These political non-profit organizations serve as the backbone of the vast right-wing donors and influencers. They have effectively neutralized most legal and regulatory safeguards that once protected our democracy. Often, these organizations draft legislation to be hand-carried to all levels of governance - local, state and federal. Unless the American people step up and insist on new legislation that neutralizes these extremists influence and dark money, our democracy will continue to falter.
From CMD: "American Legislative Exchange Council is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that - ALEC is a corporate bill mill.
ALEC is a pay-to-play operation where corporations buy a seat and a vote on ‘task forces’ to advance their right-wing legislative wish lists and can get a tax break for political donations, effectively passing these lobbying costs on to taxpayers."
ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. Through the secretive meetings of the American Legislative Exchange Council, corporate lobbyists and state legislators vote as equals on ‘model bills’ to change our rights that often benefit the corporations’ bottom line at public expense.
Corporations sit on ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations.
Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative extremists, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law."
From PR Watch: "ALEC is closely related to the State Policy Network (SPN), CMD‘s PR Watch reported, describing SPN as an ALEC “sister organization.”
The predecessor to SPN, the Madison Group, was introduced by ALEC in the 1980s through the Heritage Foundation, where ALEC was also housed.
State Policy Network was formally created in 1992 as an “umbrella organization” of “mini-Heritage Foundations” in the states, PR Watch reported. "
ALEC 2023 Annual Essential Policy Solutions
ALEC produces an annual policy summary. This public document outlines specific policy areas of interest, model legislation boilerplates and publications. ALEC also supports policies that are not disclosed to the public.
The State Policy Network (SPN) is a nonprofit organization that serves as a network for right-wing and libertarian think tanks focusing on state-level policy in the United States. SPN provides grant funding to its member organizations for start-up costs and program operating expenses.
Although SPN's member organizations claim to be nonpartisan and independent, the Center for Media and Democracy's in-depth investigation, "EXPOSED: The State Policy Network -- The Powerful Right-Wing Network Helping to Hijack State Politics and Government," reveals that SPN and its member think tanks are major drivers of the right-wing, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-backed corporate agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders.
Colorado Affiliated Think-Tanks:
From SourceWatch: SPN is a web of right-wing “think tanks” and tax-exempt organizations in 50 states, Washington, D.C., Canada, and the United Kingdom. As of April 2023, SPN's membership totals 163. Today's SPN is the tip of the spear of far-right, nationally funded policy agenda in the states that undergirds extremists in the Republican Party.
SPN Executive Director Tracie Sharp told the Wall Street Journal in 2017 that the revenue of the combined groups was some $80 million, but a 2022 analysis of SPN's main members IRS filings by the Center for Media and Democracy shows that the combined revenue is over $152 million.
In response to CMD's report, SPN Executive Director Tracie Sharp told national and statehouse reporters that SPN affiliates are "fiercely independent." She reportedly said that SPN "would provide 'the raw materials,' along with the 'services' needed to assemble the products. Rather than acting like passive customers who buy finished products, she wanted each state group to show the enterprise and creativity needed to assemble the parts in their home states. 'Pick what you need,' she said, 'and customize it for what works best for you.'" Not only that, but Sharp "also acknowledged privately to the members that the organization's often anonymous donors frequently shape the agenda. 'The grants are driven by donor intent,' she told the gathered think-tank heads. She added that, often, 'the donors have a very specific idea of what they want to happen.'"
Later the same week, however, The New Yorker's Jane Mayer caught Sharp in a contradiction. In her article, "Is IKEA the New Model for the Conservative Movement?," the Pulitzer-nominated reporter revealed that, in a recent meeting behind closed doors with the heads of SPN affiliates around the country, Sharp "compared the organization’s model to that of the giant global chain IKEA."
From DeSmog: Major Funders: Donors Capital Fund/DonorsTrust (Koch Network); Searle Freedom Trust, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Adolph Coors Foundation
Major SNP Donations to: Independence institute, 60 other Right-Wing Institutes.
Council for National Policy (CNP) is a key and very powerful right-wing 501(c)(3) nonprofit group that has been described as "a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country" and "a hyper-secretive Christian Right powerhouse that helps set the extremists movement agenda".
Anne Nelson's book about CNP, Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right, describes how the organization connects "the manpower and media of the Christian right with the finances of Western plutocrats and the strategy of right-wing Republican political operatives.”
