The Hopewell Fund is a 501(c)(3) funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit managed by Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based philanthropy consulting firm. The Hopewell Fund manages a number of left-of-center single-issue advocacy groups, including the Economic Security Project and pro-Obamacare Get America Covered.
The Hopewell Fund often operates alongside its “sister” nonprofits, primarily the 501(c)(4) Sixteen Thirty Fund and 501(c)(3) New Venture Fund, which both provide similar funding and fiscal sponsorship services to center-left advocacy organizations. All three funds are administered by Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based philanthropy consulting firm that caters to left-leaning clients. The Windward Fund, another 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is also managed by Arabella Advisors and performs similar functions.
Projects
The following are examples of a number of Hopewell Fund-sponsored projects.
Equity Forward
Equity Forward is a project of the Hopewell Fund that aims to criticize legislation created by the Trump administration regarding healthcare. Equity Forward runs a campaign named “HHS Watch” that publishes opposition research on Trump administration nominees that are associated with socially conservative groups, especially those that are attacked by the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center. [1]
NFL Players Coalition
In December 2017, the Hopewell Fund became the fiscal sponsor of the NFL Players Coalition, the charitable vehicle created by the National Football League in November 2018 to “contribute $89 million over seven years to social justice causes.” [2] Hopewell Fund l was reportedly promised 50 percent of the total sum.
Economic Security Project
Hopewell Fund manages the Economic Security Project which promotes guaranteed basic income. Such a program would create government cash payments to individuals. [3] [4] To this end, the Economic Security Project funds the Roosevelt Institute, the nominally libertarian Niskanen Center, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Center for Popular Democracy, and the Stanford Basic Income Lab. [5] Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza is a founding signatory for the Economic Security Project, and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes is a co-chair for the Project.
Leadership
Lee Bodner serves as the board chair and president of the Hopewell Fund. Bodner formerly served as the managing director for the for-profit philanthropy consulting firm Arabella Advisors which controls Hopewell Fund, New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, and Windward Fund. Bodner previously worked as the executive director of EcoAmerica, an environmental advocacy organization.
Andrew Schulz serves as general counsel for the Hopewell Fund. He previously worked as in-house counsel for Council on Foundations.
Wilbur Priester serves as the Chief Financial Officer of the Hopewell Fund.
Michael Slaby is the secretary of Hopewell Fund. Slaby previously worked as a Democratic Party operative and as chief technology for both of President Barack Obama’s campaigns.
Sampriti Ganguli is the treasurer of Hopewell Fund. She is also the CEO of Arabella Advisors. [6]
Key Employees
Scott Nielson is the managing director for Hopewell Fund. Nielson has a long history of working for left-leaning organizations as he previously worked as a program director for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and founded a consulting firm that provided services for organizations such as Open Society Foundations, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Democracy Alliance, and more. [7]
Bonnie Scott Jones is the executive director of Hopewell Fund. Jones formerly worked as an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, a left-leaning abortion-rights organization that has received large donations from the Open Society Foundations of George Soros“Grants Database.” Open Society Foundations. Accessed April 18, 2019. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants-database/?filter_keyword=The Center for Reproductive Rights, Inc#OR2015-25583.[/ Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and the Borrego Foundation. [8]
Meagan Cavanaugh is a project director for Hopewell Fund. She works as the managing director for Resources for Abortion Delivery, a project of Hopewell Fund that provides financial support to private abortion clinics. Cavanaugh was previously employed by Planned Parenthood Federation of America where she worked as the national director for affiliate services. [9]
Finances
Hopewell Fund reported a total revenue of $16,552,056 in the organization’s 2016 IRS 990 filings. This more than double the $6,895,261 they reported in the year prior. [10]
Hopewell Fund gave just under $5 million to Priorities USA Foundation, a Democratic Party-aligned advocacy group affiliated with the Priorities USA super PAC. [11] The Priorities USA organizations are funded by major left-leaning figures, among them Donald Sussman, George Soros,[12] and Fred Eychaner. [13]
According to tax returns, the Hopewell Fund received a grant of $3,120,070 from the Susan Thompson Buffet Foundation, a left-leaning philanthropic organization named for the late spouse of left-leaning billionaire Warren Buffett. [14]
The left-leaning Rockefeller Brothers Fund made multiple donations to the Hopewell Fund in 2017 according to the organization’s grants database. [15]
Documents
The Hopewell Fund’s 2016 and 2017 IRS filings are available here: