257,223$1,266,805,922
2019$420,857,504$98,641,867$107,689,308$20,844,825$648,033,504
2018$373,007,693$141,396,752$78,113,237$13,579,180$606,096,862
2017 $329,784,536 $46,893,083 $28,843,397 $11,024,111$416,645,127
2016 $264,546,947 $19,660,860$7,818,000 $7,452,824$299,478,631
2015 $214,351,188$8,660,897  $839,522$58,293$223,909,900
2014$134,487,602  $10,880,643  --$145,368,245
2013$74,982,490 $2,721,133--$77,703,623
2012$39,574,786$353,098--$39,927,884
2011$24,722,363$93,600--$24,815,963
2010$14,893,390$447,394--$15,340,784
2009$13,847,145$4,380,606--$18,227,751
2008$3,983,417---$3,983,417
2007$1,315,615---$1,315,615
2006$40,399---$40,399
Sum:$2,569,269,290$744,168,180$322,125,544$123,216,456
Grand Total:$3,336,736,834

Grants Paid:

Arabella Advisors Nonprofit Network: Grants Paid
New Venture FundSixteen Thirty FundHopewell FundWindward FundAnnual Total
2020$447,092,573 $324,931,044 $80,113,710 $44,017,016 $896,154,343
2019$242,710,382 $64,973,649 $78,913,765 $8,115,107 $394,712,903
2018$205,351,216 $91,386,301 $60,039,868 $3,955,493 $360,732,878
2017$154,740,778 $13,336,144 $21,562,711 $2,476,502 $192,116,135
2016$114,285,885 $14,584,591 $5,662,344 $2,339,698 $136,872,518
2015$87,322,893 $6,768,578 --$94,091,471
2014$56,602,126 $9,719,545 --$66,321,671
2013$29,520,729 $1,322,500 --$30,843,229
2012$17,076,406 $152,500 --$17,228,906
2011$9,217,867 ---$9,217,867
2010$4,105,145 $146,569 --$4,251,714
2009$3,206,141 $3,336,624 --$6,542,765
2008$2,172,460 ---$2,172,460
2007$10,000 ---$10,000
2006-----
Sum:$1,373,414,601$530,658,045 $246,292,398 $60,903,816
Grand Total:$2,211,268,860

Arabella Advisors’ Consulting and Management Fees:

Between 2008 and 2020, Arabella’s four nonprofits paid the company at least a combined $182 million in management fees. A summary is provided below (note that the IRS does not require nonprofits to report payments of less than $100,000 to consultants): [68]

Arabella Network: Contracting Fees
New Venture FundSixteen Thirty FundHopewell FundWindward FundAnnual Total% Growth
2020$26,982,304$9,066,157$6,657,691$2,918,654$45,624,80635%
2019$23,261,222$3,462,967$4,858,669$2,159,679$33,742,53724%
2018$18,920,327$3,483,127$3,763,563$1,037,742$27,204,75922.4%
2017$17,678,314$2,066,194$1,507,771$980,466$22,232,74543.4%
2016$13,167,207$789,891$807,425$740,180$15,504,70314.2%
2015$13,167,207$239,739$170,953-$13,577,89957.1%
2014$8,299,366$342,066--$8,641,43249.7%
2013$5,509,532$201,906--$5,771,43835.9%
2012$4,246,022---$4,246,02269.5%
2011$2,505,465---$2,505,465101%
2010$1,246,232---$1,246,232-17.3
2009$1,345,054$162,604--$1,507,658171%
2008$555,931---$555,931-
Total:$136,884,183$19,814,651$17,766,072$7,836,721
Grand Total:$182,301,627

New Venture Fund

For more information, see New Venture Fund (Nonprofit)

The New Venture Fund (NVF) (formerly the Arabella Legacy Fund) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created in October 2006. The group funds a number of center-left causes, but is primarily known for hosting over 280 fiscally sponsored projects. [69] Former Arabella Advisors managing director Lee Bodner serves as president of NVF.