Council for National Policy was founded by commentator Paul Weyrich, direct-mail pioneer Richard Viguerie, right-wing activist Phyllis Schlafly and Left Behind author Tim LaHaye, as the counterweight against liberal domination of the American agenda," reported ABC News.
CNP's membership is comprised of leaders in the family values, national defense and decency movements woven by members of the Dead Billionaires Club like the Adolph Coors Foundation, the Koch brothers, Richard DeVos, Richard Scaife and other billionaires and foundations who have invested heavily in developing a complex web of far-Right groups, think-tanks and politicians over the last forty years to return the United States to its pre Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 19th century capitalist roots. CNP membership as of September 2020 is available here. Funders of the CNP are available here.
Donors Trust is a non-profit started in 1999. DonorsTrust is an "associate" member of the State Policy Network, a web of right-wing “think tanks” in every state across the country.
https://www.donorstrust.org/ "We are a community foundation bound by principles We set ourselves apart not by geography, but by our focus on preserving donor intent and with our shared commitment to supporting organizations that do not rely on government funds to meet their charitable objectives. We – and the conservative- and libertarian-minded donors with whom we work – believe in preserving the ideals of limited government, personal responsibility, and free enterprise.
Since our founding in 1999, DonorsTrust has granted out over $1.5 billion to over 2,200 charities. These charities protect our constitutional liberties and strengthen civil society without expanding government. Our clients meet this challenge by giving generously to public policy organizations and also to organizations relating to social welfare, religion, health, the environment, economics, governance, foreign relations, and arts and culture. We believe the key to solving society’s problems comes from donors like you engaged in private philanthropy."
Along with its supporting Donors Capital Fund (DCF), it is a close associate of the Koch Network and a major funder of The Big Lie, Jan 6 organizers and other far-right-wing causes.
DonorsTrust is a not-for-profit organization that distributes millions of dollars in grants each year to groups, organizations and projects that are “dedicated to the ideals of limited government, personal responsibility, and free enterprise.”
DonorsTrust regularly distributes to conservative causes, many of which deny the science and impacts of human-caused climate change or the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Both funding organizations are "donor-advised funds," which means that the fund creates separate accounts for individual donors, and the donors then recommend disbursements from the accounts to different non-profits. They cloak the identity of the original mystery donors because the funds are then distributed in the name of DT or DCF, contributing another step to what has been called a "murky money maze."
The twin Donors organizations are advertised as a way for very wealthy people and corporations to remain hidden when "funding sensitive or controversial issues," creating a lack of accountability.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States funded by David and Charles Koch. Americans for Prosperity’s political agenda is like other rightwing groups. The organization opposes government regulation and supports anti-labor measures, tax cuts for businesses, and environmental deregulation.
As the Koch brothers' primary political advocacy group, it is one of the most influential American conservative organizations. AFP, an educational social welfare organization, and the associated Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a public charity, are tax-exempt nonprofits.
AFP has 38 state chapters, including Colorado. in 2021, Americans for Prosperity-Colorado (AFP-CO) is associated with Colorado Rising State Action.
As a tax-exempt nonprofit, AFP is not legally required to disclose its donors to the general public. The extent of AFP's political activities while operating as a tax-exempt entity has raised concerns among some campaign finance watchdogs regarding the transparency of its funding. AFP successfully sued the California Attorney General to block donor disclosures, Americans for Prosperity v. Bonta.
To push its propaganda, Americans for Prosperity secretly raises unlimited amounts of cash to spend on undisclosed phony issue ads and reported independent expenditures to support state and federal Republican and conservatives candidates and causes throughout the country.
In addition to the millions of dollars pumped into the organization by the Kochs, the group also gets support from numerous conservative ideological foundations, powerful business and trade groups, and wealthy individuals, according to lists compiled in 2016, 2018, and 2020 by the Center for Public Representation. Among Americans for Prosperity’s backers is the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee, a mega-funder of rightwing outfits and causes around the country.
American Action Network (AAN) is a "501(c)4" Washington, D.C.-based right-wing "action tank" created in February 2010 after the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision permitted corporations to spend unlimited money influencing elections.
As a 501(c)(4), the American Action Network does not have to disclose its donors. The organization is run by Republican political operatives and extremists billionaires.
