Responsible Trails America

Deception & Misdirection
Excavating Arabella’s Origin: Arabella Trails
Before Arabella Advisors and its nonprofit minions was ALF—the “Arabella Legacy Fund," bankrolled by the Hewlett Foundation and Wilburforce Foundation. Its first initiative was Responsible Trails America, a “pop-up” astroturf…
by Dave Skinner on April 13, 2022

Deception & Misdirection
Excavating Arabella’s Origin: Starting Small
Arabella has been all about other people’s money from day one, and it remains so. The money in this case was a special but tiny federal fund, the Recreational Trails…
by Dave Skinner on April 13, 2022

Deception & Misdirection
Excavating Arabella’s Origin: Behind the Curtain
Arabella Legacy Fund’s IRS Form 990s were signed by Eric Kessler, actually Eric J. Kessler. In 2008, Arabella's throughput nearly quadrupled, to $6.1 million in gross receipts, $732,000 of which…
by Dave Skinner on April 13, 2022

Deception & Misdirection
Excavating Arabella’s Origin: Lessons Learned
Responsible Trails America’s narrative shamelessly copycatted other progressive outlines. It existed as an “organization” or “coalition” mostly through numerous professionally written press releases. Those in turn directed journalist inquiries to…
by Dave Skinner on April 13, 2022