gibson, Connor CMD

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during this Trump administration, Charles Koch’s influence is everywhere. The fossil fuel billionaire funds a nationwide network of rightwing organizations, the most famous of which are probably American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the prolific incubator of rightwing legislation, and Americans for Prosperity, the libertarian-conservative advocacy group, whichlobbied hard for Trump’s recent mega-bill that gave tax cuts to billionaires. The Koch network spent millions helping launch Project 2025, and its donors and partners are all over the Trump administration. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, for example, is a Koch network donor.

Connor Gibson is an independent opposition research consultant specialized in climate change deniers, fossil fuel lobbying, deceptive public relations, dishonest front groups, dark money, and all-things Koch. He founded Grassrootbeer Investigations after spending a decade at Greenpeace USA. I’ve been lucky enough to work with him, and I wanted to ask him how the Koch network’s influence is playing out now, during this time of unprecedented handouts to the billionaire class.

*Meaghan: Why have you devoted time to researching the Koch network?

Connor:Throughout my career, I’ve been paying attention to political spending that prevents policy solutions related to environmental protection and climate change. Koch Industries – the oil petrochemical industrial multinational conglomerate that’s headquartered in Wichita, Kansas – has been and remains a massive opponent to climate and environmental policies and regulations.

Corporations know exactly what to expect from their return on investment in politicians. For that reason, financial disclosures related to political spending are extremely important for identifying basic problems with our democracy.

The same exact logic can be applied to any interest group, whether it’s the pharmaceutical or insurance industry. These companies that sell these products are often not concerned with the impact that their product has on the consumer. They’re concerned with making money. In fact, as we know well enough now, corporations are legally mandated to maximize profits to shareholders, often at the expense of a healthy population. So, I take great interest in using the financial paper trail as key data points, examining the lobbying and donor disclosures, the behavior of politicians that are affiliated with these donors, to help make a case that perhaps there’s a quid pro quo arrangement.

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*Meaghan: In this Trump era, all the corruption is such a brazen caricature of itself. Can you tell me how Koch spending fits into the oligarchy we’re seeing now?

Connor:Citizens United is 15 years old, and exceptionally rich people spending money is the new normal now. Charles Koch, I think, is still a unique case for a few reasons.

Charles Koch, as a political actor, is focused on many other issues, but his infrastructure – his nonprofit fleet, as I call it – is still unique in that it is totally centered around his privately controlled corporation, and his top executives are the people that are running the nonprofits in this network. We’re talking about a multi-billionaire-dollar network at this point.

What Charles Koch has built is also completely unique in terms of its structure, its sophistication, its scope and scale. Somebody who’s getting a lot of scrutiny, like Leonard Leo, who has been massively influential in terms of the Supreme Court, in terms of the Trump administration’s priorities, does not control nearly as much money as Charles Koch.

The Koch fleet is something like 27 nonprofit organizations that are regulated by the IRS. There are a handful of other organizations, PACs and super PACs, that are regulated by the Federal Election Commission. These are Koch-controlled groups, not just groups that they’re funding. That fleet was worth $8.4 billion in assets as of 2023, that’s the latest data that’s available, and that network spent a gross sum of $1.5 billion as of 2023. Money is also circulated between these Koch groups and there’s a dizzying mess of transactions where one group is granting to the other and maybe even granting right back. But, ultimately, it’s money going out the door for politics and policy fights that Charles Koch wants to see.

Koch is also unique in terms of his influence. The Koch apparatus is built around a for-profit company specifically, and that for-profit company has been very politically active for decades. There aren’t many corporations out there whose executives have been that neck deep in politics for so long.

*Meaghan: What’s an example of something that Koch and his allies have gotten with that spending?

Connor:The Koch network was over the moon about getting the tax bill with tax cuts passed by the Republican Congress during Trump’s first term. That was worth many untold billions of dollars for somebody like Charles Koch and every owner or major shareholder of a major corporation.

Super rich people got a great return on their investment for their efforts to support the Republican Congress, as well as getting their people on Donald Trump’s cabinet. The Kochs having such permanent infrastructure really allows them to adapt to those changing political winds and continually be opportunistic.

In general, the recipients of the Koch’s dark money funds, including front groups, can serve as independent validators, which is really important for their donors. The tobacco industry innovated by getting doctors to smoke and wage a public relations campaign against the facts of the harms of cigarettes. The oil companies, coal companies, car companies, did the exact thing when they hired a cohort of bozos, through consulting firms and subcontractors, to go on TV and say, “I am a scientist, and climate change is not a problem.” That’s still happening. So, being able to anonymize the money trail that pays for that is worth it for these companies.

*Meaghan: With all these terrible things happening, how are you coping?

Connor: In a time of inflation and housing crisis and just the cost of living being as expensive as it is, a time when people are paying a ton for health insurance that might not even help them, I really feel for people that are just trying to get by right now.

I don’t try to keep up with the 24-hour news cycle anymore. I try to be really educated on things that I’m specialized in, but eventually I shut my computer and I go play the drums and make music with my friends. These are privileges that are afforded to me by having stable employment and a house that I’m living in, things that I really try not to take for granted, because they’re things that a lot of people don’t have.

A lot of us have common cause. There are people who I wouldn’t be friends with, but at the same time, at the end of the day, Elon Musk is as ambivalent about their existence as he is about mine. In the grand scheme of things, there’s the super rich, and then there’s everyone else.

I think it’s very important to recognize what we can’t control. But control and influence are different, and we might be able to influence some things that we don’t have control over. It’s difficult when we’re being bombarded with cynicism and disinformation, and so, the danger right now is people feeling rightfully so disconnected from political leadership, so underserved, so ignored as to start to believe that they can’t influence any of these issues. People might be at danger of mistaking what they can influence through collective action for what’s out of our control.

So, we can’t control everything, but we can try to influence some things, especially collectively, and I don’t think there’s any other choice. If things get worse, we don’t want to look back and think, “Maybe I should have done something else instead of watching another episode of some TV show.”

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grassrootbeer connor g cmd 5 25 email gmail

Charles Koch’s fleet of organizations spent a combined net total of $833 million in 2023 to influence public policy, elections, and certain charitable causes — marking its highest spending total to date.

As with previous years, the vast majority of the Koch fleet’s spending came from organizations that are predominantly focused on politics and policy.

