The Sparkplug Foundation is a left-wing grant making organization that assists start-up and smaller left-of-center groups. ¹ Sparkplug Foundation has provided support to anti-Israel groups that support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement ² and Rasmea Odeh, a terrorist convicted by Israel for involvement in two bombings in Jerusalem. ³ The foundation also has given to many pro-illegal immigrant groups that oppose the enforcement of immigration laws,⁴ support drivers licenses for illegal immigrants,⁵ and endorse a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. ⁶

Anti-Israel Groups

The Sparkplug Foundation gave $11,400 to Al Shabaka – The Palestinian Policy Network in 2018. Al Shabaka claims that Israel “illegally annexed” Jerusalem and that other nations need to pressure Israel to not annex more land. ⁷ Al Shabaka opposed the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem because it “encourages Israel to continue its annexation and colonization of Palestinian land.” ⁸

Between 2006 and 2011, the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) received $20,000 from the Sparkplug Foundation. ⁹ In 2004, AAAN brought on Rasmea Odeh as the organization’s associate director. Odeh was a member of the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and was convicted of participating in two Jerusalem bombings in 1969. ¹⁰ One of the bombings resulted in the deaths of two Hebrew University students and injured nine other people. ¹¹ AAAN has supported the BDS movement,¹² compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid,¹³ and implied Israelis “murdered” their way into their homeland. ¹⁴

In 2011, the Sparkplug Foundation gave $10,000 to Global Exchange. ¹⁵ That same year, Global Exchange hosted the Move Over AIPAC event with left-wing groups such as CODEPINK and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. ¹⁶ The event sought to “expose [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s] negative influence on U.S. foreign policy.” ¹⁷ Global Exchange has labeled Caterpillar a “corporate criminal” for selling the Israeli military bulldozers¹⁸ and supported BDS activism targeting Caterpillar. ¹⁹

The Sparkplug Foundation gave $4,000 to help promote the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network’s publication “The Business of Backlash: The Attack on the Palestinian and Other Movements for Justice.” ²⁰ Left-wing organizations that contributed to the report, directly and indirectly, include Al Awda New York, Center for Constitutional Rights, and National Lawyers Guild Free Palestine Sub-Committee. ²¹ The report characterized Rasmea Odeh, a terrorist convicted of killing two students in a Jerusalem bombing, as a “Palestinian human rights and community activist.” ^{22 23} The report also called the left-leaning Anti-Defamation League an “Agent of the Zionist Backlash.” ²⁴ The report detailed funders of pro-Israel organizations and recommend how anti-Israel campaigns, such as BDS, can push back against them. ²⁵

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a nominally Jewish anti-Israel group, received $7,000 from the Sparkplug Foundation. ²⁶ JVP supports BDS,²⁷ criticized the left-of-center Anti-Defamation League,²⁸ and “unequivocally oppose[s] Zionism.” ²⁹

National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) got $7,600 from the Sparkplug Foundation. NSJP has over 200 chapters on campuses across the U.S. and assists the BDS movement. ³⁰ The group claimed Israel uses “apartheid” policies ³¹ and is engaged in “military occupation and colonialism” in Palestine. ³²

The Sparkplug Foundation gave the School of the Americas Watch Educational Fund $5,860 to “expose the contemporary Israeli role in U.S-backed militarization and state violence in the Americas.” ³³ Further, the grant provides funding to advocate for an end to the U.S. support for such Israeli programs. ³⁴

Pro-Illegal Immigration Groups

The Sparkplug Foundation gave $10,000 to the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement to launch a Family Preparedness Plan (FPP) and Know Your Rights Campaign. ³⁵ The goal of these campaigns is to provide illegal immigrants with resources to avoid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ³⁶ Advice includes not answering the door if ICE comes, remaining silent, and never signing forms from an ICE officer. ³⁷

In 2019, Connecticut Students for a Dream received $15,000 from the Sparkplug Foundation. ³⁸   The organization was founded by illegal immigrants in 2010 to advocate for the DREAM Act. ³⁹ Since then, Connecticut Students for a Dream has supported in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA),⁴⁰ and limiting local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities. ⁴¹