The NVF sponsors the Media Democracy Fund, a group supported by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, and which pushes for left-of-center internet-related policies, including net neutrality regulations. [70] [71]

Sixteen Thirty Fund

For more information, see Sixteen Thirty Fund (Nonprofit)

The Sixteen Thirty Fund is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit created in 2009. The Fund provides similar fiscal sponsorship services to that of the New Venture Fund and Arabella’s other nonprofits; but the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s projects are often hosted as lobbying arms in conjunction with an “education” or fundraising arm hosted by one of its 501(c)(3) “sister” nonprofits (usually the New Venture Fund). [72]

The Sixteen Thirty Fund has been described as a “progressive advocacy group” because of its lobbying efforts, and the group has created a number of offshoot entities that advocate for liberal policies. [73] One such group, Americans For Tax Fairness Action Fund, advocates for “progressive tax reform.” Another organization, Make It Work Action, pushes for liberal labor policies. [74]

The Sixteen Thirty Fund funneled nearly millions of dollars from Atlantic Philanthropies to “Unity ’09: Moving a Progressive Policy Agenda in America” a liberal effort to support President Barack Obama’s healthcare policy (popularly known as Obamacare). [75] In 2017, the Sixteen Thirty Fund gave over $600,000 to the left-wing Center for Community Change Action, a group organizing opposition to the Trump administration. [76]

Hopewell Fund

For more information, see Hopewell Fund (Nonprofit)

The Hopewell Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created in 2015. It primarily manages pro-abortion projects, including Equity Forward, which attacks Trump administration “political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for opposing the left-wing abortion agenda.” [77]

Windward Fund

For more information, see Windward Fund (Nonprofit)

The Windward Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created in 2015. The Windward Fund primarily sponsors environmentalist projects, such as the Climate Resilience Fund.

Issue Areas

Arabella’s main issue areas focus on left-of-center environmentalist, gender, and food policies. [78]

Shareholder Advocacy and Oil Divestment

Arabella has issued reports touting how nonprofits use shareholder advocacy to push for environmentalist prerogatives including carbon reduction mandates and a boycott against the Republican-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce. [79] Arabella also pushes for financial divestment from traditional energy companies in favor of experimental environmentalist energy companies and issued a report touting that companies holding $1.3 trillion in assets have pledged “to both divest and invest in clean energy and climate solutions.” [80]

Mandatory Paid Sick Leave

Arabella touts that it worked to create the Everybody Benefits Coalition in 2012, a project of Family Forward Oregon funded by the Rockefeller Family Fund, to lobby for a statewide paid sick leave mandate in Oregon. The coalition included a number of labor-aligned advocacy groups including the Working Families Organization alongside labor unions such as United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the Oregon Nurses Association. [81]

Looser Sentencing Laws

In 2014, Arabella coordinated grant funding from a number of left-leaning nonprofits including the Ford Foundation, George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF), the Public Welfare Foundation, and other to form the Vote Safe 501(c)(4), which successfully funded a $10 million ballot initiative campaign to loosen California sentencing laws and release approximately 4,000 convicted criminals. [82]

Other Issues

The company also helps its clients carryout programs across other left-of-center issue areas including economic, education and healthcare-based issues; “equity and social justice” issues; and global redistribution issues. [83]

Leadership

Founder

Eric Kessler is the founder, principal, and senior managing director of Arabella Advisors. He has been a board member or chair of Arabella’s four nonprofits at various times; in June 2021 he resigned as chair of the Sixteen Thirty Fund. Kessler previously served as the national field director for the League of Conservation Voters and as a White House appointee managing conservation issues for President Bill Clinton. [84]

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Principals

Sampriti Ganguli is the chief executive officer of Arabella Advisors. [85]

Bruce Boyd is a co-principal and senior managing director at Arabella. Previously Boyd worked for 13 years as executive director of the Illinois chapter of the Nature Conservancy. [86] Boyd is an adviser to the New Venture Fund and a board member for the Hopewell Fund and the Windward Fund.

Staff

Scott Nielsen is Arabella’s managing director of advocacy. [87] He also serves on the board of advisors at the Funders Committee For Civic Participation, a donors’ trade group which Arabella Advisors is a member of. Nielsen has also worked with the MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Democracy Alliance, the State Infrastructure Fund, and the Open Society Foundations. [88]

