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=<div>cmd 3 22</div><div><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-spacing: 3.6px;">The Dirty Dozen Funders of Climate Misinformation</h2>A dozen of the largest nonprofits donated $47.8 million to the leading climate denial organizations, accounting for 88% of the funds CMD was able to track down using FY 2014-20 federal tax returns. Half of the traceable funding came from DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund, two donor-advised fund sponsors that pass along their clients’ donations to other charities approved by their boards of directors. While the two funds give exclusively to conservative causes, no restrictions are apparent within that ideology. For instance, CMD was first to report that DonorsTrust is by far the <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/12/04/dark-money-atm-of-the-conservative-movement-gives-1-5-million-to-white-nationalist-hate-group/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">biggest known funder of American white nationalist hate groups</a>.Among the “Dirty Dozen” climate denial financiers are foundations established by the right-wing Bradley, Koch, Mercer, Searle, and Scaife families. The Kochs, Mercers, and other Republican megadonors pour additional money into political groups and electoral campaigns focused on electing right-wing candidates who oppose meaningful action on climate change and often support expanding and deregulating the fossil fuel industry.The funders named in this report have also financed a broader right-wing political strategy to misinform the public about a number of issues and increase GOP voter turnout.“Bad actors are using a tried and tested playbook to weaken public mandates and create confusion [about] viable solutions going forward,” notes Jennie King, head of civic action and education at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an independent nonprofit dedicated to protecting human rights and reversing polarization, extremism, and disinformation around the world. “This includes weaponizing climate response within a broader ‘culture wars’ frame and conflating it with any supposed controversy, from Covid-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates to critical race theory, trans rights, or geopolitics.” Leading non-ideological donor-advised fund sponsors connected to the Vanguard and Fidelity financial firms are also among the Dirty Dozen climate misinformation funders.“We cannot solve the climate crisis until we solve the climate misinformation crisis,” U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told CMD. “It is disappointing that mainstream organizations are still keeping ties with groups that have attacked climate science and legislative solutions. We need to be calling this behavior out publicly, so Americans know which organizations are linked to climate denial efforts.”All nonprofits identified by CMD that gave $10,000 or more to the top climate misinformation groups from 2014–20 are listed in the table below.
tABLE 2Top Nonprofit Climate Denial Funders, 2014-20Numerous charities, private foundations, and trade associations have bankrolled the climate misinformation movement. Page 1 of 4  Table with 9 columns and 53 rows. Currently displaying rows 1 to 15.Donor    2014 2015 2016   2017 2018   2019 2020   TOTAL1 DonorsTrust/Donors Capital Fund $3,293,850 $3,816,850 $3,676,750 $2,422,000 $3,830,200 $2,101,732 $1,416,500 20,557,8822 Searle Freedom Trust $839,500 $589,500 $1,140,000 $940,000 $1,096,000 $754,000 $985,000 6,344,0003 Sarah Scaife Foundation $350,000 $610,000 $842,000 $875,000 $960,000 $715,000 $1,245,000 5,597,0004 Mercer Family Foundation $885,000 $100,000 $1,075,000 $970,000 3,030,0005 Dunn Foundation $1,200,000 $250,000 $325,000 $200,000 $350,000 $350,000 $350,000 3,025,0006 Bradley Foundations $344,376 $318,876 $458,500 $519,000 $280,000 $475,000 $110,000 2,505,7527 American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers $365,000 $275,000 $470,000 $400,000 1,510,0008 Koch Foundations $100,128 $431,891 $333,028 $413,016 $84,000 $99,049 $18,749 1,479,8619 Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program $38,500 $228,500 $265,000 $230,000 $235,000 997,00010 Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund $35,525 $21,350 $27,867 $241,355 $212,310 $231,055 $201,952 971,41411 National Philanthropic Trust $150,000 $175,000 $175,500 $176,000 $200,000 876,50012 Bartley J. Madden Foundation $45,000 $270,000 $270,000 $250,000 $30,000 865,00013 Thomas W. Smith Foundation $150,000 $175,000 $200,000 $200,000 725,00014 The 85 Fund $700,000 700,00015 Ed Uihlein Family Foundation $10,500 $129,000 $35,000 $115,000 $115,000 $140,000...<div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div> In Texas, another $50,000 was passed on to Project Veritas from the Texas Free Market Fund through the group <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos/" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Donors Trust</a>, the dark money “donor-advised fund” that has helped make contributions from the Kochs, the DeVos family, and others untraceable in future IRS filings. The charitable foundation of late Texas oilman Ken W. “<a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/rich-man-dead-man/" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Stinky</a>” Davis, based like Project Veritas ally Aaron Harris in Tarrant County, also kicked in $5,000 to the group, the latest in the foundation’s influential spending spree on Republican politics <a href="https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article3902423.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">in the Lone Star State</a> and <a href="https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article3902423.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">across the country</a>.<p style="margin: 20px 20px 20px 252.078px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" max-width="max-width" width="width">In Florida, another donation of $50,000 came to the group through Donors Trust, this time from the free market defenders at the Thomas W. Smith Foundation. <p style="margin: 20px 20px 20px 252.078px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" max-width="max-width" width="width">
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