Lack Of Disclosure Came As The Group Spent Over 49 Million Into Political Ads And Made $26 Million In Contributions To Super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund (Open Secrets 10/2020). American Action Network, Republican House leadership’s 501(c)(4) nonprofit that has disclosed none of its donors or spending to the FEC, has poured over $9 million into political advertising boosting GOP congressional candidates and more than $26 million into political contributions to the Congressional Leadership Fund.
In recent years, AAN has been directly involved in funding of attack ads against progressive candidates and policies. AAN often resorts to misinformation campaigns.
In 2020, House Republican leadership’s Congressional Leadership Fund received around $3.5 million from American Action Network, a GOP-affiliated dark money group that shares staff and resources with the super PAC. American Action Network gave $30 million to Congressional Leadership Fund during the 2020 cycle, and pledged to spend an additional $9 million on issue ads to boost GOP congressional candidates this year.
Members of the American Action Network also run the Congressional Leadership Fund Super PAC which was formed in October 2011 for the purpose of supporting Republican candidates in House races. The organization aims to maintain the Republican House majority.
In January 2011, the American Action Network created the Hispanic Leadership Network to bring more Hispanics to the Republican Party.
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, founded in 1982, is a group of 60,000 "lawyers, law students, and academic "conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order." It is organized into divisions and chapters.
It now has an enormous influence on the American legal and political system and has been credited as being "the conservative pipeline to the Supreme Court." The Federalist Society is an associate member of the right-wing State Policy Network (SPN).
The Federalist Society provides opportunities for effective participation in the public policy process. The Society's ongoing programs encourage our members to involve themselves more actively in local, state-wide, and national affairs and to contribute more productively to their communities."
On March 21, 2017, Eric Lipton discussed how the Koch brothers are using philanthropic donations to conservative and extremists non-profit organizations, including the Federalist Society, as a way to influence the U.S. judicial system.
The Federalist Society lists several organizational Experts who have previously worked for and/or are current ALEC members.
On May 5, 2017, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the Bradley Foundation has directed millions of dollars into several conservative groups, including the Federalist Society, in an effort to influence legislative and gubernatorial elections.
Founded in 1982 by law students from elite universities, The Federalist Society aimed "to challenge what they considered to be the neglect of conservative and libertarian ideas in the American legal system" according to The Daily Beast.
On law school campuses across the United States, chapters of the "Student Division" and "Faculty Division" foster conversations about conservatism and libertarianism. The "Lawyers Division" says brings "together attorneys, business and policy leaders, judges and others interested in examining and improving the state of the law."
Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, or Stand Together, replaced the Koch network's Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce (previously the Association for American Innovation), which folded in May 2019.
Stand Together is an American philanthropic organization that was first established in 2003 and is often referred to informally as the Koch Network. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Virginia, and was founded by Charles Koch to assist philanthropic activities across the United States. Formerly known as
The Seminar Network, its renaming as Stand Together was announced on May 20, 2019.
In 2020, Stand Together granted Americans for Prosperity, another dark money pool, the amount of $40,000,000. This relationship has totaled over $300m since 2003.
It describes its mission as "to advance its members' common business interests by advancing the principles of free markets and a free society. The organization works to educate the public and policymakers about the business and economic impacts of a broad range of policy issues, including over-regulation, government spending, cronyism, and special interest handouts.
The Freedom Partners Action Fund, a Super PAC, says it supports "candidates who believe in freedom, who will empower innovators and entrepreneurs over special interests to expand opportunities, create strong communities, and give everyone the best shot at a better life."
The Heritage Foundation is an "associate" member of the State Policy Network, a web of right-wing think tanks in every state across the country.
Funded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a right-wing think tank. It is widely considered one of the world's most influential public policy research institutes.
The Foundation wields considerable influence in Washington DC, and enjoyed particular prominence during the Reagan administration. Its initial funding was provided by Joseph Coors, of the Coors beer empire, and Richard Mellon Scaife, heir of the Mellon industrial and banking fortune. Its founders include Paul Weyrich and Mickey Edwards. The Foundation maintains strong ties with the London Institute of Economic Affairs and the Mont Pelerin Society.
The Heritage Foundation has received funding from organizations with connections to the Koch brothers. In recent years, the Heritage Foundation has also received funding from Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund. The Koch brothers have donated millions of dollars to Donors Trust through the Knowledge and Progress Fund, and possibly other vehicles.
