Raise Up Missouri is a left-of-center nonprofit created in 2017 to support the successful campaign to raise Missouri’s statewide minimum wage in 2018 (Proposition B). The proposed changes set the minimum wage increase to $12 per hour by 2023. [1]
Raise Up Missouri procures funds primarily from out-of-state left-wing interest groups that critics have criticized as “dark money” organizations, most prominently the Sixteen Thirty Fund. [2] [3] [4] Local and national labor unions, including the United Food and Commercial Workers, SEIU Healthcare Illinois/Indiana, and SEIU Local 1 have also funded Raise Up Missouri. [5]
Founding
Raise Up Missouri started in August 2017 as a campaign to raise the minimum wage in Missouri. Raise Up Missouri created the campaign in response to a move by then-Governor Eric Grietens (R) to block left-wing municipalities from raising local minimum wages above the state-set level. The campaign launch was backed by Kansas City AFL-CIO, SEIU Local 1, Stand Up Kansas City, and Missouri Jobs with Justice. [6]
2018 Ballot Measure Campaign
Raise Up Missouri later pushed a ballot measure closely tied to the contested 2018 U.S. Senate race of incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO.) against then-State Attorney General Josh Hawley (R). Senator McCaskill was the highest profile official from Missouri to support Raise Up Missouri’s campaign for Proposition B. Raise Up Missouri raised a total of $6.99 million for Proposition B. [7]
Funding
Raise Up Missouri raised 90 percent of its campaign funds from out-of-state groups and labor unions. Raise Up Missouri received $4,783,500 from Sixteen Thirty Fund, including a single contribution of $3 million in August 2018. Sixteen Thirty Fund is a left-wing funding group for lobbying and electoral projects that is part of the network of nonprofits run by the philanthropy consulting firm Arabella Advisors in Washington, D.C. [8] Raise Up Missouri’s acceptance of donations from Sixteen Thirty Fund through undisclosed sources was reportedly criticized by Democrats supportive of minimum wage increases. [9] [10] A large part of the funds funneled through Sixteen Thirty Fund come from labor unions. [11] Although Amendment 2 in Missouri limits election campaign contributions, ballot initiatives are not subject to the rule. [12]
Raise Up Missouri donated $10,750 in 2018 to MOVE Ballot Fund. MOVE Ballot Fund also received $300,000 from the Open Society Policy Center, the lobbying arm of George Soros’s philanthropic network, in January 2018, previously reporting having $84 in its account until that point. MOVE Executive Director Molly Fleming noted the group was established to legally move funds to lobby for the passage of a constitutional amendment on redistricting. [13]