Movimiento Cosecha received $31,000 from the Sparkplug Foundation. ⁴² Cosecha has actively opposed enforcement of immigration laws,⁴³ and condemned the end of temporary legal status for some illegal immigrants. ⁴⁴ The Sparkplug Foundation earmarked $16,000 for Cosecha’s Drive Without Fear campaign, which advocates for issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. ⁴⁵ The campaign has been active in New Jersey,⁴⁶ Michigan,⁴⁷ Georgia,⁴⁸ and Massachusetts. ⁴⁹

In 2018, the foundation gave $15,000 to Families for Freedom to produce materials to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation. ⁵⁰  Families for Freedom describes itself as a “anti-deportation organization.” ⁵¹ The group has called President Trump a “fascist,”⁵² compared how Trump refers to Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and ICE to Adolf Hitler’s use of the SS,⁵³ and claimed Trump was “encouraging violence” toward minority communities. ⁵⁴

The Sparkplug Foundation gave $10,000 to the Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA). ⁵⁵ Labor groups, including Restaurants Opportunities Centers United, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500, founded FCWA with financial support from the Ford Foundation. ⁵⁶ FCWA has opposed Greyhound allowing ICE, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Customs and Border Protection law enforcement officers to board their buses to look for illegal immigrants. ⁵⁷ FCWA also objects to making the use of E-Verify mandatory. ⁵⁸

Youth Rise Texas received $10,000 from the Sparkplug Foundation. Youth Rise Texas has encouraged universities to blacklist Trump administration officials involved in the child separation policy ⁵⁹ and advocates against “incarceration and immigrant criminalization.” ⁶⁰

In 2017, the Sparkplug Foundation gave $10,000 to the Filipino Migrant Center to help push Long Beach, California to become a “sanctuary city” that does not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. ⁶¹

Environmentalist Groups

The Sparkplug Foundation gave $15,000 to New Energy Economy (NEE), a New Mexico-based environmentalist group. ⁶² NEE opposes the use of conventional energy sources and nuclear energy. ⁶³ In 2019, New Mexico passed the Energy Transition Act, which media outlets dubbed the “mini-Green New Deal” and garnered the support of the Natural Resources Defense Council. ⁶⁴ NEE opposed the act because it allowed the continued use of nuclear energy to reach the goal of no carbon emission by 2045 and it allowed the utility company to recoup costs of shutting down its coal power plant from consumers. ^{65 66}

People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH) Buffalo received $10,000 from the Sparkplug Foundation. ⁶⁷ PUSH Buffalo has opposed hydraulic fracturing ⁶⁸ and the building of new natural gas pipelines. ⁶⁹

350 New Hampshire, an independent local affiliate of 350.org, received $10,000 from the Sparkplug Foundation for “youth climate organizing.” ⁷⁰ 350 New Hampshire has opposed the construction of new pipelines, hydraulic fracturing,⁷¹ and offshore drilling. ⁷²

In 2019, the Sparkplug Foundation gave $15,000 to Firelands, a Washington state-based organization. Firelands seeks to organize rural Washingtonians to support the Green New Deal. ⁷³

Left-Wing Groups

The radical-left group Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) got $5,000 from the Sparkplug Foundation for its efforts to stop “Prison Imperialism.” ⁷⁴ AFGJ defines Prison Imperialism as the use of US Prison Management Programs in other countries, which is exporting “the US mass incarceration model.” ⁷⁵

The Sparkplug Foundation gave $5,000 to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The coalition is a non-profit “worker center” that uses tactics similar to labor unions. Prominent left-wing funds of the coalition include the Ford Foundation, NoVo Foundation, and George Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society. ⁷⁶

The foundation gave $4,000 to support an Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement (EPOCA) “ban the box” campaign to prohibit employers from asking if someone has been convicted of a crime. ⁷⁷

The Idaho Community Action Network (ICAN) received $10,000 from the Sparkplug Foundation to expand its operation in northern Idaho. ⁷⁸ ICAN has supported an expanded government role in healthcare supporting Obamacare and expanding Medicaid. ⁷⁹ ICAN also backs liberal immigration policies including a path to citizenship for presently illegal immigrants and opposes expanding security measures on the southern border. ⁸⁰

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