In a private meeting with big-money donors, the head of a top conservative group, Heritage Foundation boasted that her outfit had crafted the new voter suppression law in Georgia and was doing the same with similar bills for Republican state legislators across the country.
“In some cases, we actually draft them for them,” she said, “or we have a sentinel on our behalf give them the model legislation so it has that grassroots, from-the-bottom-up type of vibe.”
Politico reports that the Heritage Foundation has emerged as one of the most influential forces behind Donald Trump‘s transition team. “Part gatekeeper, part brain trust and part boots on the ground, Heritage is both a major presence on the transition team itself and a crucial conduit between Trump’s orbit and the once-skeptical conservative leaders who ultimately helped get him elected,”
Politco’s Katie Glueck writes. Three sources with conservative groups said that Heritage employees were tracking resumes, looking to staff Trump’s administration with conservative appointees. One source described the effort as a “shadow transition team” and “an effort to have the right kind of people in there.”
The transition team is being assisted from Heritage officials including: Becky Norton Dunlop, distinguished fellow at Heritage Ed Meese, distinguished fellow emeritus James Carafano, Heritage national security expert Ed Feulner, founding trustee Rebekah Mercer, Heritage board member.
A source reported that Rebekah Mercer had also been working with Heritage to recruit appointees for positions at the undersecretary level and below.
Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, also known as Crossroads GPS, is a right-wing political group created in June 2010, just a few months after the Citizens United decision, by GOP political operatives and "advised" by Karl Rove and former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie to support Republican political candidates.
Since then, it has become "a symbol of the current malleability of campaign finance rules," according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Crossroads GPS is often described as a "dark money" group because it is organized as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit and does not disclose its donors, despite spending millions to influence political campaigns.
According to its website, Crossroads GPS is "dedicated to the belief that most Americans don’t support the big-government agenda being forced upon them by Washington."
Despite its name, Crossroads GPS "has almost no grassroots support — financially or in terms of volunteers," according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Council for National Policy (CNP) is an umbrella organization and networking group for conservative and Republican activists in the United States. It was launched in 1981 during the Reagan administration by right-wing conservative Christians, to "bring more focus and force to conservative advocacy".
It has been described by The New York Times as "a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country", who meet three times yearly behind closed doors at undisclosed locations for a confidential conference.
The Nation has called CNP a secretive organization that "networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy". The organization has been described as a "pluto-theocracy".
Anne Nelson's book about CNP, Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right, describes how the organization connects "the manpower and media of the Christian right with the finances of Western plutocrats and the strategy of right-wing Republican political operatives.”
"Membership is by invitation only. The organization's membership list is considered "strictly confidential". Guests may attend "only with the unanimous approval of the executive committee." Members are instructed not to refer to the organization by name to protect against leaks.
The New York Times political writer David D. Kirkpatrick suggested that the organization's secrecy since its founding was intended to insulate it "from what its members considered the liberal bias of the news media."
CNP's meetings are closed to the general public, reportedly to allow for a free-flowing exchange of ideas. The group meets three times per year.
CNP's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status was revoked by the IRS in 1992 on grounds that it was not an organization run for the public benefit. The group successfully challenged this ruling in federal court.
While those involved in the organization are almost entirely from the United States, their organizations and influence cover the globe, both religiously and politically. Members include corporate executives, legislators, former high ranking government officers, leaders of 'think tanks' dedicated to molding society and those whom many view as "Christian leadership". (Wikipedia)
Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) Links to 2021 Membership List and Program Agenda for 2021 Meeting
CNP's membership is comprised of leaders in the family values, national defense and decency movements woven by members of the Dead Billionaires Club like the Adolph Coors Foundation, the Koch brothers, Richard DeVos, Richard Scaife and other billionaires and foundations who have invested heavily in developing a complex web of far-Right groups, think-tanks and politicians over the last forty years to return the United States to its pre Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 19th century capitalist roots.
In May 2021, CNP celebrated its 40th Anniversary at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida with a Black Tie Gala following its spring meeting. At the meeting, CNP awarded its “Lantern of Liberty” award to Republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a Big Lie fueler and Trump legal advisor who lost her job following news that she participated in a January call in which Trump asked Georgia election officials to “find” votes to overturn the results and make him the winner of the state’s electoral votes.
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