Western Values Project Action (WVPA) is a project associated with the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a left-of-center funding and fiscal sponsorship organization managed by the Washington, D.C.-based consultancy Arabella Advisors. ¹ It is the lobbying and electoral advocacy arm of the Western Values Project, a project run by the New Venture Fund (NVF), the charitable advocacy sister organization to the Sixteen Thirty Fund.

History

Western Values Project Action is a trade name for a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which is itself part of the Arabella Advisors-managed network of center-left nonprofits. District of Columbia records indicate that the trade name will expire in April of 2020. ² WVPA is listed as a trade name in the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s 2017 tax filings but not its 2016 filings. ^{3 4}

WVPA is the 501(c)(4) sister organization to the environmentalist advocacy project Western Values Project, which is itself a trade name registered under the 501(c)(3) New Venture Fund, which is also a member of the Arabella Advisors-managed network of advocacy groups. ⁵

Activities

Western Values Project Action runs television advertisements targeting members of Congress and encouraging the public to support its environmentalist agenda. In 2018, the group spent over $1 million pressuring U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) over two public lands bills. ⁶ In 2019, the group spent a six-figure sum targeting U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) for supporting Trump administration nominee for Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt. ⁷

Leadership

The executive director of Western Values Project Action is Chris Saeger. ⁸ He has previously worked as the communications director of the Montana Democratic Party, the Service Employees International Union in Arizona and Colorado, and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. ⁹

Eric Kessler is the president of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, as well as the founder and senior managing director of Arabella Advisors. Kessler also serves on the board of the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s sister organization, New Venture Fund. ^{10 11}

Funding

Because WVPA is not an independent nonprofit, but rather a trade name used by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, no specific funding under the auspices of WVPA are identified. However, in 2017, the Sixteen Thirty Fund reported spending $7,310,149 as a “fund to support organizations working to advance clean energy and climate solutions.” ¹²

1. “Sixteen Thirty Fund.” OpenCorporates. Accessed August 17, 2019. https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_dc/EXTUID_2696217.
2. “Sixteen Thirty Fund.” OpenCorporates. Accessed August 17, 2019. https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_dc/EXTUID_2696217.
3. Sixteen Thirty Fund, IRS (Form 990), 2017, Schedule O
4. Sixteen Thirty Fund, IRS (Form 990), 2016, Schedule O
5. “Fiscal Sponsorship.” Arabella Advisors. Accessed August 17, 2019. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/expertise/fiscal-sponsorship/
6. Sword, Katy. “Western Values Calls out Herrera Beutler Once Again.” All Politics is Local, February 8, 2018. https://blogs.columbian.com/all-politics-is-local/western-values-calls-out-herrera-beutler-once-again/.
7. Tamborrino, Kelsey. “Trump to Unveil Pipeline Push.” POLITICO, April 10, 2019. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-energy/2019/04/10/trump-to-unveil-pipeline-push-423333.
8. “Six-Figure Ad Campaign Launched Telling Senator Heinrich to Reject Trump’s Conflict-Ridden Interior Secretary Nominee.” Western Values Project, April 9, 2019. https://westernvaluesproject.org/six-figure-ad-campaign-launched-telling-senator-heinrich-to-reject-trumps-conflict-ridden-interior-secretary-nominee/.
9. “Chris Saeger.” WesternValuesProject.org. Accessed August 14, 2019. https://westernvaluesproject.org/staff/chris-saeger/#more-109
10. Sixteen Thirty Fund, IRS (Form 990), 2017, Part VII
11. Profile: Eric Kessler. Arabella Advisors. Accessed August 18, 2019. https://www.arabellaadvisors.com/directory/eric-kessler/
12. Sixteen Thirty Fund, IRS (Form 990), 2017, Part III