References

  1. “Arabella Advisors.” Devex. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.devex.com/organizations/arabella-advisors-62136 ^
  2. “Arabella Advisors.” Devex. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.devex.com/organizations/arabella-advisors-62136 ^
  3. “Our People.” Arabella Advisors. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/company/our-people/ ^
  4. Slodysko, Brian. “Wealthy Donors Pour Millions into Fight over Mail-in Voting.” AP NEWS. Associated Press, July 27, 2020. https://apnews.com/88aac5da244eb615df36ae868db3a6a0. ^
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  10. Ken Braun. “The Left’s Mystery Billionaire: Dark Roads Through Arabella.” Capital Research Center. Nov. 2, 2021. Accessed Nov. 22, 2021. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-lefts-mystery-billionaire-part-4/ ^
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  13. Hayden Ludwig. “Arabella’s ‘Dark Money’ Activists Trying to Tilt 2021 Redistricting.” Capital Research Center. June 16, 2021. Accessed Nov. 22, 2021. https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-dark-money-activists-trying-to-tilt-2021-redistricting/ ^
  14. Hayden Ludwig. “Arabella Advisors: Democrats’ Darkest ‘Dark Money.'” Capital Research Center. May 7, 2021. Accessed Nov. 22, 2021. https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabella-advisors-democrats-darkest-dark-money/ ^
  15. Robert Stilson. “Nonprofits in the Biden Administration: Arabella Advisors and Democracy Alliance.” Capital Research Center. July 26, 2021. Accessed Nov. 22, 2021. https://capitalresearch.org/article/nonprofits-in-the-biden-administration-arabella-advisors-and-democracy-alliance/ ^
  16. Whelpton, Shelley and McArthur. Loren. “Bringing Workplace Policies Into The 21st Century.” Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Bringing-Workplace-Policies-Into-the-21st-Century.pdf ^
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  19. Kenneth P. Vogel, Katie Robertson. “Top Bidder for Tribune Newspapers Is an Influential Liberal Donor.” New York Times. April 13, 2021. Accessed April 14, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/business/media/wyss-tribune-company-buyer.html ^
  20. Scott Bland, Maggie Severns. “Documents reveal massive ‘dark-money’ group boosted Democrats in 2018.” Politico. November 19, 2019. Accessed January 7, 2020. https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/19/dark-money-democrats-midterm-071725 ^
  21. Washington Post Editorial Board. “Big campaign donors have exploited a loophole. Congress must change the law.” Washington Post. November 24, 2019. Accessed January 7, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/big-campaign-donors-have-exploited-a-loophole-congress-must-change-the-law/2019/11/21/ab31cf3a-0bd6-11ea-bd9d-c628fd48b3a0_story.html ^
  22. Scott Walter. “Letter to the Editor: This organization traced the supposed ‘dark money’s’ origins.” Washington Post. November 24, 2019. Accessed January 7, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-organization-traced-the-supposed-dark-moneys-origins/2019/11/24/07d88e78-0d48-11ea-8054-289aef6e38a3_story.html ^
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  35. Kenneth P. Vogel, Katie Robertson. “Top Bidder for Tribune Newspapers Is an Influential Liberal Donor.” New York Times. April 13, 2021. Accessed April 14, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/business/media/wyss-tribune-company-buyer.html ^
  36. Kenneth P. Vogel. “Swiss Billionaire Quietly Becomes Influential Force Among Democrats.” New York Times. May 3, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/us/politics/hansjorg-wyss-money-democrats.html ^
  37. Scott Bland, Maggie Severns. “Documents reveal massive ‘dark-money’ group boosted Democrats in 2018.” Politico. November 19, 2019. Accessed January 7, 2020. https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/19/dark-money-democrats-midterm-071725 ^
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  41. State of Louisiana v. Center for Technology and Civic Life, New Venture Fund, et al. Filed October 2, 2020. Accessed May 12, 2021. Original URL: https://lailluminator.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020.10.02-AG-Petition.pdf. Archived URL: https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/05/Louisiana-v-CTCL-New-Venture-Fund.-10.02.2020.pdf ^
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  45. Anna Massoglia. “Hopewell Fund Fictitious Names.” Center for Responsive Politics. Accessed June 14, 2021. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6827522-Hopewell-Fund-Fictious-Names.html ^
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  47. Anna Massoglia. “‘Dark money’ networks hide political agendas behind fake news sites.” Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets). May 22, 2020. Accessed June 14, 2021. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/05/dark-money-networks-fake-news-sites/ ^
  48. PACRONYM: Disbursements, 2019-2020. Federal Election Commission. Accessed June 14, 2021. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00646877/?cycle=2020 ^
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  50. Cardinal & Pine: Total spending. Facebook Ad Library. Accessed June 14, 2021. https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=political_and_issue_ads&country=US&view_all_page_id=106487520883333&sort_data[direction]=desc&sort_data[mode]=relevancy_monthly_grouped&search_type=page&media_type=all ^
  51. Anna Massoglia. “‘Dark money’ networks hide political agendas behind fake news sites.” Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets). May 22, 2020. Accessed June 14, 2021. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/05/dark-money-networks-fake-news-sites/ ^