And as in the past, the lines between policy influence efforts and genuine philanthropy remain blurred. Charles Koch’s significant university funding fuels his political influence apparatus, while his charitable contributions share the same “Stand Together” branding as his policy-focused organizations.

The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has conducted a comprehensive financial analysis of Charles Koch’s network of nonprofit and political organizations based on IRS tax records and U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings for the last six years available, 2018–23. Our most recent analysis for 2023 found:

Combined assets remained relatively flat in 2023, totaling $8.2 billion across 34 distinct organizations.

Total net revenue within the fleet dropped to a relative low of $624.3 million in 2023. This is largely due to the massive outlier transactions that took place in 2022, when Koch, Inc. (the company) transferred $4.3 billion in stock to the organization Believe in People, Inc.

With a swollen war chest from massive private stock transfers, the Koch fleet’s net expenditures have climbed steadily since 2018, increasing by over $370 million (net).

A total of $715 million circulated among 34 Koch-controlled organizations in 2023 — more than twice as much as the $331 million in intra-network spending in 2022.

This $715 million accounts for the vast difference between gross revenue ($1.3 billion) and net revenue ($624 million), and between gross expenditures ($1.5 billion) and net expenditures ($833 million).

Of the fleet’s combined gross expenditures, over 95% was spent by organizations that are predominantly focused on policy and politics.

The remaining 4.6% of gross expenditures was reported by predominantly charitable groups having relatively little overlap with Koch’s political and policy goals. This includes the organization Movement Musick (previously known as Music C4, Inc.), which is controlled by Charles’ son Chase Koch and has been renamed several times.

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Koch-Controlled Organizations Combined Financial Data

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CMD’s analysis is based on the most recent IRS tax filings for 27 nonprofit organizations, in addition to the relevant disclosures of seven political action committees published by the FEC. The data builds upon similar investigations conducted in previous years and makes use of the same methodology previously disclosed.

Koch Begat Koch

While most of these organizations do not reveal their donors, grants that are disclosed show that the Koch fleet is relatively insular:

Of the $363 million spent by the Stand Together Chamber of Commerce in 2023, over $156 million was sent to Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and its affiliated super PAC. Another $88.8 million was spent on employee salaries and benefits, indicating the scale of the fleet’s internal staffing network. Almost $60 million of the Stand Together Chamber’s spending is ambiguously listed as “other” expenses.

More than $170 million of AFP’s $185 million budget -– 92% — came from two Koch-controlled organizations, the Stand Together Chamber of Commerce and Stand Together C4 Fund. All three groups operate out of the same office building in Arlington, VA.

Two more groups operating out of the same office building received a similar proportion of their budgets from within the Koch fleet. The 501(c)(4) Yes Every Kid received 92% of its $8.7 million budget from the Stand Together C4 Fund. Its sister organization, the 501(c)(3) Yes Every Kid Foundation, received 87% of its $4 million budget from the Stand Together Trust.

The Stand Together C4 Fund received 58% of its revenue from two large grants from other Koch-controlled groups: $213 million from Believe in People and $50 million from Key Change, which was previously named CCKC4.

Nine Koch-controlled groups disclosed Stand Together Communications, an in-house public relations firm, as a top contractor in 2023, exceeding $107 million in combined contracts. Since 2018, the firm has received over $345 million in contract payments from Koch-controlled organizations.

Another $20.5 million in 2023 contract payments were disclosed to i360, Koch’s AI-powered voter profiling and data company, which also conducts consulting services for many candidates and organizations outside of the Koch fleet.

On paper, 53% of the Koch fleet’s gross revenue came from other Koch-controlled groups. It is possible that additional funding ultimately came from Koch, Inc., or from wealthy business people and corporate heirs who coordinate their spending with the Koch family. The tax filings of key nonprofits do not disclose their donors, including the Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, which took in over $250 million in 2023, mostly from undisclosed sources.

Dark Money Grants

Koch continued to send millions of dollars to the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT), a multi-billion dollar donor-advised fund that serves to obscure the relationship between specific donors and grantees. A total of $3 million was granted to the trust in 2023 between two separate grants disclosed by the Stand Together Trust and the Knowledge & Progress Fund. Koch organizations have granted a total of $102.1 million to the NPT since 2019, representing 86% of Koch foundation grants to donor-advised funds in that timeframe.

Since 2005, Koch foundations have given a grand total of $138.2 million to donor-advised funds. 2019 was the first year the Koch fleet began passing grants through donor-advised funds like the NPT and the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund instead of DonorsTrust. Previously, DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund received a combined $20.1 million from Koch foundations between 2005 and 2019.

Koch Grants to Universities

As with previous years, one of the larger net spenders within the Koch fleet was the Charles Koch Foundation, which focuses most of its grantmaking on higher education. In 2023 it granted $90.8 million to dozens of universities.

The Koch fleet has granted over $788 million to more than 500 universities since 2005, according to a recent analysis by CMD, in combination with older tax filing data. As CMD has previously reported, universities have long represented the foundation for Charles Koch’s overall policy influence strategy, prompting student and faculty resistance on many campuses.

The Mercatus Center and the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) at George Mason University -– two organizations that have been controlled for decades by Koch, Inc.’s top executives -– continue to be major spenders within the Koch fleet. Mercatus, founded by Charles Koch and Richard Fink, acts as a strategic bridge between Koch’s university investments and its larger policy influence strategy, often advocating against policies and regulations that Koch, Inc. and other Mercatus sponsors seek to dismantle. The IHS serves as a key recruitment and training hub for the “talent pipeline” that Koch continues to prioritize.

George Mason University, Mercatus, and IHS have received over $305 million from Koch foundations since 2005, in addition to tens of millions in grants to GMU, IHS and Mercatus dating back to the mid 1980s.

Americans for Prosperity Priorities

Koch-controlled organizations were busy advancing a number of priorities in the realms of policy, lawsuits, and social issues in 2023. Much of this was conducted through AFP and its affiliated 501(c)(3) foundation and super PAC, which spent a combined total of $207 million that year:

AFP Action, an FEC-registered super PAC, spent $30 million in 2023 as it warmed up for the 2024 elections, an effort that ultimately cost over $138 million during the two-year election cycle. The overwhelming majority of these funds were spent supporting Republican candidates and opposing Democrats.

