Save Our Home Planet Action is a company connected to sportswear company Patagonia that funneled over $1.4 million to Democratic and left-of-center political action committees during the 2024 election to aid Vice President Kamala Harris’s (D) presidential campaign. The group is registered as a corporate entity formed in Delaware and lists its address as the same location as Patagonia. ^{1 2}

The group appears to have presence online other than the phrase “Save Our Home Planet” being a frequently used Patagonia tagline. The left-of-center Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) asking the FEC to investigate whether Save Our Planet Home Action was formed as an illegal “straw donor,” an intermediary person or entity designed to unlawfully mask the identity of political donors. ^{1 2}

Background

Save Our Planet Home Action is a nonprofit corporation that was formed in Delaware and located in Ventura, California. The address associated with the organization is the same address as the headquarters of environmentalist sportswear company Patagonia. The organization was formed in 2024 and information about the organization is unclear other than its corporate filing. The phrase “Save Our Home Planet” is extensively used by Patagonia as a tagline after the company’s 2022 ownership transfer which gave all voting shares to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective with an agreement that the two nonprofits will donate all Patagonia’s future profits (roughly $100 million annually as of 2022) to environmentalist efforts. ²

Criticisms

Campaign Legal Center Complaint

In December 2024, the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that between August and September 2024, SOHPA served as a “straw donor” for an illegal scheme to move over $1.425 million in donations from Patagonia to support several Democrat Party-affiliated super PACs and committees that backed the presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris. Such groups included the Senate Majority PAC (SMP) ($450,000), the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund (LCV Victory Fund) ($450,000), the House Majority PAC (HMP) ($450,000), the Future Forward PAC (FF PAC) ($50,000), and the PAC for America’s Future (also known as Future Now Fund) ($50,000). ^{1 3}

The complaint stated that the unknown persons directing money through Save Our Home Planet Action were “Patagonia’s corporate treasury and/or one or more of the company’s officers, executives, or employees.” CLC also alleged that the group’s activity violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and asked the FEC to open an investigation, because the group has no discernable footprint or activity other than to act as an intermediary for political donations and that the group “did not appear to have engaged in any activity from which it could have garnered the funds with which to make these contributions.” ^{1 3}

SOHPA was formed in August 2024, and just 10 days later, made $875,000 in contributions. The CLC complaint stated that “SOHPA appears to have engaged in no activity and served no purpose aside from facilitating the straw donor contributions at issue in this matter between the date of its formation and the dates of the $1.425 million in contributions made in its name. It is utterly implausible that a nascent entity with no discernible footprint could have generated or acquired sufficient funds in so short a period to enable it to make $1.425 million in contributions in its own name, with its own funds. Thus, SOHPA appears to have ‘lacked the financial wherewithal to make the [$1,425,000] contribution[s] to [the Committees] on its own.’” ^{1 3}

1. Vogel, Kenneth P. (@kenvogel). “NEW @FEC COMPLAINT: @Patagonia or its executives used a dark money group to mask $1.425m in donations to super PACs backing @KamalaHarris & Democratic congressional candidates, @CampaignLegal suggests, asking the FEC to investigate.”  X, December 9, 2024. https://x.com/kenvogel/status/1866193783693480293.
2. Fara, Emily. “Patagonia has a new mission to ‘Save Our Home Planet.’” November 9, 2021. Accessed December 26, 2024. https://www.vogue.com/article/patagonia-cfda-award-climate-change-ambitions-vincent-stanley
3. “SOHPA Complaint.” Campaign Legal Center, December 6, 2024. https://campaignlegal.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/SOHPA_Complaint_Notarized.pdf.