IRS filings reveal how Arabella Advisors and its constellation of managed nonprofits — the Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund — quietly channeled hundreds of millions of dollars through temporary organizations designed to influence state and federal policy. An OSINT investigation into the left’s most sophisticated political infrastructure.
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The Architecture of Influence
In the world of political dark money, no operation is more sophisticated — or less understood — than the network managed by Arabella Advisors. Operating from offices in Washington, D.C., Arabella manages a constellation of nonprofit entities that collectively move hundreds of millions of dollars annually through channels designed to be nearly impossible to trace.
The principal entities — the Sixteen Thirty Fund (EIN: 26-4486735), New Venture Fund (EIN: 20-5806345), Windward Fund (EIN: 47-3522162), and the Hopewell Fund — function as fiscal sponsors for dozens of “pop-up” organizations. These temporary groups appear, advocate for specific policy outcomes, and dissolve — all without ever filing their own tax returns, maintaining their own boards, or disclosing their donors.
The 2023 Numbers
IRS Form 990 filings for fiscal year 2023 reveal the scale of the operation. The New Venture Fund alone reported revenue of approximately $800 million, distributing over $500 million in grants. In the prior year, 2022, New Venture Fund awarded over $734 million — making it one of the largest grant-making organizations in the United States, despite being virtually unknown to the general public.
The three principal funds — New Venture Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund — together directed more than $97.4 million in grants to foreign recipients in 2023, raising questions about a domestic political operation funding international activities. The Sixteen Thirty Fund, organized as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, serves as the network’s primary vehicle for political spending, which need not be publicly disclosed.
Specific 2023 grants from the Sixteen Thirty Fund include $250,000 to the State Democracy Action Fund, $645,000 to the Voter Registration Project, $35,000 to The Voter Project in Philadelphia, and $20,000 to Young Invincibles. From the New Venture Fund, grants included $62,500 to the Urban Affairs Coalition and $100,350 to the Waco Foundation.
The Pop-Up Strategy
The genius of the Arabella model lies in its ability to create purpose-built advocacy organizations that exist only as long as they’re needed. A legislative fight in a specific state? A new “coalition” appears, complete with a professional website, media strategy, and grassroots-looking social media presence. When the fight is over, the coalition vanishes — and the money trail dead-ends at the fiscal sponsor.
This is not illegal. Fiscal sponsorship is a legitimate nonprofit structure used by thousands of organizations. But the scale at which Arabella operates — creating and dissolving dozens of entities annually, each tailored to a specific political objective — transforms a mundane administrative arrangement into a formidable political weapon.
The Rebranding
In 2024, the network reportedly rebranded as “Sunflower Services,” suggesting that the Arabella name had attracted too much scrutiny. The rebrand changed nothing about the operational model — the same entities, the same fiscal sponsorship structure, the same opacity — but it demonstrated the network’s awareness that public exposure threatens its effectiveness.
Representative Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) introduced the Foreign Grant Reporting Act (H.R. 8290) to require disclosure of foreign grant recipients by organizations like those in the Arabella network. The bill targeted the $97.4 million in foreign grants that the network distributed in 2023 alone. As of this writing, the legislation has not advanced — a testament to the difficulty of reforming dark money when the dark money funds the opposition to reform.
The Conflict Question
A 2023 investigation by the D.C. Attorney General raised additional concerns. Americans for Public Trust flagged a potential conflict of interest involving the law firm Venable’s simultaneous representation of Arabella entities and its work with the D.C. AG’s office. The intersection of legal representation, political advocacy, and government oversight creates exactly the kind of opacity that dark money networks exploit.
The Arabella network is not the only dark money operation in American politics — conservative networks exist as well. But its scale, sophistication, and the sheer volume of money it moves make it the gold standard of political infrastructure. Understanding how it works is essential to understanding how American policy is actually made.
Eduardo Bacci is an investigative journalist at The Investigative Journal. Data sources include IRS Form 990 filings, Congressional records, and D.C. Attorney General investigative files.