AFP endorsed staunchly anti-environmental gubernatorial candidates such as West Virginia’s Patrick Morrisey, Indiana’s Mike Braun, and Louisiana’s Jeff Landry, a climate change denier.

As the fleet’s hub for “grassroots” activism, AFP continually orchestrated statements, reports, petitions, and events blaming then-President Biden for inflation, which many economists dismissed.

AFP continued a long tradition of attacking worker’s unions. It encouraged Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to “hold unions accountable,” fought against a repeal of the decade-old “right-to-work” anti-union law in Michigan, and condemned a strike by the United Auto Workers by unionized employees in Michigan and Ohio.

2023 was the busiest year in the anti-ESG (environmental, social, and governance investing) trend in the states, with 26 of the 48 total anti-ESG laws passed that year in 31 states. AFP, along with other heavily Koch-funded groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), the Heritage Foundation, and the American Legislative Exchange Council, led a state and federal crusade against “ESG” risk assessments in investing as a means of shielding the fossil fuel industry from accountability for the investment risks posed by climate change and pollution.

AFP celebrated a Supreme Court ruling in favor of a small business that refused to serve gay people. The ruling was opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The Koch-funded Alliance Defending Freedom -– an extreme Christian hate group known for its discrimination against the LGBTQ population -– represented the plaintiff in the case.

:{:{AFP released a statement praising Elon Musk’s “3 best changes” at X (Twitter), without noting the platform’s increased use by hate groups and its resulting drop in use and revenue. Koch has financed several organizations that are involved in a lobbying effort to shield big tech companies from antitrust laws.}:

AFP’s Pennsylvania chapter continued to attack the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) -– a regional cap-and-trade partnership designed to reduce carbon emissions -– while Koch Supply and Trading was participating in RGGI trades.

Stand Together Trust Grantmaking in 2023

Koch’s advocacy activity was complemented by grantmaking activity run out of the Stand Together Trust, which has become the fleet’s primary funder of external policy influence groups in recent years. The Stand Together Trust spent $157 million in 2023, most of which was granted to other Koch-controlled organizations, as well as external organizations like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the Cato Institute, and the TPFF. The trust also gave large grants to charitable organizations such as the Edward Charles Foundation -– which is itself a grantmaker -– and The Phoenix, an exercise-based drug rehab charity.

K–12 School Privatization

A combined $11.6 million was spent by Yes Every Kid (YEK) and the Yes Every Kid Foundation. YEK was founded on vague aspirations to “transform public education” by promoting school “choice,” evoking strong skepticism from teachers’ unions. YEK has a notable absence of educational professionals among its leadership, most of whom have backgrounds in politics, lobbying, and public relations.

Charles Koch has opposed unions of all kinds for decades, including teacher’s unions specifically. His fleet of organizations have long supported efforts to funnel money away from public to private schools. Some of Koch’s groups, such as the Bill of Rights Institute and Empowered (formerly “Youth Entrepreneurs”), work to inject controversial material into school curricula such as texts whitewashing the history of slavery in the U.S.

Philanthropy and Stand Together Music

While the fleet continued to focus spending on universities and policy influence groups, Charles and his son Chase Koch also cultivated social capital through their philanthropy in 2023.

Most of this nonpolitical philanthropy dates back to a questionable but successful public relations rebranding effort that began a decade ago and depends on the Stand Together Foundation as the primary grantmaker. The foundation spent over $62 million in 2023, most of which was on grants to organizations involved in relatively noncontroversial causes like youth mentorship and development, drug rehabilitation, and Christian charities.

With the increased leadership of Chase Koch, a guitarist in an active band, much of Koch’s philanthropic activity is focused on garnering partnerships with high-profile artists. Stand Together Music, a project brand operated by the Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, earned favorable media for its partnerships with big-name musicians including Machine Gun Kelly, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Pitbull, the Chainsmokers, and Aloe Blacc -– whose new album was named after Koch’s Stand Together brand. Favorable coverage of these collaborations runs in outlets funded by Stand Together, such as *SPIN*magazine.

Koch’s music-centered philanthropy received some critical coverage for its juxtapositional collaborations with politically progressive musicians like Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Killer Mike of Run the Jewels. Killer Mike has continued working with the Koch family after initially signaling he wasn’t aware of who was behind Stand Together Music.

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Koch Network Uses National Philanthropic Trust to Conceal Transactions - EXPOSEDbyCMD

The National Philanthropic Trust helped Charles Koch’s tightly controlled network of nonprofits shield close to $100 million in donations and grants from public view between 2019 and 2021.

The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) recently reported on the network’s 2019–20 finances, which ballooned to $2.2 billion in revenues in 2020, and the emergence of Chase Koch’s CCKC4 as a potentially major player on the U.S. political scene.

Despite receiving $1.2 billion in 2020, CCKC4 only disclosed making a single grant of $12.5 million to the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT). A massive donor-advised fund—independent from the Koch family—the NPT routes billions of dollars to thousands of charities, policy organizations, and nonprofits every year.

The NPT does not disclose its donors nor their designated recipients, an advantage it advertises to potential donors. While it does disclose the organizations it finances and some of its donors voluntarily disclose payments to the NPT, the information available makes it impossible to draw a line between specific donors and grantees.

This appears to be part of a recent trend. Corporate mega-donors use donor advised funds to anonymize funding to groups that influence policy making, including longtime climate change denial organizations with a history of support from the Koch family’s foundations.

CMD contacted a Koch Industries executive who serves as director of several of Charles Koch’s nonprofits for comment, but received no response.

“Having a 501(c)(4) make grants to a 501(c)(3) charity such as the Charles Koch Foundation or the National Philanthropic Trust is tax inefficient, as the 501(c)(4) is already exempt from tax and so does not need a charitable contribution deduction,” said Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School. But “if the original, individual funder of the 501(c)(4) has already maxed out their charitable contribution deduction,” he added, “then it does not matter if they make a gift directly to a 501(c)(3) or have the 501(c)(4) do it instead.”

In recent years, the NPT also made major anonymous grants to two other organizations controlled by the Koch family.

One of those groups, Stand Together Trust, is central to Koch’s policy influence operation. Run by the Kochs and Koch Industries, it funds “social entrepreneurs” in education and a variety of public policy areas, and provides major financial support for Americans for Prosperity, Koch’s astroturf political advocacy group.

