Liquid Assets Project
The Liquid Assets Project is a left-leaning environmentalist grantmaking organization created in 2015 and a project of the Windward Fund, a charitable nonprofit managed by the Washington, D.C.-based consultancy Arabella Advisors. 1
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Windward Fund is an environmentalist fiscal sponsor for several other left-of-center organizations including the Liquid Assets Project. 2 Arabella Advisors, a for-profit consulting firm, is the managing organization of Windward Fund. Arabella was founded in 2005 by Eric Kessler, a Clinton administration alumnus and long-time staffer at the League of Conservation Voters. 3 4 5
Background
The Liquid Assets Project funds municipal water infrastructure in the western United States. 6 The Project claims that federal, state, and local funding is too limited and that private investment is necessary to fill the gap in funding. 6 The Project seeks to incentivize municipalities by providing funding to upgrade water infrastructure to upgrade from “default “gray” infrastructure solution to a more environmentalist-friendly approach.” 6 When deciding which areas to fund water projects in, the Liquid Assets Project wrote in a 2018 report that it wishes to identify areas where investing in water infrastructure can also deliver environmental benefits. 7
Funding and Funding Organizations
The Windward Fund, the Liquid Assets Project’s parent organization, received a $100,000 grant from the Gates Family Foundation to support conducting due diligence on the development of the Liquid Assets project. 8
Windward Fund describes itself as a fiscal sponsor of “various ‘projects,’” such as the Liquid Assets Project, that focus on a range of environmental issues. Windward provides legal compliance, finance, and human-resources services to its projects, and additionally seeks to help its projects create greater impact through facilitating connections, providing access to information, and capacity building.” 2
Arabella Advisors is the managing organization of Windward Fund. Arabella is a for profit consulting firm that guides the strategy, advocacy, and management for high-dollar left-leaning nonprofits and individuals. 1 Arabella provides these clients with services that ease their operations and that enable them to enact policies focused on environmentalism and other left-of-center issues. The company was founded in 2005 by Eric Kessler, a Clinton administration alumnus and long-time staffer at the League of Conservation Voters. Between 2008 and 2018, Arabella’s nonprofits paid the company nearly $103 million in contracting and management services fees. 3 5 9