  52. IP Staff. “The IP Power List: Meet the 100 Most Powerful Players in Philanthropy.” InsidePhilanthropy. July 21, 2021. Accessed July 23, 2021. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2021/7/21/the-inside-philanthropy-power-list ^
  53. “Fiscal Sponsorship.” Arabella Advisors. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/expertise/fiscal-sponsorship/ ^
  54. Hayden Ludwig. “Don’t Forget the Shadowy Special Interests Behind Net Neutrality.” Capital Research Center. October 4, 2019. Accessed November 25, 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/article/dont-forget-the-shadowy-special-interests-behind-net-neutrality/ ^
  55. Hayden Ludwig. “Marionettes and Mazes: The ‘Trump Effect’ on Activism.” Capital Research Center. July 23, 2019. Accessed November 25, 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/article/marionettes-and-mazes-part-1/ ^
  56. Hayden Ludwig. “The SAGE Fund: A Black Box Funder.” Capital Research Center. September 9, 2019. Accessed November 25, 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-sage-fund-a-black-box-funder/ ^
  57. “About New Venture Fund.” New Venture Fund. Accessed April 19, 2018. http://www.newventurefund.org/about-nvf/ ^
  58. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). New Venture Fund. 2020. Part I, Line 12. ^
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  60. Kimberly Strassel. “The Left’s Lucrative Nonprofits.” Wall Street Journal. September 5, 2019. Accessed November 25, 2019. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-lefts-lucrative-nonprofits-11567723794 ^
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  62. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Sixteen Thirty Fund. 2020. Part I, Line 12. ^
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  64. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Hopewell Fund. 2020. Part I, Line 12. ^
  65. Strode, Ryan. “Conservation & Climate.” Arabella Advisors. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/issue/climate/ ^
  66. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Windward Fund. 2020. Part I, Line 12. ^
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  68. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990) (multiple). New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Hopewell Fund, Windward Fund. 2008-2020. Part VII. Section B (Independent Contractors). ^
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  71. Takala, Rudy. “Hacked documents reveal Soros plans for more Internet regulation.” Washington Examiner. September 9, 2016. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hacked-documents-reveal-soros-plans-for-more-internet-regulation ^
  72. Hayden Ludwig. “Who is Behind the Groups Pushing Obamacare?” Capital Research Center. January 10, 2019. Accessed March 22, 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/article/who-is-behind-the-groups-pushing-obamacare/ ^
  73. Schoffstall, Joe. “Donors of Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ Group Revealed.” Washington Free Beacon. October 4, 2017. Accessed April 19, 2018. http://freebeacon.com/politics/donors-anti-trump-resistance-group-revealed/ ^
  74. “Projects.” Sixteen Thirty Fund. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.sixteenthirtyfund.org/project-directory/ ^
  75. Maghami, Neil. “A Donor Can Stand Up: Battling over donor intent at the Atlantic Philanthropies.” Capital Research Center. April 13, 2015. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://capitalresearch.org/article/a-donor-can-stand-up-battling-over-donor-intent-at-the-atlantic-philanthropies/ ^
  76. Schoffstall, Joe. “Donors of Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ Group Revealed.” Washington Free Beacon. October 4, 2017. Accessed April 19, 2018. http://freebeacon.com/politics/donors-anti-trump-resistance-group-revealed/ ^
  77. Michael Watson. “New Dark Money Front Targets Pro-Life HHS Appointees.” Capital Research Center. January 31, 2019. Accessed March 22, 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/article/new-dark-money-front-targets-pro-life-hhs-appointees/ ^
  78. “Arabella Advisors.” Devex. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.devex.com/organizations/arabella-advisors-62136 ^
  79. “Assets in Action: How Catholic Institutions Are Using Their Investments To Counter Climate Change.” Arabella Advisors. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Assets-in-Action-9.9-final.pdf ^
  80. “The Global Fossil Fuel Divestment and Clean Energy Investment Movement.” December 2016. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Global_Divestment_Report_2016.pdf ^
  81. Whelpton, Shelley and McArthur. Loren. “Bringing Workplace Policies Into The 21st Century.” Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Bringing-Workplace-Policies-Into-the-21st-Century.pdf ^
  82. Whelpton, Shelley and McArthur, Loren. “Ending The Era Of Mass Incarceration.” Arabella Advisors. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Californias-Proposition-47.pdf ^
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Directors, Employees & Supporters

  1. Sampriti Ganguli
    Chief Executive Officer
  2. Andrew Schulz
    General Counsel
  3. Scott Nielsen
    Director of Advocacy
  4. Bruce Boyd
    Principal and Senior Managing Director
  5. Eric Kessler
    Founder, Principal, and Senior Managing Director
  6. Isaiah Castilla
    Managing Director
  7. Lee Bodner
    Former Managing Director
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Arabella Advisors

1201 Connecticut Ave NW
#300
Washington, DC 20036