Annual grants from NPT to Stand Together Trust have soared from $1.05 million in 2019 to $9.75 million in 2020 and $20.15 million in 2021, according to a recent IRS filing obtained by CMD and previous filings compiled by ProPublica.

Another of Charles Koch’s organizations, the Stand Together Foundation, received more than $80 million from NPT between July 2019 and June 2021.

This philanthropic organization is focused on anti-poverty initiatives, but also serves to amplify Charles Koch’s free-market ideology. Virtually every grantee of the Foundation appears to be required to complete an “intensive six-month training designed to coach nonprofit leaders on business principles.” Called the Catalyst Program, it promulgates his trademarked business management philosophy, “Market-Based Management.”

Stand Together Foundation Key to Koch Rebranding Efforts

For the first eight decades of his life, Charles Koch was generally averse to charity. He preferred to send the vast majority of his “philanthropic” donations to political organizations that would advance his ideological and business interests, as Jane Mayer points out in her 2016 book Dark Money (pp. 147–148).

The Stand Together Foundation emerged publicly in 2015 as part of a public relations makeover in the wake of a decade of sustained public criticism of the Koch brothers’ business and political pursuits. Koch Industries was best known for its pollution, its support for climate change denial, its alleged theft of oil from the Osage Nation, and its pervasive political influence.

The rebrand appears to be working. In the past five years, Charles Koch and his staff have managed partnerships with musicians like and Guns ‘N’ Roses drummer. Celebrity athletes have also participated. Koch’s “Prime 5” collaboration involved retired football player Deion Sanders, and the LeBron James Family Foundation received a $575,000 grant from Koch’s Stand Together Chamber of Commerce in 2020. Charles Koch touts his collaboration with former political foe Van Jones, who allegedly thinks of his primary contact at Koch “

In sharp contrast, Koch’s historical political extremism—dating back to his work with the John Birch Society during the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s—continues unabated.

The Bill of Rights Institute, an organization operating out of Koch’s compound in Arlington, Virginia, was involved in efforts to whitewash the history of slavery in the U.S. in its lesson plans. Koch cash flowed to members of a network of neo-Confederates and white supremacists as recently as 2017. Since then, he has continued to support groups that manufacture hysteria over critical race theory, despite his public statements disavowing the trend.

Most recently, the Atlantic Council ceased its $4.5 million collaboration with the Charles Koch Institute after new staff hired from the Koch-founded Cato Institute advocated against focusing on Russia’s violations of human rights. This followed Koch Industries’ controversial refusal to discontinue its business operations in Russia immediately after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February. By April, the company reversed its position following weeks of dogged investigations by journalist Judd Legum.

Still, many journalists seem less interested in scrutinizing Charles Koch’s controversial activities than they were during the Obama presidency. Whether or not his rebranding efforts have won over the media and the public, Charles Koch’s political operation and his influence continue to grow and spread as fast as his fortune.

David Armiak contributed research to this report.

About Connor Gibson

Connor Gibson is an opposition researcher who publishes the blog Grassrootbeer Investigations. He focuses on polluting industries, their front groups and PR operatives, particularly focusing on the Koch political network.

All articles by Connor Gibson

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in 2021, a fleet of 27 organizations controlled by Charles Koch and other Koch Industries executives spent a combined net total of $656.8 million on political and charitable causes.

This represents another consecutive year of record-breaking spending by Koch-affiliated nonprofit organizations, outdoing total net spending amounts of $524.9 million in 2019 and $639.4 million in 2020. These net totals account for expenditures between the groups, without double counting.

In this three-year period, Koch groups that are primarily focused on influencing American policy and politics accounted for more than 93% of the spending. Only 6% came from Koch foundations that predominantly support genuinely charitable causes—those that do not explicitly align with Charles Koch’s own economic interests or ideological policy goals.

An examination of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Federal Elections Commission (FEC) filings compiled by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) indicates that gross expenditures by Koch-controlled political and policy-focused organizations totaled $2.1 billion in the past three years of available records compared to $138 million in gross expenditures during the same period by organizations primary focused on charitable giving.

In 2021, the most recent year of IRS filings available, spending by groups CMD categorizes as charitable plummeted to a new low, accounting for only 4.4% of Koch’s overall nonprofit expenditures....

[table]

koch’s fleet continues to expand as well. Last year, staff members at Charles Koch’s organization Stand Together Chamber of Commerce founded a new 501(c)(4) organization called the Stand Together C4 Fund.

According to its IRS tax-exemption application, the new fund expected to raise $96 million and spend $78.2 million in the final quarter of 2022. The filing estimated that it would continue to raise between $90 and $100 million in both 2023 and 2024, and spend over $80 million each year.

Even before the advent of the Stand Together C4 Fund, Koch’s organizations continued to expand significantly. At the close of 2021, organizations that are ultimately under Charles Koch’s control had combined assets of $4.1 billion. This represents an increase of $1 billion over the previous year, and an increase of $2.7 billion since late 2019.

This marked expansion of Koch-controlled nonprofit organizations indicates that they are being positioned to be ever more major players in the realms of politics and policy.

Methodology

Revenue, Expenditure, and Asset Totals...

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https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/08/30/charles-kochs-shape-shifting-influence-machine/

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charles Koch is unique among corporate CEOs. He controls a multibillion-dollar fleet of nonprofits that he and other wealthy business people have built into a massive influence machine over the past 20 years. This enables the Koch network to make a significant impact on U.S. courts, politics, and media, regardless of who is in the White House.

This year, Charles Koch’s political influence apparatus is undergoing yet another round of restructuring, following its recent financial growth, expansion of organizations, and new dark money grantmaking arrangements.

The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) recently reported on the network’s ballooning revenues of $2.2 billion in 2020, the emergence of Chase Koch’s CCKC4 as a potentially major player on the U.S. political scene, and its use of the National Philanthropic Trust to hide its financial transactions.

Frequent shifts in structure often correspond with election cycles. The changes help keep Koch’s dark money organizational structure opaque, especially since IRS disclosure requirements are so antiquated that they lag behind real time by a year or more.

Most of Charles Koch’s advocacy and political organizations have operated under the Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, as of 2020, while the Charles Koch Institute (CKI) controlled most of the Koch funding vehicles. Several organizations in this Stand Together “family” have recently changed roles or started operating using trade names that differ from their legal names.

