Hopewell Fund

Hopewell Fund
Formation2015; 11 years ago (2015)
Type501(c)(3) nonprofit
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
President
Anna Bower
AffiliationsSunflower Services
New Venture Fund
Windward Fund
Budget$208 million (revenue) (2024)
Websitewww.hopewellfund.org

The Hopewell Fund is a liberal nonprofit organization that is part of a network of anonymous donors connected with Democratic Party-friendly initiatives, administered by Sunflower Services, previously known as Arabella Advisors. The Hopewell Fund serves as the fiscal sponsor for various left-leaning political projects. The Hopewell Fund spent over $127 million in 2020, and is one of the five largest nonprofits associated with the Democratic Party.

History

The Hopewell Fund was established in 2015. The next year, Hopewell was a fiscal sponsor of the Economic Security Project, a nonprofit co-founded by Chris Hughes that promotes guaranteed basic income. That same year, Hopewell became a fiscal sponsor of the NFL Players Coalition, a non-profit advocacy group co-founded by NFL players Malcolm Jenkins and Anquan Boldin. This group was established to administer an $89 million, seven-year commitment by the National Football League toward social justice and racial equality initiatives.

From 2017 to 2019, the Hopewell Fund incubated States Newsroom, a state-focused nonprofit news organization, by providing administrative and business support. Hopewell also registered the names of multiple outlets affiliated with the States Newsroom. According to OpenSecrets, "The Hopewell Fund gave $1.72 million to an organization called News for Democracy that was at the crux of a network of seemingly independent Facebook pages disguised as news outlets that started spending on digital ads in 2018." In 2020, OpenSecrets described these types of activities as "some of the biggest coordinated efforts using pseudo news for political gain discovered to date."

In 2020, Hopewell began fiscally sponsoring the Rare Impact Fund, a mental health-focused initiative from Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty cosmetic brand. That same year, Hopewell distributed more than $127 million, and its grantmaking included major support for media, turnout, and advocacy projects associated with progressive politics. Hopewell Fund provided more than $8 million to Acronym, a progressive non-profit co-founded by Tara McGowan. The Hopewell Fund also sponsored Democracy Docket, a voting rights and media platform founded by lawyer Marc Elias, and awarded nearly $3.8 million to Family Planning Associates Medical Group, a Chicago clinic that provides abortion services, $2 million to a Tulane University fund, and $1 million to Vote Forward, a voter registration project targeting underrepresented populations.

A 2022 analysis by The New York Times found that the Hopewell Fund "gave $8.1 million to a dark-money group called Acronym, which spent millions of dollars on Facebook advertising and backed a company called Courier Newsroom that published articles favoring Democrats and received millions of dollars from dark money groups." The Hopewell Fund sponsored Democracy Docket, a liberal-leaning voting rights and media platform founded by lawyer Marc Elias. In 2023, Hopewell launched the Heat Initiative, an advocacy group that campaigns against Apple's end-to-end encryption, arguing it aids child exploitation. That same year, Forbes Tate Partners registered to lobby for the Hopewell Fund on the availability of Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs related to abortion care.

In September 2025, the Hopewell Fund brought on Anna Brower as its inaugural president. In November 2025, Hopewell Fund, New Venture Fund, and Windward Fund created a new public benefit corporation called Sunflower Services. Sunflower Services operates as a vendor to these nonprofits, in addition to being owned and governed by them. Sunflower purchased the part of Arabella Advisors that previously serviced fiscal sponsors. In 2026, the New York Times reported on Hopewell Fund support for ⁠States at the Core, a group providing training on how to track and document the actions of federal ICE agents. That same year, the Hopewell Fund was a signatory on a petition asking Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, and DAFgiving360 to restore the ability of donors to make grants to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) after the SPLC was indicted on charges of committing financial crimes.

Structure and funding

Hopewell Fund is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit corporation with 501(c)(3) public-charity status. Inside Philanthropy described its focus as "social entrepreneurship". Prominent project areas include civil rights, education access, reproductive health, and voter registration. Hopewell was previously part of a broader fiscal-sponsorship services ecosystem affiliated with Arabella Advisors. In 2025, Hopewell Fund, along with New Venture Fund and Windward Fund, created Sunflower Services, a public benefit corporation, which then acquired Arabella Advisors' fiscal-sponsorship servicing business. Financial backers of the Hopewell Fund include Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Iranian-American billionaire and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros.

