Fair Future NC is a left-of-center lobbying organization that advocates for the expansion of Medicaid and unemployment insurance in the state of North Carolina. Following North Carolina’s 2020 statewide elections, the group appears to have gone defunct.

In 2019, Fair Future NC received $573,484 from the Hopewell Fund, a pass-through funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit managed by the consultancy Arabella Advisors in Washington, DC. ¹

Founding and History

Fair Future NC appears to have been founded shortly before North Carolina’s 2020 statewide elections, likely entirely by a $573,484 grant from the Hopewell Fund. There are no public records relating to Fair Future NC prior to the Hopewell Fund’s 2019 grant, and its social media platforms only began posting in November 2020. ²

Fair Future NC was active during North Carolina’s 2020 statewide elections, publishing attack ads against Republican candidates and hosting town halls. ³ The Charlotte Observer reported that, alongside other left-of-center lobbying groups such as A Better NC and NC Families First, progressive lobbyists like Fair Future NC spent “millions” on state races. ⁴

Present Activities

Though Fair Future NC maintains a website, featuring pages that support left-of-center policies like expanding Medicaid and unemployment insurance, as of July 2021, the organization appears to be defunct or on hiatus. ⁵ The group’s linked Twitter and Facebook profiles have not been updated since December 2020; its linked Instagram profile does not have any posts. ⁶

Finances

Like other front groups sponsored by the Hopewell Fund, Fair Future NC attempts to appear as if it is not funded largely by an out-of-state fiscal sponsorship nonprofit. ⁷ Its largest donor, the Hopewell Fund, is not disclosed on the group’s website and Fair Future NC does not have publicly available filings. In the Hopewell Fund’s 2019 publicly available filings, however, the fund granted Fair Future $573,484. ⁸

Leadership

Fair Future NC does not list its leadership on its website.

The company’s LinkedIn profile reveals that its executive director—and sole employee—is Keith Mason, a North Carolina Democratic operative. Prior to leading Fair Future NC, Mason worked on several local North Carolina campaigns and was a community organizer for left-of-center organizations Planned Parenthood, For Our Future, and the League of Conservation Voters. ⁹

1. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Hopewell Fund. 2019. Schedule I. Archived: https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/12/Hopewell-Fund-2019-Form-990.pdf ^
2. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Hopewell Fund. 2019. Schedule I. Archived: https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/12/Hopewell-Fund-2019-Form-990.pdf ^ ; “Fair Future NC Twitter .” Twitter. Twitter. Accessed July 7, 2021. https://twitter.com/fairfuturenc. ;“Fair Future NC Facebook .” Facebook. Accessed July 7, 2021. https://www.facebook.com/Fair-Future-NC-119515416119848/?ref=page_internal.
3. “Negative Krawiec – Fair Future NC.” YouTube. YouTube, September 4, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxWzjg6bROE. ; Woolverton, Paul. “Cumberland Workers Say Unemployment System Is Broken.” Shelby Star. Shelby Star, April 28, 2020. https://www.shelbystar.com/news/20200427/cumberland-workers-say-unemployment-system-is-broken.
4. Morrill , Jim. “High Stakes Lead to High Spending on Legislative Races in Mecklenburg, Elsewhere in NC.” The Charlotte Observer , October 20, 2020. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article246729181.html.
5. “Home.” Fair Future NC, December 6, 2019. https://fairfuturenc.org/.
6. “Fair Future NC Instagram Profile .” Instagram. Accessed July 7, 2021. https://www.instagram.com/fairfuturenc/.
7. Hayden R. Ludwig. “Big Money in Dark Shadows: Arabella Advisors’ Half-billion-dollar ‘Dark Money’ Network.” Capital Research Center (DarkMoneyATM.org). https://darkmoneyatm.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/CRC_Arabella-Advisors-Dark-Money_small.pdf ^
8. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Hopewell Fund. 2019. Schedule I. Archived: https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/12/Hopewell-Fund-2019-Form-990.pdf ^
9. “Keith Mason LinkedIn Profile .” LinkedIn. Accessed July 7, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-mason-48b24495/#.