Drummond Pike

Deception & Misdirection
“Dark Money” Networks on the Left Pulled In $3.7 Billion in 2020
In 2020 alone, six networks raked in a stunning $3.7 billion in “dark money,” funds used largely for political activism whose donors are difficult—if not impossible—to trace. Some of these…
by Hayden Ludwig on May 12, 2022

Organization Trends
Unearthing the Tides Nexus: “Dark Money” Pioneer
The modern pass-through funding model dates back to the mid-1970s, when entrepreneurial political activist Drummond Pike created the Tides Foundation, launching the pass-through scheme that now dominates the nonprofit netherworld.
by Hayden Ludwig on March 8, 2022

Organization Trends
Unearthing the Tides Nexus: The Tides Nexus
Since the 1970s, Tides has become a brand that now encompasses eight distinct organizations, seven 501(c)(3) public charities and one 501(c)(4) advocacy group, collectively referred to as the Tides Nexus.
by Hayden Ludwig on March 8, 2022

Organization Trends
Unearthing the Tides Nexus: Incubation
While the Tides Foundation actually started incubating new groups in 1979, it spun off its fiscal sponsorship services into the Tides Center in 1996, possibly to insulate the main group…
by Hayden Ludwig on March 8, 2022

Organization Trends
Unearthing the Tides Nexus: Pushing Policy
Tides Advocacy combines the pass-through and incubation efforts of the Tides Foundation and Tides Center in order to service 501(c)(4) groups, which are allowed to spend significantly more on lobbying…
by Hayden Ludwig on March 8, 2022

Philanthropy
Fiscal Sponsorship, the Left, and Beginning to Explore Reform
Most people have never heard of one of the Left’s potent weapons—“fiscal sponsorship”—yet it’s the secret to the legion of liberal activist groups flooding American politics today.
by Hayden Ludwig on July 27, 2021

Foundation Watch
The “Vast Left-wing Conspiracy”
This special issue of Foundation Watch updates our previous profiles of the Democracy Alliance published in December 2006, January 2008, and December 2008. Read the PDF here. Summary:  The…
by Matthew Vadum on October 6, 2014

Article
Brett Kimberlin and the Threshold Foundation’s radical ties
What do self-described “communist” Van Jones, his good friend Arianna Huffington, radical philanthropist George Soros, the Threshold Foundation, and the Tides Foundation all have in common? They all are connected…
by Matthew Vadum on May 30, 2012

Blog
Tides Founder Drummond Pike Resigns
According to a Canadian nonprofit, Drummond Pike, CEO of the San-Francisco-based Tides Foundation, an innovative leftwing grantmaker, has resigned as head of the group he founded 34 years ago. A…
by Robert Huberty on September 29, 2010