The National Public Education Action Fund (NPEAF) is the campaigning and lobbying arm of the National Public Education Support Fund (NPESF), a grant making organization that funds left-of-center education policy advocacy and activist networking initiatives. Both groups were founded by Daniel Leeds, who is also the chair of the Alliance for Excellent Education and whose wife Sunita Leeds is the founder of the Enfranchisement Foundation, another left-of-center grantmaking organization. 1
NPEAF funding recipients have included the Democratic Party-aligned Senate Majority PAC and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the lobbying affiliate of the influential Center for American Progress think tank. 2
Parent Organization
National Public Education Support Fund supports designing government school programs and allocating taxpayer dollars based on race, ethnicity, and other minority status, and pushes for an education system designed to generate equality of outcome. To achieve this, the fund maintains several initiatives designed to facilitate networking for left-of-center grant makers and activists. 3
Under the Biden administration, NPESF has also collaborated with the Department of Education to promote its COVID-19 related stimulus spending. 4 Major financial backers of the NPESF have included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which have made multiple grants totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars to the fund. 5 6
Funding and Grantmaking
Gerald and Lilo Leeds, the parents of National Public Education Action Fund founder Daniel Leeds, have been major contributors to the fund. Gerald Leeds donated $750,000 in 2008 and another $452,000 in 2014, and Lilo Leeds donated more than $2.5 million in 2008. 7 8
Between 2014 and 2016, the NPEAF contributed more than $200,000 to the Center for American Progress, a leading liberal think tank founded by Clinton administration chief of staff John Podesta, and its political influence arm. Between 2008 and 2010, the fund also contributed more than $700,000 to the League of Education Voters, which pushes for left-of-center school system changes, including various forms of racial quotas. In addition, the fund paid the Democratic Party-aligned polling and consulting firm Project New America at least $100,00 in 2012 for public relations services. 9
NPEAF has given $20,000 to the Senate Majority PAC, the Super PAC associated with Senate Democratic leadership. 10
Leadership
Daniel Leeds is the founder of the National Public Education Action Fund and the National Public Education Support Fund. He continues to manage the former, and is now a board member with the latter. He and his wife Sunita Leeds are the co-chairs of the Enfranchisement Foundation, which backs left-of-center economic, social, and gender causes. Leeds also runs a private investment firm. 11 12 His wife is the vice president of the NPEAF. 13 The Leeds family fortune comes from the technical trade journal publisher CMP Media, which the family sold in 1999 for at least $920 million. Daniel Leeds’s parents Gerald and Lilo Leeds were the company’s founders. 14
Kent McGuire is the board chairman of the NPESF, the parent organization of the NPEAF. He is also the program director of education at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, one of the leading grant making organizations in the United States. McGuire was also an assistant secretary of the Department of Education during the last few years of the Clinton administration. 15
Financials
National Public Education Action Fund received the bulk of its funding from publishing industry executives Gerald and Lilo Leeds, the parents of the fund’s founder Daniel Leeds: between 2008 and 2014, the couple contributed a total of more than $3.75 million. 16 17 In 2021, the NPEAF was not very active, receiving no contributions and spending less than $23,000. 18
References
- “Who We Are.” National Public Education Support Fund. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.npesf.org/who-we-are/
- “National Public Education Action Fund.” CampaignMoney. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/national-public-education-action-fund-527.asp
- “Partnership for the Future of Learning.” National Public Education Support Fund. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.npesf.org/networks/partnership-for-the-future-of-learning/
- [1]“From Recovery to Thriving: How the American Rescue Plan is Supporting America’s Students.” Office of Elementary & Secondary Education. November 16, 2022. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://oese.ed.gov/from-recovery-to-thriving-how-the-american-rescue-plan-is-supporting-americas-students/
- “Committed Grants.” Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants?q=National%20Public%20Education%20Support%20Fund&yearAwardedEnd=2015&yearAwardedStart=2015
- “Grants.” William & Flora Hewlett Foundation. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://hewlett.org/grants/?keyword=National%20Public%20Education%20Support%20Fund&sort=relevance&years=2015¤t_page=1
- “National Public Education Action Fund.” CampaignMoney. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/national-public-education-action-fund-527.asp
- Paul Tharp. “Leeds Family Sells CMP Media For $920M.” New York Post. April 30, 1999. Accessed May 27, 2023. https://nypost.com/1999/04/30/leeds-family-sells-cmp-media-for-920m/
- [1]“National Public Education Action Fund.” CampaignMoney. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/national-public-education-action-fund-527.asp
- “National Public Education Action Fund.” CampaignMoney. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/national-public-education-action-fund-527.asp
- “Who We Are.” National Public Education Support Fund. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.npesf.org/who-we-are/
- “National Public Education Action Fund.” CampaignMoney. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/national-public-education-action-fund-527.asp
- National Public Education Action 2021 Internal Revenue Service Form 990. Accessed May 27, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/262819027/202233569349300748/full
- Paul Tharp. “Leeds Family Sells CMP Media For $920M.” New York Post. April 30, 1999. Accessed May 27, 2023. https://nypost.com/1999/04/30/leeds-family-sells-cmp-media-for-920m/
- “Who We Are.” National Public Education Support Fund. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.npesf.org/who-we-are/
- “National Public Education Action Fund.” CampaignMoney. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/national-public-education-action-fund-527.asp
- Paul Tharp. “Leeds Family Sells CMP Media For $920M.” New York Post. April 30, 1999. Accessed May 27, 2023. https://nypost.com/1999/04/30/leeds-family-sells-cmp-media-for-920m/
- National Public Education Action. Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2021. Accessed May 27, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/262819027/202233569349300748/full