Stop Payday Predators is a left-of-center financial services policy advocacy organization. The group is a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4) funding and fiscal sponsorship organization managed by the Washington, D.C.-based consultancy Arabella Advisors and are a Project of the organization Sixteen Thirty Fund. ¹

Background 

Stop Payday Predators claims to be supported by over 500 civil rights groups, consumer groups, labor groups, and other organizations from at 50 states. ²  Stop Payday Predators works to convince the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to force short-term lenders to loan at lower interest rates. ² Stop Payday Predators has collected signatures in support of a proposed regulation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to require these lenders to make lower interest loans. ²

Parent Organizations

Tax Plan Answers is a project of the Sixteen Third Fund, a 501(c)(4) funding and fiscal sponsorship organization managed by the Washington, D.C.-based consultancy Arabella Advisors. ¹

The Sixteen Third Fund is a left-of-center lobbying and advocacy organization founded in 2008. ³ Sixteen Thirty Fund often operates alongside its charitable “sister” nonprofit New Venture Fund, which provides similar funding and fiscal sponsorship services to left-progressive organizations. ⁴ According to its founding documents, the Sixteen Thirty Fund was created with seed funding from Americans United for Change (AUFC), ACORN, USAction, the Sierra Club, and Working America. ⁵  The left-leaning publication The Atlantic called the Sixteen Thirty Fund one of the “key groups founded to resist Trump.” ⁶

Arabella Advisors (commonly called “Arabella”) is a philanthropic consulting company that guides the strategy, advocacy, impact investing, and management for multiple left-leaning nonprofits and individuals. ⁷  The company was founded in 2005 by Eric Kessler, a Clinton administration alumnus and long-time staffer at the League of Conservation Voters who remains a senior managing partner at the firm. ⁸

Arabella Advisors manages four nonprofits that serve as incubators and accelerators for a range of other left-of-center nonprofits. These include the New Venture Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Windward Fund. These nonprofits have collectively hosted hundreds of left-wing policy and advocacy organizations (referred to by critics as “pop-up groups” because they can be little more than websites). In 2018, Arabella’s four nonprofits reported combined revenues of $635 million. ⁷

1. “Sixteen Thirty Fund.” OpenCorporates. Accessed January 11, 2019. https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_dc/EXTUID_2696217. ^
2. “Stop Payday Predators.” Stop Payday Predators. Accessed May 19, 2020. https://stoppaydaypredators.org/.
3. “Sixteen Thirty Fund.” Sixteen Thirty Fund. Accessed April 18, 2017. http://sixteenthirtyfund.org/. ^
4. Markay, Lachan. “Over 100 Left-Wing Groups Sourced to DC Dark Money Outfit.” Washington Free Beacon. October 22, 2015. Accessed February 18, 2017. http://freebeacon.com/issues/over-100-left-wing-groups-sourced-to-d-c-dark-money-outfit/ ^
5. Form 1024 Application for Recognition of Exemption Under Section 501(a). Sixteen Thirty Fund. Archived here: https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/11/Sixteen-Thirty-Fund-Form-1024-Applicaton-for-Recognition-of-Exemption-Under-501a.pdf ^
6. Daniel Pozen. “The Tax-Code Shift That’s Changing Liberal Activism.” The Atlantic. November 27, 2018. Accessed May 28, 2019. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/501c3-501c4-activists-and-tax-code/576364/ ^
7. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990) (multiple). New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Hopewell Fund, Windward Fund. 2018. Part I. Line 12. ^
8. “Our People.” Arabella Advisors. Accessed April 19, 2018. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/company/our-people/ ^