[docs]

:{:{}:

Table with 7 columns and 47 rows. Currently displaying rows 1 to 20.

Organization Name EIN/FEC # Status (2020) Type of Org Year Est. Prior Legal Names Trade Names

Americans For Prosperity 75-3148958 Active 501(c)(4) 2004 Concerned Veterans for America (2017 - present)

The Libre Initiative (2017 - present)

Generation Opportunity (2017)

Americans For Prosperity Action, Inc. (AFP Action) C00687103 Active Super PAC 2018 CVA Action (2017 - present)

Libre Action (2017 - present)

Americans For Prosperity Foundation 52-1527294 Active 501(c)(3) 1988 Citizens for a Sound Economy Educational Foundation (1988 - 2002) Concerned Veterans for American Foundation (2018 - present)

The Libre Initiative Institute (2018 - present)

Bill of Rights Institute 48-0891418 Active 501(c)(3) 1980

Capitol Leaders, Inc. 47-3438079 Active 501(c)(3) 2015 Freedom Partners Institute Inc. (2015 - 2016)

Cause of Action Institute 45-2805977 Active 501(c)(3) 2011

CCKC4, Inc. 83-3116152 Active 501(c)(4) 2018

Charles Koch Charitable Fund 85-4058882 Active 501(c)(3) 2020

Charles Koch Foundation 48-0918408 Active 501(c)(3) 1980 Charles G Koch Charitable Foundation (1980 - 2011)

Charles Koch Institute 27-4967732 Active 501(c)(3) 2011 Stand Together Fellowships (2022)

Chase Koch Foundation, Inc. 83-1697305 Active 501(c)(3) 2018 Chase and Annie Koch Foundation, Inc.

David H Koch Charitable Foundation 48-0926946 Active 501(c)(3) 1981

Institute for Humane Studies 94-1623852 Active 501(c)(3) 1985

John Quincy Adams Society 81-3308969 Active 501(c)(3) 2016

Knowledge & Progress Fund, Inc. 54-1899251 Active 501(c)(3) 1998

Koch Cultural Trust 48-0989992 Active 501(c)(3) 1986

:{:{}:

Organization Name EIN/FEC # Status (2020) Type of Org Year Est. Prior Legal Names Trade Names

Koch Family Foundation 48-6113560 Active 501(c)(3) 1955 Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, Inc. (1953 - 2018)

Mercatus Center, Inc. 54-1436224 Active 501(c)(3) 1988 Center for the Study of Market Processes (1978 - 1999)

Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, Inc. 45-3732750 Active 501(c)(6) 2011 The Seminar Network Chamber of Commerce, Inc. (2018)

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, Inc. (2014 - 2017)

Association for American Innovation, Inc. (2011 - 2013)

Stand Together Foundation 27-3197768 Active 501(c)(3) 2010 Stand Together, Inc. (2016 - 2018)

Public Notice Research and Education Fund, Inc. (2010 - 2015)

The Seminar Network, Inc. 46-3508366 Active 501(c)(3) 2013 Concerned Veterans for America, Inc. (2013 - 2015) Stand Together Trust (2019 - present)

The Seminar Network Trust (2018)

TSN Institute 47-3175931 Active 501(c)(4) 2014 CKI Policy, Inc. (2018)

Freedom C4, Inc. (2015 - 2017)

Stand Together, Inc. (2014)

Vela Education Fund 84-4185046 Active 501(c)(3) 2020

Yes Every Kid Foundation 84-3535275 Active 501(c)(3) 2019

Yes Every Kid, Inc. 83-3028208 Active 501(c)(4) 2019

Youth Entrepreneurs, Inc. 48-1187886 Active 501(c)(3) 2014 Youth Entrepreneurs Of Kansas, Inc. (2014 - 2016) Empowered, Inc. (2022)

Center for Shared Services Trust 45-2548548 Terminated 501(c)(4) 2011

Claude R Lambe Foundation 48-0935563 Terminated 501(c)(3) Pre-1986

Freedom Partners Action Fund C00564765 Terminated Super PAC 2014

Fueling U.S. Forward Inc. 47-5486414 Terminated 501(c)(6) 2016

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Fueling US Forward Institute 46-2346050 Terminated 501(c)(3) 2013 Generation Opportunity Institute, Inc. (2013 - 2016)

LIBRE Initiative Institute, Inc. 45-4123383 Terminated 501(c)(3) 2011

LIBRE Initiative Trust 45-2686411 Terminated 501(c)(4) 2011

Market Based Management Institute 20-3669097 Terminated 501(c)(3) 2005

SG C4 Trust 27-2546536 Terminated 501(c)(4) 2010

Vets for Economic Freedom Trust 45-3593119 Terminated 501(c)(4) 2011 Concerned Veterans for America

YEM Trust 27-2936085 Terminated 501(c)(4) 2010 Generation Opportunity

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as part of the reorganization, CKI has moved its policy grantmaking operations into the 501(c)(3) Stand Together Trust and its educational programs into Stand Together Fellowships. As of 2020 (the most recently available IRS disclosures), Stand Together Trust was already increasing its role in financing groups that influence public policy. Formerly known as the Seminar Network, Inc., the Stand Together Trust slowly began granting funds to universities and policy-focused nonprofits in 2017.

:{:{}:

Historically, the Charles Koch Foundation (CKF) had been the largest grantmaking organization controlled by the Koch family, funding climate change deniers and other organizations that influence state and federal policy. In fact, CKF and CKI have been the two largest Koch-controlled nonprofits for most of the past decade, with assets of $462 million and $364 million, respectively, at the end of 2020.

In 2020, CKF focused most of its funding on university programs, which are key to Charles Koch's strategy of manufacturing long-term policy changes. That same year, much of his politically oriented grantmaking shifted from CKF to CKI.

Stand Together Communications Replaces "In Pursuit Of"

Stand Together Communications LLC is the Koch network's for-profit public relations agency. It was previously named In Pursuit Of, which discontinued its website in 2021. The staff at In Pursuit Of shifted into positions at Stand Together Communications, according to LinkedIn profiles.

Stand Together Communications received at least $38.4 million from the Stand Together Chamber, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), Americans for Prosperity Foundation, and Stand Together Foundation in 2020.

...

additionally, Stand Together Communications (listed as In Pursuit Of) received over $3 million from AFP Action, a Koch-controlled super PAC, during the 2018 and 2020 election cycles.

