Meet the Network Hiding the Koch Money: "Donors Trust" and "Donors Capital Fund"

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- Connor Gibson, Greenpeace

Earlier this year internal documents [6] from the Heartland Institute [7], a major hub of climate change denial and right-wing extremism, were publicly leaked. The documents exposed the Heartland Institute's funders and strategies for attacking climate science, and led to a mass exodus [8] of Heartland's corporate funders [9].

Today, a newly updated report [10] based in large part on Heartland's internal documents has revealed two new insights into the way in which the anti-climate science movement has been supported and financed over the last decade.

1. A billionaire named Barre Seid [11] is the Heartland Institute's main sugar daddy. He is the "Anonymous Donor" listed in Heartland's fundraising plan [12] who finances climate science denial operations to confuse children [13], the general public, and policymakers over global warming. Seid has been the biggest booster behind Heartland's attacks on climate science, donating millions of dollars to keep the Heartland Institute's anti-science work afloat.
2. The Koch brothers [14] and other ultra-wealthy industrial ideologues are now hiding much of their donations to conservative political outlets through an obscure group of foundations specialize in secrecy.

In total over $311 million has been put through twin organizations known as Donors Trust [15] and Donors Capital Fund [16], which share an address in Alexandria, Virginia. The people running these organizations are close to the Kochs and have numerous ties to the groups that the DONORS network funds, such as the Koch-founded Cato Institute [17], the Heritage Foundation [18], the Independent Women's Forum [19], and the Manhattan Institute [20]. The Kochs have a little-known foundation that only donates to these "DONORS" groups called the Knowledge & Progress Fund, according to the report detailing this network.

The report, written by silicon Valley scientist turned public interest watchdog John Mashey, is titled "Fakexperts [10]," and details how right-wing foundations associated with the Koch brothers, Richard Mellon Scaife [21], the Bradley family [22], and others have been using a secret finance network to support extremist right-wing groups. Most of these groups are associated with the State Policy Network [23], a band of corporate apologists who have made careers denying everything from the dangers of smoking cigarettes to the existence of climate change.

Some of the sketchy groups that have received big chunks of their 2010 budgets through Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, including top climate change science deniers:

• Americans For Prosperity Foundation [24] got $7.6 million from DONORS groups in 2010, 43% of its budget. AFP Foundation is chaired by David Koch [25] and has received millions in direct funding from Koch foundations since the Koch brothers founded it.
• Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow [26] (CFACT) got $1.3 million from DONORS in 2010, 45% of its budget.
• Cornwall Alliance [27] (through the James Partnership) got $339,500 from DONORS in 2010, 75% of its budget.
• Heartland Institute [28] got $1.6 million from DONORS in 2010, 27% of it's budget, which came from Chicago billionaire Barre Seid (see p. 67 [29]).
• State Policy Network [30] got 36% of its 2010 budget ($4.8 million) from DONORS. SPN members [31] include just about every climate-denying organization and every conservative think tank in the country, including AFP and Heartland.

The twin DONORS organizations are advertised as a way for very wealthy people and corporations to remain hidden when "funding sensitive or controversial issues groups [32]," which creates a lack of accountability that is troubling. DONORS also promises to only funnel money to groups with an extreme anti-environmental bend, so industrial billionaires need not worry about their money winding up here at Greenpeace, as Donor's Trust co-founder Whitney Ball [33] explains [34]:

...if a donor names his child a successor advisor, and she wants to give to Greenpeace, we're not going to be able to do that.

Expect to hear more about Donor's Trust and Donor's Capital Fund as we continue to track the dirty money of Koch Industries [35] and their allies. For more, check out PBS FRONTLINE's recent dig on climate deniers in a special called Climate of Doubt [36], which includes descriptions of the DONORS groups [37] from Drexel University's Robert Brulle.

This article was originally published by Connor Gibson of Greenpeace here [38].