People’s Support Foundation (PSF) is a left-of-center grantmaking organization that is run by far-left activist and CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans. Beginning in 2020, PSF began making grants almost entirely to the left-of-center People’s Welfare Association, which makes grants overseas. ¹ As a private foundation, PSF would be required to detail its overseas grantmaking; as a nonprofit that is not a private foundation, PWA does not disclose the recipients of foreign grants, raising concern from independent researchers that this unusual grantmaking pattern may conceal PSF’s foreign grantmaking. ^{2 3 4}

PSF was founded in 2017 ⁵ after Evans’ husband, technology executive and radical-left activist and alleged Chinese Communist Party sympathizer Neville Roy Singham sold his firm Thoughtworks to a private equity firm for $785 million. ^{6 7}

PSF has been accused of having an “unmistakable bias in favor of the Chinese government” through many of its activities. ⁸

History and Leadership

People’s Support Foundation was founded in 2017 ⁹ and received tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service in 2017. ¹⁰

Far-left anti-war organization CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans is president of the People’s Support Foundation. ¹¹ Evans’ husband is alleged Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sympathizer ¹² and founder of technology company Thoughtworks Neville Roy Singham. ^{13 14}

According to reports, PSF’s endowment was capitalized with the proceeds of Singham’s $785 million ¹⁵ sale of Thoughtworks to a private equity firm in 2017. ¹⁶ Chad Wathington, Thoughtworks’ chief strategy officer, helped establish PSF, and Jason Pfetcher, the treasurer and a director of PSF, is Thoughtworks’ former general counsel. ¹⁷

Activities

People’s Support Foundation is a left-of-center grantmaking organization that claims to focus its activities towards supporting education, research, and community-related efforts. ¹⁸ Following the sale of Thoughtworks, Evans and Singham have been accused of establishing a system to conceal PSF’s grantmaking by channeling it through nonprofits including the People’s Welfare Association (PWA). ^{19 20} Outside observers from an investigation conducted by New Lines Magazine have claimed that an “unmistakable bias in favor of the Chinese government” runs throughout many of PSF’s activities. ²¹

Grantmaking

People’s Support Foundation operates as a grantmaking organization. In 2018 and 2019, PSF gave more than $6 million in grants to the United Community Fund. ^{22 23} The United Community fund is run by a former regional social and economic justice head of Thoughtworks, a Singham-founded internet technology company, and has no website. Investigators at New Line Magazine have identified some of PSF’s grant money as having been redistributed to other entities with ties to Singham, PSF, the United Community Fund, and Singham’s global portfolio. ²⁴

Up until 2019, PSF made reportable grants to foreign and domestic organizations, including People’s Welfare Association and the United Community Fund. ²⁵

Controversy

Beginning in 2020, ²⁶ PSF’s grantmaking activities changed. Instead of making grants to organizations such as the United Community Fund and certain foreign organizations, as in years past, PSF began making grants almost entirely to the left-of-center People’s Welfare Association (PWA). Unlike PSF, which is a private foundation and must disclose foreign grant recipients, PWA would not disclose the recipients of foreign grants. PWA makes grants almost exclusively to undisclosed foreign recipients. Independent researchers have identified this very unusual grantmaking pattern as one way in which PSF may be using PWA to effectively conceal its foreign grantees from normal disclosure practices due to the different disclosure rules that apply to PWA. ^{27 28}

Since its founding, a large portion PWA’S funding has come from PSF. ²⁹ In 2022, People’s Support Foundation made $15,031,720 in grants. Of these grants, PSF made $14,886,720 in grants to PWA. Similarly, in 2021, PSF made a total of $14,509,500 in grants. Of those grants, PWA received $14,354,500. ³⁰ In 2020, People’s Support Foundation also made $10,338,000 in grants to the People’s Welfare Association. ³¹

According to its tax returns, PWA then made a total of $19,182,000 in grants to undisclosed foreign entities in 2022, ³² $19,131,520 in grants to undisclosed foreign entities in 2021, ³³ and $12,575,000 in grants to undisclosed foreign entitles in 2020. ³⁴

Other Activities

According to the New York Times, People’s Support Foundation has donated at least $450,000 to a school in South Africa, which may be a part of Singham’s larger efforts supporting socialist causes South Africa. ³⁵

According to Indian newspaper The Hindu, PSF “wholly owns and operates [Worldwide Media Holdings], a for-profit investment vehicle that has made various investments in progressive media projects around the world.” NewsClick, an outlet in which Worldwide Media Holdings was invested, was raided by Indian authorities under the claim it had ties to the Chinese government. ³⁶

Funding

In 2022, People’s Support Foundation reported revenue of $4,214,350 and expenses of $16,446,295. ³⁷ It reported revenue $13,209,075 and expenses of $15,789,257 in 2021. ³⁸ In 2022, the organization’s revenue came almost solely from interest on savings, dividends from securities, and sale of assets. ³⁹

Soon after PSF was founded in 2017, PSF received a $160.2 million contribution from Mutod LLC. ⁴⁰ According to PSF representative Jason Pfetcher, PSF’s endowment was capitalized with the proceeds of Singham’s $785,000,000 sale of Thoughtworks to a private-equity firm in 2017. ^{41 42 43}

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