This shift of marketing operations to Stand Together Communications might also explain the apparent closure of G-P Studios, a media company affiliated with the Koch Industries subsidiary Georgia-Pacific. The G-P Studios website went dark in early 2022.

Youth Entrepreneurs Now Operates as "Empowered"

This year Youth Entrepreneurs, which was founded by Charles Koch and his wife Elizabeth in 1991 to give high school students business experience, has rebranded itself "Empowered."

The organization's new website and magazine share a vision of "building a community of change-making teachers rallied around the growth mindset." Favorite Koch buzzwords, like "value creation" and the idea that free markets are key to "well-being," remain central to Empowered's messaging.

The longstanding focus of Empowered has been on student training programs and curricula. Archives of the Youth Entrepreneurs website show that its programs involved vetting and grooming teachers, and offering paid incentives for participating students:

A successful YE [Youth Entrepreneurs] teacher is an inspirational motivator and entrepreneurial thinker. We can assist the district to observe teaching styles and select the best fit for our nontraditional teaching style. [...]

YE is traditionally taught as a yearlong high school elective course by teachers who have been trained on our curriculum. We offer students and alumni the opportunity to earn money for business, education or personal development purposes by participating in continuing education opportunities through YE Academy.

Recent examples of the Koch family's manipulation of education include lesson plans created several years ago by the Koch-controlled Bill of Rights Institute that whitewashed the history of slavery in the U.S. Many Koch-funded organizations have also contributed to the manufactured hysteria over the influence of critical race theory.

Koch-funded professors have authored economics textbooks that include inaccurate information related to climate change, while others in Koch-funded economics departments have taught outright denial of climate change—venturing into a scientific discipline well outside their own areas of expertise.

Stand Together Ventures Lab, STVL3, and STVL6

Another new group is Stand Together Ventures Lab (STV Lab), a for-profit operation that invests in business start-ups and helps them get established.

STV Lab works in conjunction with two limited liability companies (LLCs) disclosed in IRS tax filings of Koch-controlled organizations: STVL3, LLC and STVL6, LLC, that provide capital for the start-ups. According to its website, STV Lab is "not affiliated" with Stand Together Ventures, another Koch-run outfit that works "to supercharge organizations who innovate and disrupt the status quo" around issues like education and "cronyism in government and business."

Stand Together Chamber of Commerce Controls Koch Advocacy

Although the network of Koch-controlled groups has been renamed multiple times, a single brand name is often used to refer to multiple organizations.

Since 2011, a 501(c)(6) business league has served as the umbrella organization at the top of this network structure. That group is now known as the Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, after a 2019 rebranding. Many of Charles Koch's advocacy groups report to the IRS that the Stand Together Chamber is their "direct controlling entity," as detailed in the table below.

[docs]

control structure

Table with 2 columns and 49 rows. Currently displaying rows 1 to 20.

Organization Name Direct Controlled Entities

American Strategies Group, LLC CAVHOCO, Inc. (C-Corp)

Americans For Prosperity PRDIST, LLC

Americans For Prosperity Foundation Americans For Prosperity

CAVHOCO, Inc. (C-Corp) DBLDBL, Inc. (C-Corp)

KNSLT, Inc. (C-Corp)

THOCO (C-Corp)

Charles Koch Foundation STVL3, LLC

EFPRP Investments, LLC

VAPOR Investments, LLC

VAPOR II Investments, LLC

Non-Profit 1888 Management Fund, LLC

John Quincy Adams Society

Charles Koch Institute Charles Koch Foundation

Charles Koch Charitable Fund

Chase Koch Foundation, Inc.

Stand Together Foundation

TSN Institute

Stand Together Trust

CCKC4, Inc.

Web Media, LLC

:{:{}:

when it was founded in 2011, theStand Together Chamber was briefly known as the Association for American Innovation. The group became the central fundraising nonprofit for the Koch brothers' annual gathering of ultra-rich donors and political operatives, which dates back to 2003.

In late 2011, as the 2012 presidential election loomed, the organization rebranded itself Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce. It continued to operate under this name until the 2018 midterm election cycle, when it was renamed The Seminar Network Chamber of Commerce. Just prior to the 2020 presidential election cycle, the organization adopted its current title, the Stand Together Chamber of Commerce.

During each of these rebrands, the network of organizations controlled by Charles Koch used colloquial names similar to the shifting names of the 501(c)(6) organization. The network was known as Freedom Partners, and then, The Seminar Network. Now, as part of the latest marketing effort, most of these groups have adopted the deceptively progressive-sounding Stand Together brand.

For example, several organizations and LLCs under the Koch umbrella also use the Stand Together brand, including the 501(c)(4) Stand Together Trust, and LLCs like Stand Together Communications and Stand Together Shared Services.

A short-lived super PAC named Stand Together PAC operated briefly from 2020–22 but was administratively terminated by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in March when it failed to file an end-of-year report.

To confuse matters, at least one Koch organization continued to operate in 2020 using an abandoned brand name: TSN Institute, an abbreviation of "The Seminar Network Institute." TSN Institute appeared to be in the process of draining its assets.

Most of these groups and companies are not differentiated to the public, though the distinctions are made clear in their respective tax filings.

Americans for Prosperity, the LIBRE Initiative, and Concerned Veterans for America

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the most recognizable brand controlled by the Stand Together Chamber. AFP is the 501(c)(4) political arm of its sister organization, the 501(c)(3) Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which was long overseen by its founding chairman, the late David Koch.

Other Koch-controlled campaigning brands like the LIBRE Initiative and Concerned Veterans for America used to be distinct nonprofit organizations. Now they are simply registered with the Virginia Corporation Commission as "fictitious names" for AFP, the AFP Foundation, and AFP Action, a super PAC regulated by the FEC.

...[doc]

FP Action Super PAC

Since AFP launched the super PAC AFP Action in 2018, it has spent tens of millions of dollars on independent expenditures and electioneering, including advertising and door-to-door canvassing. AFP Action replaced the Koch brothers' previous super PAC, Freedom Partners Action Fund, which shuttered in August 2019 after its remaining funds were transferred to AFP Action.

As with Americans for Prosperity and the AFP Foundation, AFP Action acts as the super PAC for Concerned Veterans for America and the LIBRE Initiative. AFP Action’s FEC profile lists its alternative business names as CVA Action and LIBRE Action.

