Massive left-wing ‘dark money’ network spent $854 million in 2022, new documents reveal

Tides, a group of affiliated nonprofits, spent massive sums funding liberal advocacy groups, ranging from pro-abortion organizations to get-out-the-vote efforts, across the country in 2022.
The Tides Foundation, responsible for the majority of grants disbursed by Tides, used a donation structure it pioneered to conceal the source of the cash it handed out.
“The Tides Network, marching in lock-step with similarly sized left-wing ‘dark money’ groups like the Arabella Advisors network poured hundreds of millions of dollars from totally untraceable sources into activism meant to sway the outcome of elections,” one expert told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A sprawling left-wing dark money operation spent over $850 million in 2022 on grants, according to newly released financial documents.

Tides, a group of nonprofits including the T ides Foundation, Tides Center, Tides Network, Tides Inc., and the Tides Two Rivers Fund, spent $233.5 million more in 2022 than it did the previous year, with most of the increase coming from the coalition’s heightened grantmaking, according to Tides’ consolidated financial statement. These grants, totaling $854.9 million, were given to pro-abortion activists, left-of-center voter turnout organizations, organizations that are part of Arabella Advisors’ liberal dark money network, groups that helped organize pro-Hamas demonstrations following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel and bail funds in cities with high crime.

“The Tides Network, marching in lock-step with similarly sized left-wing ‘dark money’ groups like the Arabella Advisors network poured hundreds of millions of dollars from totally untraceable sources into activism meant to sway the outcome of elections,” Parker Thayer, an investigative researcher at Capital Research Center, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Tides Foundation holds donors’ money in accounts and allows donors to advise it on what groups to transfer their funds to, though does not say who advised it to make a given grant. Such an arrangement enables the foundation to avoid disclosing the sources of its grant funding in what some critics have described as a “dark money” operation.

The uptick in spending coincided with a contentious midterm election cycle and the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, sparking pro-abortion protests across the United States.

“The Left and the mainstream media would like to pretend this doesn’t happen every year, but the receipts are there for everyone to see,” Thayer said.

Pro-abortion groups received about $2.7 million from the Tides Foundation and the Tides Center in 2022, according to the nonprofits’ respective tax forms. Many pro-abortion groups saw financial windfalls following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

Some of the pro-abortion groups Tides gave money to, such as EMILY’s List, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, were directly involved in getting pro-abortion candidates elected in 2022.

EMILY’s List recruits, trains, endorses and provides financial backing to pro-choice female Democrats running for political office. NARAL also endorses pro-abortion candidates

Planned Parenthood Action Fund runs pro-abortion ads, promotes pro-abortion candidates during elections, and is involved in voter registration efforts.

Tides flooded the 2022 midterms with $7.7 million earmarked for liberal-aligned voter turnout, registration, and engagement groups, extending its activities beyond abortion activism, according to tax filings from groups under the Tides umbrella.

Some of the groups funded by Tides, such as the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, Rideshare 2 Vote Aware, and the New Georgia Project, transported voters to polling stations during the highly contested 2022 midterm elections in Georgia. All three groups, though claiming to be nonpartisan, promote left-wing stances.

The New Georgia Project, for instance, put out press releases in favor of President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, while the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda opposed a Georgia bill that would’ve prevented public school employees from talking to children about gender transitions before they turn 16, dubbing it a “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The New Georgia Project specifically targeted voters in urban counties in Georgia that tend to favor liberal candidates. The group offered free rides for Georgia voters in Savannah, Augusta, and the Atlanta metropolitan area, all regions that favor the Democratic Party.

Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock won Georgia’s 2022 Senate race, among the closest of the cycle, by less than 100,000 votes, defeating Republican Herschel Walker by 2.8%.

Tides’ activities mirrored that of the network managed by Arabella Advisors, which poured $60 million into voter mobilization during the 2022 midterms. America Votes, which received the bulk of Arabella’s support, bills itself as “nonpartisan,” but has extensive ties to the Democratic Party.

America Votes’ 501(c)(4) wing also got over $700,000 from the Tides Foundation.

Tides’ overlap with Arabella goes beyond their voter mobilization efforts.

The Tides Foundation sent $10.6 million directly to Arabella’s dark money network, according to its 2022 tax filing. In 2022 the Arabella network spent $150 million in 2022 bankrolling environmentalist groups, pro-abortion organizations, and initiatives focused on getting left-wing young people to run for office, among other things.

Tides’ grantmaking activities had implications beyond 2022.

Many of the groups that Tides funded in 2022 were major players in the pro-Hamas and anti-Israel movements that gained traction in the United States following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of over 1,400 civilians in Israel.

Tides Foundation and Tides Center gave $132,000 to WESPAC, an organization that fiscally sponsors groups such as National Students For Justice in Palestine and the Palestinian Youth Movement, according to their respective 2022 tax documents. Fiscal sponsorship is an agreement where an established nonprofit processes tax-deductible donations on behalf of a group not registered as a nonprofit with the IRS, according to the American Bar Association.

National Students For Justice in Palestine and the Palestinian Youth Movement organized dozens of anti-Israel protests across the English-speaking world, some of which featured pro-Hamas rhetoric. Code Pink also got $100,000 from the Tides Foundation in 2022, according to the foundation’s tax filing, and has been involved in pro-Palestinian rallies across the country.

Jewish Voices for Peace and If Not Now collectively received $102,000 from the Tides Foundation, according to its tax documents. The groups were involved in high-profile pro-Palestinian protests where activists occupied a building at the United States Capitol and blocked entrances to the White House.

In addition to the midterm election and abortion, crime was a key issue in 2022.

As crime remained high in 2022, Tides poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into bail funds, groups that cover jail bond payments.

The Chicago Community Bond Fund, Eastern Iowa Community Bond Project, Milwaukee Freedom Fund, Montgomery Bail Out Fund, and Northwest Community Bail Fund collectively drew $229,570 from the Tides Center, according to its 2022 tax filing.

Chicago, one of the cities where Tides bankrolled a bail fund, saw homicides near a decade high in 2022. Homicides in Milwaukee, meanwhile, rose 11%.

A 2023 study found that prior arrests are associated with a greater probability of committing violent crimes in the future.

Tides has removed most of its 2022 tax forms from its website, only leaving its consolidated financial statement.

Tides, and every group mentioned above, did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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