Mystery Donor Behind J.B. Prtizker’s Resistance Group Unmasked

Last week the New York Times reported that a collation of governors calling themselves “Governors Safeguarding Democracy” (GSD) had been formed to “serve as a mechanism for Democratic states to coordinate efforts to oppose the right-wing policies of President-elect Donald J. Trump.” Apparently “safeguarding democracy” requires resisting the agenda of a candidate who dominated the Electoral College and won the popular vote.

The mysterious new group was to be led by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, but it remained unclear what the group would do or how it would be funded. “In interviews, Mr. Pritzker, Mr. Polis and Julia Spiegel, a former top legal adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California who will serve as the group’s top staff member, did not say how many governors had agreed to join the organization. Also unclear is the funding mechanism beyond ‘philanthropic support,’ though Mr. Pritzker, a billionaire, said he was not underwriting the group himself,” the Times reported.

Although the New York Times was stumped, Capital Research Center has unearthed the answer.

Piere Omidyar

The mystery donor behind Governors Safeguarding Democracy is none other than Democratic megadonor, eBay founder, and billionaire Pierre Omidyar. Ordinarily, funding for a nonprofit project like GSD would be untraceable for several years after its launch due to the two-year reporting lag in IRS financial disclosure forms, but Omidyar’s private foundation, Democracy Fund, maintains a real-time database of grants it has made. The database shows that in 2024 Democracy Fund made a $500,000 grant to GovAct, or Governors Action Alliance, the fiscally sponsored project running GSD, and gives a description of the grant:

GovAct, a fiscally sponsored project of Global Impact, serves governors and their senior staff who are committed to protecting fundamental freedoms. GovAct engages in this work by coordinating and strengthening the work of governors to address specific threats to American democracy.

Global Impact is the 501(c)(3) wing of the Global Impact Ventures network, a donor advisor and fiscally sponsored project provider that serves a number of clients in the left-wing philanthropy world. GSD’s donate button shows that donations to GSD will be directed to Global Impact, but that funds can also be directed toward Global Impact Social Welfare Fund for the “GovAct & Affiliates Fund, our partner 501(c)(4) organization” upon request. The grant database indicates only that Omidyar funded the 501(c)(3), though it’s possible that Omidyar’s private 501(c)(4), Democracy Fund Voice, is funding the 501(c)(4) wing as well.

Omidyar Walks a Legal Tightrope

Based on the description provided by the New York Times, Governors Safeguarding Democracy is very close to operating as an openly partisan organization. The report states that the group is “meant to serve as a mechanism for Democratic states to coordinate efforts to oppose the right-wing policies of President-elect Donald J. Trump.” Working with one political party’s representatives to impede the agenda of the soon-to-be president from the opposing party is not a great example of the nonpartisanship that 501(c)(3) organizations are legally required to maintain.

Of course, the partisan work can be attributed to a paired 501(c)(4) organization, so the group is probably operating within the bounds of the law, but the 501(c)(3) GSD apparently did nothing to correct the Times’s characterization of its work as overtly partisan. In fact, GSD even shared the article and many articles making similar claims about the group’s alleged partisan intentions, on its website. They seem to be proud of it. Omidyar has been known to use his philanthropic network to accomplish political goals in the past, but this “resistance” group created exclusively by Democratic governors for the purpose of resisting the policy agenda of the opposing party’s incoming president is a new low.

Omidyar and Resistance 2.0

DSG isn’t the only “resistance”-affiliated group that Omidyar has sent a check in 2024. The database also shows that, sometime during 2024, Democracy Fund gave $750,000 to Free Election Fund, a 501(c)(3) fiscally sponsored project of the Hopewell Fund, an Arabella Advisors cut-out that sponsors Democrat super-lawyer Marc Elias and his Democracy Docket Legal Fund, now renamed the Free Election Fund. Omidyar hadn’t sent Elias’ group any money since that last presidential election in 2020, when his foundation contributed $1.5 million to Democracy Docket Legal Fund. Since receiving the grant, Elias has spent the last few weeks pushing for a far-fetched recount in the 2024 Pennsylvania Senate election.

Democracy, in the eyes of Omidyar and Big Philanthropy, is when Democrats win elections, and defending democracy is making sure Republicans lose or are unable to implement their agenda, even when they win the popular vote. Expect to see Omidyar cut many more checks to “Resistance 2.0” groups in the coming year.