The Moxie Fund
The Moxie Fund is a left-of-center funding collective operated by the New Venture Fund, a nonprofit created and managed by Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based for-profit consultancy that caters to major left-of-center foundations and donors. The fund was previously known as the Trusted Elections Fund, which was formed in 2020 in order to provide support to organizations in order to address “election crises.” The fund cited such potential issues as foreign interference, viral misinformation, right-of-center “fear-mongering,” and contested election results as things the fund would address. In 2025, the Moxie Fund was awarded a $1 million grant from the Ford Foundation. 1 2 3 4
Contents
Background
The Moxie Fund has been a registered trade name of the New Venture Fund since 2024. The New Venture Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit managed by Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based for-profit consultancy that caters to major left-of-center foundations and donors. As one of the primary nonprofits within the Arabella network, the New Venture Fund manages over $750 million in annual revenue while operating dozens of trade names and fiscally sponsoring many left-of-center advocacy groups engaged on a variety of issues. 3 5 6
The Trusted Elections Fund, an election funding collaborative formed by the New Venture Fund in 2020, was folded into the Moxie Fund in 2025. The fund describes itself as a “non-partisan pooled fund that is pursuing a holistic approach to defending US democracy” that was started as a partner fund of the Trusted Election Fund in 2024 and “now combines the programs of both entities under one umbrella, taking on what we see as the three fundamental areas of crisis to U.S. democracy right now: protection of our elections, defense of civil society, and nonpartisan accountability for assaults on rule of law.” 3
The Moxie Fund has partnered with left-of-center funders and organizations, including the Funders Committee on Civic Participation and the Democracy Fund. The Trusted Elections fund at one point had a steering committee consisting of the Democracy Fund, the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and the Spitzer Charitable Trust. Aside from some social media activity, specific activity conducted by the fund is not publicly available. 2 4
According to a two-page prospectus, the Trusted Elections Fund was directed by Jennifer Flanagan, a former deputy secretary of state of Colorado and a former vice president for the left-wing voter advocacy group Common Cause. 7
Gabriel Lerner’s April 2025 Democracy Notes newsletter claimed that the Moxie Fund was likely the central funding vehicle for what Lerner characterized as a “new $20M campaign to raise money for the democracy space! (In particular from foundations not yet investing in democracy).” 8
Funding
In June 2020, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation provided the New Venture Fund with a $1,000,000 grant to support the Trusted Elections Fund. The grant was dedicated to “address[ing] election-related emergencies” in “crisis areas” regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. 9
In March 2025, the Ford Foundation awarded a $1 million grant to the Moxie Fund, which was listed as “Core support for the Moxie Fund to support a pro-democracy movement and strategy in the U.S.” 1