North Fund

Note: This profile will be updated regularly as more information emerges on Arabella Advisors‘ acquisition by Sunflower Services.

The North Fund is a left-of-center nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. and part of the multi-billion-dollar nonprofit network created and administered by Arabella Advisors. North Fund is particularly close to the Arabella-run 501(c)(4) group Sixteen Thirty Fund. ¹

Like Arabella’s other nonprofits, North Fund operates as an umbrella group for various left-of-center advocacy organizations and has spent millions to promote causes including expanding the number of seats on the Supreme Court (known as “packing the court”), abolishing the Electoral College, legalizing recreational marijuana, opposing a 22-week abortion ban, expanding Medicaid, and making Washington, D.C. a state. ¹

As of November 2025, Arabella Advisors announced that it would be ceasing operations after being acquired by a newly formed public benefit corporation (PBC) named Sunflower Services. A press release announcing the acquisition stated that Sunflower Services was owned by New Venture Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund. ²

The North Fund has been characterized as a leading “dark money” nonprofit for its significant ballot-measure funding, which totaled $34 million in the 2020 election. ^{3 4}

In 2021, the North Fund posted total revenues of $43 million and total expenditures of $33.4 million, including nearly $11 million in grants paid out to (largely left-of-center) nonprofits. ⁵

The North Fund is registered as a lobbyist principal in Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. After a complaint in 2020, the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices’ Office (COPP) determined the North Fund’s primary purpose as an organization is to support or oppose election related issues. ⁶

Background

The North Fund was incorporated as a nonprofit on December 28, 2018. ⁷ As of late 2020, it had no website and listed a physical address in Washington, D.C. that is managed by Carr Workplaces, a co-working space. A receptionist with Carr told a Montana newspaper that the North Fund is not on the company’s registry, though Carr allows customers to use the location as a street address to conduct virtual office business. ⁸

North Fund leadership includes a number of former Democratic officials, including Melanie Beller, a former aide to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV); Jim Gerstein, a former Democratic pollster; and Cristina Uribe, a Democratic Party organizer and labor union organizer with the National Education Association.^{7 8}

Funding & Ties to Arabella Advisors

Also see Arabella Advisors (For-Profit)

The North Fund is part of the nonprofit network created and run by Arabella Advisors, a for-profit consulting firm in Washington, D.C., whose nonprofit “clients” almost exclusively fund left-of-center political activism. The Arabella Advisors network has been called a “‘dark money’ behemoth” and raised over $1.7 billion in revenue during the 2020 elections. ⁹

In 2019, the Arabella-run Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization, provided 100 percent of the North Fund’s $9.3 million revenues. ¹⁰

In 2020, the Sixteen Thirty Fund granted the North Fund roughly $30 million and the Arabella-run New Venture Fund granted it another $11 million, providing more than half of the North Fund’s $66 million revenues that year. ^{11 12} That year, the North Fund, in-turn, granted $800,000 to the Sixteen Thirty Fund and $500,000 to the New Venture Fund. ¹³

In 2021, however, the Sixteen Thirty Fund only provided North Fund $1.1 million. ¹⁴ North Fund also received $150,000 from Arabella’s  Windward Fund and $12.9 million from Arabella’s New Venture Fund in 2021, both of which are 501(c)(3) nonprofits. ^{15 16}

In 2021, North Fund paid Arabella Advisors $551,809 in consulting and management fees. In 2020, the North Fund paid Arabella Advisors $941,615 in consulting fees and received over half of its $66 million in revenue from the Arabella controlled nonprofits. The North Fund also reports that its books and records are kept by Arabella Advisors. ¹⁷

On May 29, 2025, watchdog group Americans for Public Trust (APT) released a report that allegedly listed the discovered trade names used by the Windward Fund and other affiliated nonprofits managed by consulting firm Arabella Advisors. The ones listed for Windward include: ¹⁸

2025 ATP Report on Trade Names

On May 29, 2025, watchdog group Americans for Public Trust (APT) released a report that allegedly listed the discovered trade names used by New Venture Fund (NVF) and other affiliated nonprofits managed by consulting firm Arabella Advisors. The ones listed for NVF include: ¹⁸

• Civic (Re)Solve Action Fund
• Hardworking America
• Opportunity Wisconsin
• 51 for 51
• Accountable Tech
•  Count Every Vote Project
• Design It For Us
• Free & Just
• Free and Fair Elections USA
• Just Democracy
• Log Off Movement
• Trending Up
• Voting Rights Lab Action

Donors to North Fund

In 2021, the North Fund reported the following anonymous contributors (contributions below $200,000 are omitted): ¹⁹

• $12,870,870 (from New Venture Fund)
• $7,100,000
• $5,000,000
• $4,300,000
• $2,000,000
• $1,500,000 (1)
• $1,500,000 (2)
• $1,136,250 (from Sixteen Thirty Fund)
• $1,000,000
• $732,000
• $500,000 (1)
• $500,000 (2)
• $500,000 (3)
• $500,000 (4)
• $300,000
• $250,000 (1)
• $250,000 (2)
• $250,000 (3)
• $237,500
• $223,716
• $200,000 (1)
• $200,000 (2)
• $200,000 (3)
• $200,000 (4)

2020 Spending

Below is a table listing the North Fund’s reported grants during 2020.