Mapping the Koch-Controlled Network

The visual below depicts the structure of Koch's nonprofit organizations since the most recently known changes, along with the companies and family trusts controlled by the Koch family (excluding most of the dozens of subsidiaries of Koch Industries).

Source material includes Schedules L, O, and R of these organizations' IRS 990 filings; business registries in Delaware, Kansas, and Virginia; the Stand Together website; and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.

Given the need to rely on a patchwork of insufficient disclosures, this is likely a partial and outdated representation. The visual includes LLCs that are not discussed in this article. It is unclear if the many other LLCs in the Koch sphere formally interact with Koch-controlled policy and political nonprofits.

[very good grfx DL 922]

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no lnx

Charles Koch’s Shape-Shifting Influence Machine

By Connor Gibson | August 30th, 2022

Climate, Democracy, Economy, Environment, Featured Investigations, Koch, News

Charles Koch is unique among corporate CEOs. He controls a multibillion-dollar fleet of nonprofits that he and other wealthy business people have built into a massive influence machine over the past 20 years. This enables the Koch network to make a significant impact on U.S. courts, politics, and media, regardless of who is in the White House.

:{:{}:

Most of Charles Koch’s advocacy and political organizations have operated under the Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, as of 2020, while the Charles Koch Institute (CKI) controlled most of the Koch funding vehicles. Several organizations in this Stand Together “family” have recently changed roles or started operating using trade names that differ from their legal names.

:{:{}:

Charles Koch Institute Now Operates as “Stand Together Fellowships”

As of this year, the Charles Koch Institute has officially rebranded itself as Stand Together Fellowships, which operates Koch's long-standing internship and fellowship programs. According to the Virginia Corporation Commission, Stand Together Fellowships is a "fictitious name" for CKI adopted as of December 20, 2021.

:{:{}:

As part of the reorganization, CKI has moved its policy grantmaking operations into the 501(c)(3) Stand Together Trust and its educational programs into Stand Together Fellowships. As of 2020 (the most recently available IRS disclosures), Stand Together Trust was already increasing its role in financing groups that influence public policy. Formerly known as the Seminar Network, Inc., the Stand Together Trust slowly began granting funds to universities and policy-focused nonprofits in 2017.

:{:{}:

Stand Together Communications Replaces "In Pursuit Of"

:{:{}:

Additionally, Stand Together Communications (listed as In Pursuit Of) received over $3 million from AFP Action, a Koch-controlled super PAC, during the 2018 and 2020 election cycles.

:{:{}:

Youth Entrepreneurs Now Operates as "Empowered"

This year Youth Entrepreneurs, which was founded by Charles Koch and his wife Elizabeth in 1991 to give high school students business experience, has rebranded itself "Empowered."

:{:{}:

A successful YE [Youth Entrepreneurs] teacher is an inspirational motivator and entrepreneurial thinker. We can assist the district to observe teaching styles and select the best fit for our nontraditional teaching style. [...]

:{:{}:

YE is traditionally taught as a yearlong high school elective course by teachers who have been trained on our curriculum. We offer students and alumni the opportunity to earn money for business, education or personal development purposes by participating in continuing education opportunities through YE Academy.

:{:{}:

Stand Together Ventures Lab, STVL3, and STVL6

Another new group is Stand Together Ventures Lab (STV Lab), a for-profit operation that invests in business start-ups and helps them get established.

:{:{}:

Stand Together Chamber of Commerce Controls Koch Advocacy

Although the network of Koch-controlled groups has been renamed multiple times, a single brand name is often used to refer to multiple organizations.

:{:{}:

When it was founded in 2011, the Stand Together Chamber was briefly known as the Association for American Innovation. The group became the central fundraising nonprofit for the Koch brothers' annual gathering of ultra-rich donors and political operatives, which dates back to 2003.

:{:{}:

Most of these groups and companies are not differentiated to the public, though the distinctions are made clear in their respective tax filings.

:{:{}:

Americans for Prosperity, the LIBRE Initiative, and Concerned Veterans for America

:{:{}:

AFP Action Super PAC

:{:{}:

Mapping the Koch-Controlled Network

:{:{}:

About Connor Gibson

:{:{}:

All articles by Connor Gibson

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https://grassrootbeer.substack.com/

Police are Lobbying for State Anti-Protest Bills

Police officers, unions and lobbyists are supporting a trend of political backlash to racial justice advocates in at least 14 states this year.

Connor Gibson

“Peaceful does not mean Docile.”

Widespread opposition to Montana's fossil fuel anti-protest bill, HB 481, is being ignored by the state's Republican-controlled legislature.

Connor Gibson Apr 27, 2021

A Montana Politician Falsely Accused DAPL Opponents of Using "Pipe Bombs"

Rep. Steve Gunderson justified his anti-protest bill using misinformation. Groups representing TransCanada, Enbridge, and ExxonMobil support HB 481.

Connor Gibson Apr 6, 2021

A refinery lobbyist told Kansas legislators that his anti-protest bill has "nothing to do with protest."

A recording of his colleagues saying the opposite was published in 2019.

Connor Gibson Mar 18, 2021

Felonies Ho! Pipeline Pirates of ARGHkansas have Come for Ye Rights.

HB 1321 could mean six years in prison and $10,000 fines, just for stepping onto fossil fuel property.

Connor Gibson Feb 1, 2021

John Stossel is Rolling in Koch Money

The former primetime TV star received $1.5 million in Koch contracts from 2017-2019. He cranks out content that reflects Charles Koch's priorities.

Connor Gibson Dec 22, 2020

Grassrootbeer Investigations

Fresh-brewed, with offbeat optimism.

Connor Gibson Dec 13, 2020

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https://grassrootbeer.substack.com/

i've been corresponding with lawyers from Koch Industries and the Stand Together Chamber of Commerce in recent weeks, as they answer my requests for IRS tax filings from organizations controlled by Charles Koch.

Beyond the dizzying complexity of how these 50+ organizations and companies are structured, there’s one tidbit in particular that caught my eye:

John Stossel is one of Charles Koch’s top contractors.

Each year since 2017, John Stossel’s company, JFS Productions, received a half million dollars to do media contract work for the Charles Koch Institute.

From 2017-2019, Koch payments to JFS Productions total $1,541,715.

