Foundation Watch

Foundation Watch
Ford Foundation’s Big Left Influence: The “Dark Money” Arabella Network
According to its online grants database, the Ford Foundation gave nearly $13 million to left-leaning projects run by Arabella’s Hopewell Fund and New Venture Fund in 2021. An April 2021…
by Ken Braun on February 24, 2022

Foundation Watch
The Biggest Cog in Warren Buffett’s Global Abortion Machine
Warren Buffett, the Wizard of Omaha, is famous for his wealth, investment advice, and frugality. But he also deserves recognition of a darker kind: the most prolific funder of abortions…
by Hayden Ludwig on February 23, 2022

Foundation Watch
The Private Investments of Private Foundations: Philanthropy’s “Dark Money”?
The IRS instructs private foundations to attach a detailed schedule of investments to their annual publicly available Form 990-PF. Some, however, do not include meaningful detail on how their vast…
by Robert Stilson on February 17, 2022

Foundation Watch
The Private Investments of Private Foundations: Incongruous Investments
Investment portfolios shouldn’t be battlefields for ideological conflict, but many foundations—and particularly the activist groups they fund—are increasingly choosing to make them so. This can result in a marked disconnect…
by Robert Stilson on February 17, 2022

Foundation Watch
The Private Investments of Private Foundations: Capitalism for Me, But Not for Thee
The specifics of a given foundation’s investments—indeed, whether those investments are properly disclosed and itemized at all—is rather less relevant when that foundation’s grantmaking evidences wholesale antagonism to market capitalism…
by Robert Stilson on February 17, 2022

Foundation Watch
The Private Investments of Private Foundations: Depoliticize Philanthropy
The point here is not that foundation investments should be politicized. They should not. Foundations should, however, abide by what appear to be unambiguous IRS transparency instructions and be prepared…
by Robert Stilson on February 17, 2022

Foundation Watch
Who Are Arabella’s Big-Dollar Donors?
The “dark money” network created and run by Arabella Advisors is perhaps the most powerful and, until recently, the least-reported-on player in Washington politics. Tracing the Arabella network’s donors is…
by Hayden Ludwig on January 27, 2022

Foundation Watch
The Left’s Mystery Billionaire: Committee Hearing Debacle
The Ford Foundation gives well over $100 million per year to programs that advance policy and political wins for the Left and Democratic politicians, yet Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) recently…
by Ken Braun on November 2, 2021

Foundation Watch
The Left’s Mystery Billionaire: Senator Cancel Culture
The Ford Foundation is an accidental byproduct of bad tax policy and unforeseen consequences. Confiscatory estate tax rates during the first half of the 20th century left one of the…
by Ken Braun on November 2, 2021

Foundation Watch
The Left’s Mystery Billionaire: Hard Left Turns
Sen. Whitehouse’s assertion that the Ford Foundation “doesn’t seem to have much in the way of a political motive or purpose” is contradicted by tens of millions of dollars in…
by Ken Braun on November 2, 2021