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Person
Hansjorg Wyss (Hansjörg, sometimes spelled Hansjoerg; pronounced “Veese”) is a Swiss entrepreneur and businessman. He is the former CEO of multinational medical device manufacturer Synthes. Wyss’ net worth is estimated to be over $6.1 billion. 1 Wyss is an
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Non-profit
Public Citizen, Inc. is a liberal 501(c)(4) lobbying and advocacy organization created by left-wing activist and former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader.1 The organization supports a broad
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Person
Gara LaMarche is the former president of the Democracy Alliance, a network of left-of-center donors for coordinated giving founded in 2005.
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Non-profit
Common Cause is a 501(c)(4) progressive advocacy group focusing on campaign finance law, so-called “fair redistricting,” and general liberal policy. Common Cause describes itself as “a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to restoring the core values of American democracy, reinventing an open, honest and accountable government capable of solving today’s challenges
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Non-profit
For the 501(c)(3), see Color of Change Education Fund (Nonprofit) Color of Change is an online organizing organization created by the Obama administration’s former “green jobs czar” Van Jones and the former director of grassroots mobilization for MoveOn.org, James Rucker, in 2005.
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Non-profit
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a legal advocacy group with previous connections with political strategist David Brock. The organization describes itself as a “nonpartisan” watchdog group directing litigation against government corruption in an effort to advance the public interest. The group is part of Brock’s
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Non-profit
Also see the 501(c)(4) Community Change Action (nonprofit) Community Change (formerly the Center for Community Change or CCC) is a left-of-center nonprofit that focuses on issues of poverty, race, housing policy, and the treatment of released prisoners. It also promotes the interests of immigrants, including illegal immigrants. Its affiliated 501(c)(4),
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For-profit
Catalist, LLC is a data firm that services both left-of-center nonprofits and Democratic candidates and officeholders. This Washington, D.C.-based for-profit vendor outfit came together in 2006 in response to the re-election of President George W. Bush in 2004. Democratic operatives such as Harold Ickes, a former aide to President
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Non-profit
Founded as a 501(c)(4) corporation and then a 501(c)(3) foundation in the late 1990s, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) provides research and other support to progressive groups seeking to use state-level ballot referenda to change laws and constitutions, as well as using legal and activist tactics to block conservatives’
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Political Party/527
American Bridge 21st Century, also known by its official PAC name AB PAC 1 is a Democratic Party super PAC founded by David Brock on November 23, 2010.
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Non-profit
350.org is a large environmentalist activist organization that has a presence in 188 countries. Focused on online campaigning, 350.org opposes new oil, gas, and coal exploration and development and calls for “[revoking] the “social license” of the fossil fuel industry and “[taking] money out of the companies that are heating
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Labor Union
Also see Working America Education Fund (nonprofit) Working America is the “community affiliate” of the AFL-CIO, focusing on advocacy for and community organizing of non-union members. The group, founded in 2003, claims more than 3 million members, though as few as 15 percent may pay the $5 annual
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Non-profit
TomKat Charitable Trust ceased operations in 2015 and was succeeded by the TomKat Foundation The TomKat Charitable Trust is a private foundation formed and funded by left-wing San Francisco billionaire Thomas F. Steyer, and his wife Kathryn Taylor. The organization derives its name from combining the couple’s first
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Non-profit
Also see Tides Nexus The Tides Foundation is a major center-left grantmaking organization and a major pass-through funder to numerous left-leaning nonprofits. The San Francisco, California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit was founded in 1976 by Drummond Pike, a professional political activist who has since retired from the organization, to funnel
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Non-profit
For more information, see Tides Nexus The Tides Center is a left-of-center nonprofit created to manage the fiscal sponsorship services of its “sister” organization, the Tides Foundation. Both groups are part of the Tides Nexus of pass-through and fiscal sponsorship nonprofits based in San Francisco, California.
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Labor Union
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is one of America’s largest, most controversial, and most politically involved labor unions. The SEIU, which represents building services employees, nurses, other healthcare workers, and public employees, is noted for its close ties to the broader left-of-center movement, perhaps most notably the controversial now-defunct
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Non-profit
Media Matters for America (MMfA) was established in 2004 by conservative-turned-liberal activist David Brock. MMfA was created as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization. MMfA positions itself as a fact-checker, focusing on conservative media bias and inaccuracies. In practice, the organization frequently criticizes opinions of conservative commentators. In November 2023, MMfA was
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Non-profit
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is a 501(c)(4) organization that promotes candidates supporting the environmentalist agenda. The group has been accused of being a “dark money heavyweight” by the left-leaning Center for Public Integrity.
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Non-profit
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (also known as the MacArthur Foundation) was the twelfth largest foundation in the United States in 2014 with total assets over $6 billion.
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Non-profit
Also see the similarly named Open Society Foundations (nonprofit) The Foundation to Promote Open Society (FPOS) is one of two major grantmaking foundations funded by liberal financier and billionaire George Soros. It is closely affiliated with the Open Society Foundations (OSF; formally Open Society Institute). FPOS was founded in