These screenshots link to the source documents:

2019:

2018:

2017:

New York’s business registry lists the address of “John Stossel, Inc.” as affiliated with JFS Productions.

John Stossel’s written opinion columns often list “JFS Productions” at the bottom.

(JFS = John Frank Stossel.)

These consulting payments are in addition to $397,688 from Charles Koch’s foundations to John Stossel’s nonprofit, the Center for Independent Thought (CIT), from 2007-2019, including a $72,688 payment disclosed in the 2019 Charles Koch Foundation 990.

The 2019 IRS 990s for the Charles Koch Institute and Charles Koch Foundation were first published by David Armiak at the Center for Media and Democracy in late November.

John Stossel shifts into Koch career

John Stossel used to be a primetime TV host, on ABC’s 20/20. He sometimes made his colleagues uncomfortable when he blurred the lines between journalism and opinionated punditry. He liked to interview children for his segments, landing him in hot water when parents accused him of manipulating their kids in order to dismiss environmental concerns.

Stossel moved from ABC to the FOX Business Network in 2009.At FOX, Stossel continued to attack the validity of environmental problems.

He hosted anti-environmental “experts,” like The Heartland Institute’s Jay Lehr, who accused the US. Environmental Protection Agency of its “fraudulent” efforts to assert that air pollution still kills people. Nobody disclosed that Lehr spent three months in prison for defrauding the EPA.

In 2016, Stossel left FOX for new ventures, including with the Charles Koch Institute’s journalism fellowship program. Stossel continued to produce reassuring, paternalistic political videos on YouTube, called Stossel TV, via the Center for Independent Thought (CIT).

Stossel also took on a role atReasonTV through the Reason Foundation. Reason counted the late David Koch as a trustee for many years, until shortly before Koch’s death in August, 2019.

The Reason Foundation has received $3,927,322 from Koch foundations since 1997,including $9,813 from the Charles Koch Foundation (see p. 55 and p. 59) and $31,750 from the Charles Koch Institute in 2019.

But it’s the Koch Institute’s direct contracts with JFS Productions that indicate how Charles Koch’s wealth is a major factor in John Stossel’s post-TV career.

JFS Productions Praise for Koch

JFS Productions is responsible for Stossel’s written opinion columns that are printed in outlets all over the country. He has used his platform to defend the Koch brand, including this article from January, 2017, the year that the Charles Koch Institute began reporting half-million-dollar payments to JFS Productions.

Stossel was at it before that, too. “I wish the Kochs spent more on politics,” he said in a JFS Productions syndicated commentary from 2015, which was published by FOX News.

These are big contracts. Nonprofits filing 990s with the IRS are only required to list the top five contractors, and only for payments exceeding $50,000.

If JFS Productions wasn’t among the top five contractors in previous years, then no disclosure was required. And if Koch Industries pays John Stossel directly, that information is not disclosed.

Koch Industries, Climate, and Stossel

John Stossel lists problems he claims were overblown, in introduction to a Stossel TV clip titled “Are We Doomed?” 2019.

Knowing that Stossel is directly contracting for the Charles Koch Institute puts some of his work into a new context.

Koch Industries is defending itself in a Minnesota district court after MN Attorney General Keith Ellison named Koch in a lawsuit against oil companies that he says misled the public on matters of climate change science.

John Stossel has been a consistent critic of climate scientists and advocates for policy solutions to climate change.

Any climate policy rooted in science means reducing fossil fuel consumption quickly and dramatically. Rather than accept the nuanced conclusions of 97% of peer-reviewed research from thousands of scientists from numerous countries and institutions have determined, Stossel features simplistic and contradictory opinions of a handful of people who tend to work at Koch-funded organizations.

In November, 2019, John Stossel wrote an article on “Climate Myths” featuring two scientists who have admitted to taking money from fossil fuel companies.

Patrick Michaels is one of those people. Michaels has been paid by fossil fuel companies and downplaying climate change for longer than I have been walking.

For most of his recent career, Michaels worked at the Cato Institute. Cato was founded by Charles Koch, and it remains governed in part by a prominent Koch Industries alumna.

Koch foundations have provided Cato with $16,510,861 in funding since 1997, including 11 payments totaling $2,391,093 from the Charles Koch Foundation in 2019, and $26,000 from the Charles Koch Institute in 2019.

Stossel’s “Climate Myths” article was published six months after Michaels was pushed out of Cato, but Michaels was a repeat guest on Stossel’s various television and video programs during his Cato years. Michaels now holds fellowships at the Koch-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Koch-funded CO2 Coalition.

Stossel’s 2019 column and video also featured Willie Soon, whose expertise apparently ranges from astrophysical solar variability, to polar bear biology, to mercury pollution and public health.

The common theme for Dr. Soon’s sprawling scientific expertise seems to be that his research always concludes that climate change and pollution are not concerning. That research tends to be funded by fossil fuel interests, including Charles Koch, ExxonMobil, Southern Company, and pass-through piggy banks used to keep donors anonymous.

The 2019 “Climate Myths” column accompanied a Stossel TV video on YouTube called “Are We Doomed?” The clip attempts to undermine climate change science and questions celebrity climate advocates, likeGreta Thunberg and Al Gore. Stossel’s counter-experts included the usual suspects, Patrick Michaels, Willie Soon, and David Legates.

[Soon, Michaels, and Legates, in Stossel TV’s 2019 video, “Are We Doomed?”]

Stossel continues to produce anti-climate columns and videos.

Just last month—November, 2020—Stossel did another column and video segment, promoting a climate denial “documentary” created by the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), which occasionally receives Charles Koch’s money.

And back in August, 2020, Stossel did a video called“Thank You, Fossil Fuels,” packaged with a written column that attacked the concept of “environmental racism,” following widespread racial justice protests over George Floyd’s disturbing murder by Minneapolis police.

Koch Industries owns dozens of polluting facilities located near communities that are disproportionately inhabited by people of color.

The 2020 video featured yet another spokesperson at yet another Koch-funded organization, Robert Bryce of the Manhattan Institute, which has received $3,352,537 from Koch foundations since 1997, including a $100,000 grant in 2019.

Now, the key question is:

What exactly is being produced by JFS Productions for the Charles Koch Institute?

This is my first research post for Grassrootbeer Investigations. Thanks for reading!

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