Ballot Measure Spending

In 2020, the North Fund spent $25.1 million in expenditures and $17.3 million of which went towards organizations that supported or opposed ballot measures.⁶

In 2020, the North Fund gave $4.7 million in direct contributions and spent an additional $339,520 in support of New Approach Montana regarding ballot measures I-190 and C-118.⁶

The North Fund also made significant expenditures on several ballot measures in Colorado and Missouri. The North Fund contributed $2.1 million in favor of a ballot initiative to expand family and medical leave benefits in Colorado and spent an additional $1.1 million to defeat a ballot initiative to ban abortions after 22 weeks. ^{20 20}

Previously, the North Fund spent $500,000 to advocate for a 2019 Colorado ballot initiative to withhold state tax refunds from taxpayers in order spend any surplus funding on public schools, higher education, roads, and public transit. ²¹

The North Fund gave $1 million to oppose a 2020 ballot initiative that would undo the current Missouri legislative districting system and replace it with an independent redistricting commission. ²² The North Fund further gave $1.5 million to Missourians for Health, a political action committee that advocates in favor of a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid in Missouri.²³

Sponsored Political Groups

According to the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, the North Fund operates several different entities. ⁸ These include Just Democracy, an organization that promotes left-of-center policy on racial issues. Just Democracy also endorses giving D.C. statehood, abolishing the Electoral College, “packing” the Supreme Court with “progressive” justices, and ending the Senate’s filibuster. ²⁴

The North Fund also sponsors 51 for 51, a group that advocates solely for D.C. statehood. ⁸ Launched in 2019, the 51 for 51 campaign announced a seven-figure ad buy in the 2020 presidential primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. ²⁵

The North Fund also sponsors Voting Rights Lab Action, which advocates for changes to voting laws across the country and has opposed anti-election fraud measures. ⁸

The North Fund’s other projects include Opportunity Wisconsin, Accountable Tech, Civic (Re)Solve Action Fund, Free and Fair Elections USA, and the Count Every Vote Project. ^{8 26}

Leadership

Board of Directors

North Fund’s 2021 board of directors included: ²⁷

Jim Gerstein (president and chairman): Founding partner for the Democratic polling firm GBAO Research and Strategy and a former campaign advisor to multiple Democratic politicians and the 1996 Democratic National Convention. Gerstein formerly led James Carville’s nonprofit polling organization Democracy Corps. ²⁸ Gerstein received no compensation from North Fund in 2021.

Saurabh Gupta (general counsel): Also general counsel to Arabella Advisors. His total compensation in 2021 was $19,895. ²⁷

Melanie Beller (secretary): A consultant in Texas who works on “voter enfranchisement” and “health care reform” and a former vice president of government affairs for the Wilderness Society. ²⁸

Cristina Uribe (treasurer): A union organizer with the National Education Association.

Key Staff

Megan Lewis (project director): Co-founder and executive director of the Voting Rights Lab, a former project of the 501(c)(3) New Venture Fund. Lewis is the former executive vice president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a lobbying group founded by former New York Mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg that advocates for gun control measures. ²⁹ Her total compensation in 2021 was $122,921. ²⁷

Jesse Lehrich (project advisor): Co-founder and senior advisor to Accountable Tech, a North Fund project that seeks restrictions on free speech on online platforms. Lehrich is a former foreign policy spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. ³⁰ His total compensation in 2021 was $148,359. ²⁷

Controversies and Lawsuits

Zabawa v. North Fund

In October 2020, Steve Zabawa, Treasurer of the anti-marijuana legalization group Wrong for Montana, filed a complaint with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices’ Office alleging that the North Fund was incorrectly registered in Montana as an incidental political committee but qualifies as an independent committee. Zabawa argues that for this reason, it should have to reveal its donors.³¹

COPP Commissioner Jeff Mangan reached out to the North Fund for additional information in response to the complaint. The request was to help the COPP to determine if the North Fund’s main purpose is to support or oppose ballot issues, which would make it an independent committee and have to disclose its donors.³²

In response to the Commissioner’s request for additional information, the North Fund provided a letter including financial disclosures, and claimed, in 2020, 10 percent of its expenditures went to ballot committees in Montana, 30 percent went towards ballot measures in total, and that the remaining amount of its expenditures were unrelated to elections. The letter also stated the North Fund’s purpose, to include, “promoting social welfare, including, but not limited to, providing public education on and conducting advocacy regarding progressive policies.”³³

Commissioner Mangan ultimately concluded that there is “sufficient evidence” for a Finding and Decision to institute a civil fine or prosecution of the North Fund and referred the case to the County Attorney of Lewis and Clark County to consider prosecution. In making his decision, Mangan cited the North Funds provided financial disclosures that stated in 2020 over $17 million of its $25 million in expenditures went to organizations supporting or opposing ballot measures. Mangan stated that his investigation found that the North Fund’s primary purpose is to support or oppose ballot issues.⁶

Not Located at Listed Address

In May 2022, a reporter from the Washington Free Beacon visited the office of North Fund in Washington, D.C., located in a co-working rental space but was told by the front desk manager that “the North Fund uses the address but doesn’t maintain a presence there. ‘I’m not sure where they’re actually located,’ he said.” Similarly, she reported that “at Arabella’s office building in D.C., the lobby receptionists told the Free Beacon they were under strict orders from the firm to turn away all outside visitors.” ³⁴

When the Free Beacon stopped by the listed D.C. address for the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund—the North Fund’s primary donors—their cavernous, full-floor office suite was deserted.

The groups had recently moved out, leaving just a couple of office chairs, the logo for Arabella Advisors emblazoned on the floors, and a piece of paper taped to a radiator that read, “Loose Lips Sink Ships.”