A nonprofit group funded by Republican megadonor Peter Thiel appears to have donated $3 million to a bunch that has financed some left-leaning organizations and aligned with progressive elements of the Democratic Party, based on tax documents first reviewed by CNBC.
The Thiel Foundation, a 501(c)(3) which the tech investor founded and funds entirely himself, gave the sum to the Latest Enterprise Fund in 2021, based on 990 tax forms.
The Latest Enterprise Fund is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) group that for years has acted as a significant funder for some groups aligned with the Democratic Party. It is also often called a so-called “dark money” organization because it doesn’t publicly disclose the names of its donors. The Latest Enterprise Fund raised over $950 million in 2021, based on the group’s records.
The listed donation to the Latest Enterprise Fund coincided with Thiel helping Republican candidates throughout the 2022 midterms. He gave greater than $35 million toward GOP causes throughout the two-year election cycle, based on data from the nonpartisan OpenSecrets. Thiel has since said he doesn’t plan to financially support individual Republican candidates running for office throughout the 2024 elections.
Thiel’s listed donation to the Latest Enterprise Fund might have been earmarked for a less partisan organization that the fund helps finance, according Anna Massoglia of OpenSecrets, who reviewed the documents.
Massoglia suggested one other scenario: that accountants for the Thiel Foundation can have filled out the forms incorrectly.
“While a few of Latest Enterprise Fund’s grantees are left-leaning, others shouldn’t have a distinguished ideological leaning,” Massoglia, an editorial and investigations manager at OpenSecrets, said in an email. “Some nonprofits also use Latest Enterprise Fund as a passthrough to fund other groups so it just isn’t outside of the realm of possibility that Thiel’s foundation was funding a particular group through it.”
“I might also leave open the likelihood that the accountant or lawyer who filled out the tax form might need looked up the flawed organization as well,” Massoglia said.
The Latest York Times reported in 2022 that Thiel was amongst a bunch of donors working to combat the advantage Democrats have had inside the “dark money” battle. Thiel has an estimated net price of over $9 billion.
OpenSecrets reported that such organizations spent and donated over $295 million throughout the 2022 midterm elections. One Nation, a 501(c)(4) group aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., poured greater than $120 million into the 2022 midterms.
The Thiel Foundation’s $3 million listed donation to the Latest Enterprise Fund represents the second-largest contribution it made in 2021. The most important donation, over $4 million, went to the Donors Trust, a 501(c)(3) donor advisory fund that allow givers to send money to the nonprofit after which that contribution is funneled to a bunch of their alternative. The Donors Trust often acts as a significant funder for conservative leaning nonprofit groups. It raised over $1 billion in 2021, based on tax documents.
“You sometimes don’t see grants to Donors Trust and the Latest Enterprise Fund on the identical 990,” Brendan Fischer, a deputy executive director on the watchdog Documented, told CNBC after reviewing the tax form. “And based on the address, the recipient of the $3 million Thiel Foundation grant does look like the identical Latest Enterprise Fund that supports progressive causes.”
The address for the Latest Enterprise Fund donation on the Thiel’s foundation forms is listed as 21828Â LÂ Street NW Suite 300-ÂA Washington D.C., 20036. The Latest Enterprise Fund’s 2021 tax form lists the same address of 1828 L Street NW Suite 300-A Washington D.C., 20036. A search on Google Maps provided no results for 21828 L Street NW in Washington D.C.
Tax records since 2013 show the Thiel Foundation hadn’t donated to the Latest Enterprise Fund before 2021. The records don’t say what the donation to the Latest Enterprise Fund was meant for. A spokesman for Thiel and the muse didn’t return a request for comment. The accountant listed on the Thiel Foundation’s forms didn’t return a request for comment.
A representative for the Latest Enterprise Fund didn’t return a request for comment.
Throughout the same yr because the Thiel donation, the Latest Enterprise Fund donated over $7 million to America Votes, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit voting rights group focused on educating people on the best way to vote by mail, based on other tax records. A nonprofit financed by billionaire and Democratic megadonor George Soros gave over $16 million to America Votes over that very same time period.
The Latest Enterprise Fund is an element of a network of left-leaning nonprofits guided by philanthropic advisory firm Arabella Advisors. The firm was paid slightly below $30 million in 2021 by the Latest Enterprise Fund for administration, operations and management services, based on the nonprofit’s tax forms.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization with an almost equivalent address because the Latest Enterprise Fund, paid Arabella Advisors $5 million for his or her services in 2021, based on other tax records. The Sixteen Thirty Fund received a grant of just over $27 million from the Latest Enterprise Fund that yr, records show. The group raised over $180 million in 2021, based on the records.
Identical to the Latest Enterprise Fund and the Donors Trust, the Sixteen Thirty Fund doesn’t publicly disclose its donors.
