NCRP tracked $1 billion in total foundation funding from around 3,500 private and public funders between 2020 and 2022. In that time, $1 billion in total foundation funding went to 155 election denial and anti-voting rights organizations.
These anti-democracy organizations control more than $7 billion, more than each of the well-known conservative funders combined.
These anti-democracy organizations claim to mobilize 20 times as many people as the US election workforce. These organizations staff over 8,000 and reported more than 400,000 volunteers between 2020 and 2022. Local elections’ total workforce across the US, the people actually securing our election integrity, are a staff of only about 20,000.
About the data
Using internet research and 990 keyword analysis, NCRP researchers assembled a list of organizations from four queries and/or searches:
- Organizations who promoted false or overblown threats to election integrity like non-citizen voting, voter fraud, and corrupt voter registration drives;
- Organizations that were mentioned in Project 2025’s implementation plan;
- Organizations that were linked to state pre-emption policies;
- Organizations that were linked to policies criminalizing protest at the state or local level.
Based on this list of nonprofit names, NCRP used Python and compilations of IRS 990 data published by Giving Tuesday to match filings by these anti-democracy organizations to filings by their institutional funders. Anti-democracy organizations’ EINs were used to match public charity funder filings, and their organizational names were used to match private foundation funder filers.
NCRP shows flexible support as a tactic for regressive funders
Philanthropists with regressive policy plots have been highly effective in supporting the goals of a polarizing right-wing agenda. These funders have done so primarily by giving multi-year, unrestricted funding to “anti-movement” leaders and focusing on long-term, nonlinear change.
Between 2020 and 2022, 52% of all foundation funding for these anti-democracy organizations was given as unrestricted general support, and only 8% of that foundation funding was granted for a specific program, project, or campaign. Comparatively, at the peak of the pandemic in 2020, only about 38% of funding for social justice movement organizations was given as unrestricted general support, and at least 20% was project based.
The tip of the iceberg
These organizations are just one part of the deliberate and collective vision of various philanthropic networks who seek to roll back efforts of a more just society.
In 2020, the 3,000 private foundations supporting these anti-democracy organizations controlled $408 billion in net assets.
Based on the federal payout requirement of 5% per year, we can assume these foundations have a total grantmaking potential of $20 billion each year to undermine our democracy.
Why does this matter?
We know there are funders who use philanthropy to maintain their own disproportionate wealth and power and to undermine or roll back efforts for a more democratic and just society. NCRP refers to this type of grantmaking as “regressive philanthropy”: philanthropy designed to resist progress, maintain inequities, and ultimately take us backwards as a society. Our new Regressive Philanthropy research project is documenting the scale and patterns of regressive funding in key issue areas and exploring how those funders have successfully built power and shaped discourse to advance their ideological agendas.
At this critical juncture for American democracy, philanthropy and movement leaders who are dedicated to equality and justice must understand the philanthropy story behind this societal and political moment. Most importantly, funders need the knowledge and motivation to do things differently – to shift power and resources to communities and movements for justice.
In the coming months, NCRP will publish more research deepening what we know about funding for the anti-democracy movement while we expand the scope of our research to explore connections to anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigrant, and anti-abortion movements. People and institutions invested in maintaining power and wealth in the hands of a few have used philanthropic dollars effectively to exploit divisions around gender and race, with the predictable result that the citizenship and humanity of many are now threatened. Our work thus far highlights a chilling commitment to regressive, right-wing goals, stark against the backdrop of fleeting support for social justice. Understanding how we got here and aligning funding strategies with grassroots power-building efforts are the only ways for pro-democracy donors to position themselves to help rebuild American civil society.
Research Manager for Special Projects and current Connecting Leaders Fellow at ABFE, Katherine Ponce engages in both qualitative and quantitative research projects to advance NCRP’s mission.
Before NCRP, Katherine’s passion to strengthen the involvement of community in philanthropy grew during her time at the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy. Here she analyzed data trends for the center’s publications and outreach to uplift field partners focused on participatory grantmaking.
Katherine earned a dual degree, an MBA in Social Impact and MS in Global Health Policy and Management, in 2021 from the Heller School at Brandeis University, and a BA in 2015 from Towson University.
