Non-profit

Survey America Project

Parent Organization: Sixteen Thirty Fund (1630 Fund)

Tax-Exempt Status:	501(c)(4)
Type:	Advocacy Group
Project of:	Sixteen Thirty Fund

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Sixteen Thirty Fund “Pop Up” Organizations
Survey America Project Status
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References

The Survey America Project is a left-of-center project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization managed by the for-profit Arabella Advisors.

Survey America Project is ostensibly designed to conduct polls and surveys within the United States, but as of September 2020, the project has not conducted any known polls or engaged in any public operations. Survey America Project’s trade name, registered in the District of Columbia by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, expired on January 2, 2020, and the organization appears to be nonoperational.

Sixteen Thirty Fund “Pop Up” Organizations

Survey America Project appears to be a polling project set up by the Sixteen Thirty Fund. The Sixteen Thirty Fund is a Washington, D.C. based 501(c)(4) advocacy organization managed by the for-profit Arabella Advisors, a financial advisory firm for left-leaning organizations. The Survey America Project is a registered trade name of the Sixteen Thirty Fund in the District of Columbia. ¹

The Sixteen Thirty Fund is the advocacy arm of the Arabella Advisors network. The Sixteen Thirty Fund often collaborates with New Venture Fund organizations. The New Venture Fund is a 501(c)(3) funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit also operated by Arabella Advisors. The New Venture Fund is a passthrough for the Sixteen Thirty Fund, allowing donors to receive tax breaks for donating to the New Venture Fund then redirecting those donations to the Sixteen Thirty Fund. The two organizations then collaborate on left-of-center activism projects. ²

Groups such as the Survey America Project operate as “pop up” organizations. These organizations have no independent paid staff, no office spaces, and no assets. They appear overnight to push a specific left-of-center message or conduct an advocacy campaign. The Arabella Advisors network uses such organizations to pivot strategy rapidly in response to changing political environments. ³

Pop up organizations often have established websites that give them the appearance of being volunteer-driven activist organizations. The Survey America Project is part of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and as such, it is not required to file any independent disclosures. The Survey America Project is no more than a trade name filed in the District of Columbia by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and it does not actually exist as an independent organization. ⁴

One of the purposes of these pop up organizations is to allow large donors to conceal their identities while donating large sums of money. Instead of donating money to the Survey America Project, donors donate money to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund then allocates that funding to the Survey America Project or other pop ups as needed. ⁵

The pop up organization model also allows the Sixteen Thirty Fund to raise money from small dollar donors without having to disclose what the donations are being used to support. Donors can donate to the Survey American Project, but those donations actually go to the Sixteen Thirty Fund and can be used for any of its purposes.. ⁶