References

  1. ↑ "Hopewell Fund - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
  2. ↑ "Arabella Advisors Dissolves After Years of GOP-Led Investigations". The Chronicle of Philanthropy. November 18, 2025. Retrieved July 15, 2026.
  3. ↑ Biddle, Sam (1 October 2023). "New Group Attacking iPhone Encryption Backed by U.S. Political Dark-Money Network". The Intercept. Retrieved 7 September 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Vogel, Kenneth P.; Goldmacher, Shane (29 January 2022). "Democrats Decried Dark Money. Then They Won With It in 2020". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  5. ↑ Moskovitz, Diana (1 December 2017). "What The Hell Is The Hopewell Fund?". Deadspin. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  6. ↑ "The Inside Philanthropy Power List". Inside Philanthropy. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  7. ↑ William Skipworth (December 4, 2020). "George Soros is not behind startup news outlet, the Missouri Independent". Columbia Missourian. Archived from the original on 2020-12-05 – via WayBack Machine. 2015, the year the Hopewell Fund was founded.
  8. ↑ Philip Rojc (January 14, 2023). "Big Builds: A Look Inside Arabella Advisors". Inside Philanthropy. One that's been making waves lately is the Economic Security Project (ESP). Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes co-founded ESP in 2016, with the Hopewell Fund acting as fiscal sponsor. ESP started off with a mission to study and normalize the idea of a guaranteed income, a cause Hughes has long been passionate about.
  9. 1 2 Jim Trotter; Jason Reid (November 29, 2017). "Sources: NFL agrees to commit $89M over seven years to social justice causes". ESPN.
  10. ↑ Mike Scutari (August 19, 2020). ""Fill the Gaps." A Donor-Backed Outfit Aims to Reverse the Decline in Statehouse Reporting". Inside Philanthropy. I asked Fitzsimon to comment on the Hopewell Fund's role in the organization's creation. "From the end of 2017 to October 2019, States Newsroom was incubated at Hopewell Fund. They played an invaluable role performing administrative and business functions, like HR and compliance," he said.
  11. 1 2 3 Massoglia, Anna (22 May 2020). "'Dark money' networks hide political agendas behind fake news sites". OpenSecrets News. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  12. ↑ Emma Sandler (July 24, 2020). "Mental health becomes a bigger talking point in beauty". Glossy. The fund is administered by the non-profit Hopewell, which works with other charitable initiatives to create and advise donations.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Vogel, Kenneth P.; Goldmacher, Shane (29 January 2022). "Democrats Decried Dark Money. Then They Won With It in 2020". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  14. 1 2 Anna Massoglia (December 23, 2021). "Liberal 'dark money' groups' revenue soared ahead of 2020 elections". OpenSecrets.
  15. ↑ Robbie Myers (November 3, 2020). "Tara McGowan Will Get Inside Your Head". Marie Claire.
  16. 1 2 "Full text of "Full Filing" for fiscal year ending Dec. 2020". Hopewell Fund. Retrieved June 8, 2026 – via ProPublica.
  17. ↑ Shay Castle (October 28, 2020). "A Cutting-Edge Tactic to Get Out the Vote in 2020: Handwritten Letters". The New York Times.
  18. ↑ Sam Biddle (October 1, 2023). "New Group Attacking iPhone Encryption Backed by U.S. Political Dark-Money Network". The Hill.
  19. ↑ Stephanie Lam (June 10, 2024). "Child safety advocates disrupt Apple developers conference". The Mercury-News.
  20. ↑ Taylor Giorno (November 28, 2023). "Bottom Line: Left-leaning nonprofit hires former Republican aide for abortion fight". The Hill.
  21. ↑ Stephanie Beasley (November 18, 2024). "Arabella Advisors Dissolves After Years of GOP-led Investigations". The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
  22. ↑ "Hopewell Fund Announces Anna Brower as Inaugural President" (Press release). Hopewell Fund. August 6, 2025.
  23. 1 2 Stephanie Beasley (November 18, 2024). "Arabella Advisors Dissolves After Years of GOP-led Investigations". The Chronicle of Philanthropy. This week the company announced that its operations team will move to a new organization called Sunflower Services. This change marks a significant shift for the consultancy world, in which Arabella was among the best-known and most controversial entities of its kind. Sunflower has acquired Arabella's administrative services business for nonprofits which the new entity will run. [...] New Venture Fund was the lead investor in the acquisition of Arabella Advisors' fiscal sponsorship servicing business. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed. New Venture Fund will absorb roughly 243 Arabella staffers into Sunflower Services, a public benefit corporation that can earn a profit but also must benefit the public. Hopewell and Windward Funds, also former Arabella clients, provided additional financial backing for the deal.
  24. 1 2 Charles Homans (February 6, 2026). "The Difference That ICE Watchers Are Making in Minnesota". The New York Times.
  25. ↑ "Major Donors, Donor Networks, and Foundations Call on Fidelity, Vanguard, and Charles Schwab to Reverse Harmful Capitulation to Administration's Politicized Attack on Southern Poverty Law Center". Politico. May 5, 2026.
  26. ↑ Lieber, Ron (29 April 2026). "Fidelity and Vanguard Won't Allow Donations to Southern Poverty Law Center". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 September 2026.
  27. ↑ "Hopewell Fund". ProPublica. Retrieved June 8, 2026.
  28. ↑ Philip Rojc (January 14, 2023). "Big Builds: A Look Inside Arabella Advisors". Inside Philanthropy. The Hopewell Fund, another (c)(3) dedicated to social entrepreneurship efforts, spent just under $29 million in 2017.
  29. 1 2 Vogel, Kenneth P.; Goldmacher, Shane (29 January 2022). "Democrats Decried Dark Money. Then They Won With It in 2020". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 September 2023. Hopewell gave nearly $3.8 million to a clinic that provides abortion services and more than $2 million to a Tulane University fund.
  30. ↑ Philip Rojc (January 14, 2023). "Big Builds: A Look Inside Arabella Advisors". Inside Philanthropy.