Watchdog: Donations to liberal causes will continue despite Arabella’s rebrand

By Tate Miller
The Center Square

A network that pours funding into American liberal ballot issue campaigns initiated a rebrand the same day its tax filings were released, with a watchdog group saying the new network’s operations will likely stay the same.

Executive director of Americans for Public Trust Caitlin Sutherland told The Center Square: “What’s important to note is while the Arabella Advisors network may be going by a different, sunnier, less threatening sounding name, they more or less are assuredly going to be operating the same.”

Sutherland is referring to the newly created Sunflower Services’ purchase of Arabella Advisor’s fiscal sponsorship model, Arabella being a network of nonprofits.

Arabella’s fiscal sponsorship model “allows nonprofits to be incubated within the nonprofit without having to be independent entities,” Sutherland said, the nonprofits including the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the New Venture Fund, the Hopewell Fund, the Windward Fund, the North Fund, and the Telescope Fund.

None of the funds responded to requests for comment from The Center Square.

Sutherland noted it’s “very interesting” that on the same date Arabella’s tax returns were due – revealing $1.5 billion was raised and $1.55 billion was spent in 2024 in support of liberal causes – the network also “announced a rebrand.”

Sunflower will be keeping Arabella’s same employees, same nonprofits, and same donors,” according to Sutherland, in a kind of “shuffle in a circle” that will not impact how much the individual nonprofits raise and spend.

Sutherland told The Center Square that Arabella’s 2024 tax filings show “what a colossal liberal dark money network” Arabella Advisors was, a mantle which Sunflower Services will presumably pick up.

Sutherland told The Center Square: “it’s the left that is always decrying this so-called dark money influencing our politics,” and yet “they represent the largest source of liberal, dark money that was flowing in 2024 to groups that were propping up [President Joe] Biden and Kamala Harris, doing voter registration drives, [and] going to groups…that spent millions attacking Republican members of the House of Representatives.”

Sutherland told The Center Square that some of the largest donors to Arabella Advisors have been “foreign charities” and “foreign billionaires.”

Sutherland told The Center Square she doesn’t “think any of that is going to change” with the rebrand. Instead, the rebrand to Sunflower Services is a “less threatening version of [Arabella’s] business models.”

Sutherland said the average American is affected by these nonprofits’ money schemes via ballot issue campaigns.

For instance, as The Center Square reported earlier this year that the Sixteen Thirty Fund – which is “bankrolled” by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss – pushed through the Amendment 3 campaign in Missouri that “enshrined abortion” into the state’s constitution.

This prompted the state to outlaw foreign money from funding ballot issue campaigns.

Missouri is not the only state that’s been affected by foreign money, with Sutherland telling The Center Square that in 2024, the Sixteen Thirty Fund also spent in Nebraska, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Montana and Ohio according to their 990.

Similarly, the Sixteen Thirty Fund is not the only nonprofit from Arabella’s network receiving foreign donations, Sutherland said, with New Venture Fund, Hopewell, and Windward all having received money from foreign charities.

This tallies Arabella’s foreign money makeup to over half a billion dollars from what Americans for Public Trust has been able to track, Sutherland said, adding there are likely a lot more “either foreign charities or foreign billionaires that are funding this network.”

As another point of interest, on the same day Sunflower Services purchased Arabella Advisors’ fiscal sponsorship model, Arabella changed its name to “Vital Impact,” Sutherland said.

Vital Impact did not respond to a request for comment.

When reached, a Sunflower Services spokesman told The Center Square: “Sunflower Services is an independent, nonprofit-owned Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) dedicated to providing operational excellence to nonprofit and social impact organizations.”

“With a team of ~240 professionals, Sunflower delivers integrated solutions in finance, HR, grants management and compliance, helping mission-driven organizations focus on what matters most: their impact,” the spokesman said.

According to Americans for Public Trust, in 2024 the Sixteen Thirty Fund raised $282,241,759 and spent $310,782,035; the New Venture Fund raised $662,364,100 and spent $723,042,837, and the Hopewell Fund raised $208,022,501 and spent $197,068,456.

Additionally, the Windward Fund raised $308,245,754 and spent $251,319,552, the North Fund raised $45,031,127 and spent $53,888,860, and Telescope Fund raised $5,536,429 and spent $10,788,449.