A major charity that Senator Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) and the popular left-wing podcast Pod Save America are promoting for Los Angeles wildfire relief has for years poured millions of dollars into liberal dark money groups like the New Venture Fund, tax filings show.
The charity, the California Community Foundation (CCF), is a prominent Los Angeles-based, donor-advised fund that houses a wildfire recovery campaign. Schiff and Pod Save America—founded by so-called Obama bros Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, and Jon Lovett—promoted the fund on wildfire relief pages they established through ActBlue Charities, a spinoff of ActBlue, Democrats’ premier fundraising apparatus. Schiff, in both an email and on the fundraising page, called CCF one of the groups "doing the essential work right now." The Pod Save America page, meanwhile, said
So far, CCF has raised $30 million from donors like Steven Spielberg, Mark Zuckerberg, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle. It's distributed $15 million to a wide variety of organizations, including immigrant and indigenous activist groups like Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, a local Planned Parenthood clinic, LGBT groups like the Los Angeles LGBT Center and ProjectQ, burned-down houses of worship, and newsrooms like CalMatters and the LAist.
Some of those groups are affiliated with liberal causes, and CCF is no stranger to supporting the left's political infrastructure.
Since at least July 2018 (covering the five most recent years of its available tax filings), CCF has sent nearly $14 million to liberal dark money groups, including $11.6 million to three nonprofits within the George Soros-backed Tides Nexus and $2.3 million to the New Venture Fund, which is managed by the liberal consulting firm Arabella Advisors. It's also sent nearly $6.8 million to the controversial Church of Scientology, which for years has faced accusations of abuse, fraud, blackmail, and sexual assault cover-ups.
Liberal politicians like California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) have already faced criticism for using ActBlue to solicit wildfire relief donations rather than pointing donors to aid organizations directly. Favreau vehemently defended his podcast's use of the platform, arguing that it saves donors time as they "don't have to go to multiple sites to give, and we can vet all the local orgs ahead of time." Neither Favreau nor Schiff, however, have addressed their decision to direct funds to CCF or explained how they vetted the group.
CCF was established in 1915 and oversees $2.3 billion in assets and 1,900 charitable foundations, funds, and legacies, according to its website. Its causes are myriad, with tens of millions of dollars funneled each year into universities, including Stanford University and the University of California, relief organizations, medical and arts centers, and activist groups—primarily those that skew liberal. In 2021, however, the fund gave $500,000 to Susan B. Anthony List, a top anti-abortion advocacy group.
The CCF-backed dark money groups include three Tides Nexus affiliates: Tides Advocacy, the Tides Center, and the Tides Foundation. The Tides Center is a major funder of anti-Israel protests, including those that occurred in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel. In the fiscal year that ended a few months before the terrorist attack, CCF sent nearly $150,000 to the Tides Center that it earmarked for Palestine Legal, which trains, advocates for, and offers litigation help to anti-Israel activists.
CCF’s 2021 tax filings also show a $264,000 Tides Foundations contribution earmarked for the Black Lives Matter Support Fund, which was purportedly meant to serve as a funding vehicle for Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. The national Black Lives Matter group sued the Tides Foundation in May, accusing it of refusing to relinquish funds.
CCF also sent nearly $8 million to the Voices for Progress Education Fund, a Tides Center project that pushes climate policies and progressive political candidates.
New Venture Fund, meanwhile, is an offshoot of the Democratic consultancy group Arabella Advisors. Roughly $1 million that CCF sent to New Venture Fund was earmarked for Americans for Tax Fairness and Alaska Venture Fund—groups that are themselves effectively offshoots of Arabella Advisors. CCF likewise paid Arabella Advisors $176,000 for consulting services in the fiscal year 2023, according to tax filings.
CCF does not appear to have sent wildfire relief money to the liberal dark money groups thus far. Schiff, Pod Save America, and CCF did not respond to requests for comment.