The IRS filing for DonorsTrust, obtained by the Washington Examiner, provides the most up-to-date financial accounting for a charity that has established itself as an important vehicle for right-leaning donors. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, the charity offers donor-advised funds, which allow donors, such as those who are politically minded, as well as the wealthy and well connected, to help support causes anonymously under lax federal disclosure laws and receive tax breaks for their charitable giving.

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, DonorsTrust CEO and President Lawson Bader hailed the record-breaking sum and touted the group’s focus on ensuring donations go to groups that reflect the political and philosophical interests of the right-leaning donors.

“Today’s account holders are active givers who want to request grants not only to organizations that are in some way defending, promoting or advocating for limited government, personal responsibility and free exchange, but who are also supporting many organizations outside of the public policy space — education, religion, the arts, and medical research,” Bader said. “We ensure that conservatives and libertarians will not have their charitable dollars sequestered or redirected to groups or causes that are counter to their principles.”

Founded in 1999, DonorsTrust is often called the “dark money ATM” of the Right by progressive watchdog groups who, despite their criticism of dark money, benefit immensely from it through their own left-wing funding networks. Nonprofit organizations managed by Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm overseeing a Democratic-aligned funding operation, recently disclosed raising more than $1.3 billion. Groups connected to Arabella and conservative activist Leonard Leo have traded barbs recently, accusing each other of illegal self-enrichment while also denying wrongdoing. On the political side, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats benefited from far more dark money in the 2024 election than Republicans, Federal Election Commission filings show.

At the close of its most recent fiscal year, 2023, DonorsTrust reported having more than $1.2 billion in the bank while pulling in $226 million. The charity has received large transfers over the years from the 85 Fund, a group in the Leo network, among other conservative groups, according to financial disclosures.

In turn, in 2023, $351 million flowed from the coffers of DonorsTrust to other organizations, compared to the $242 million it disbursed in 2022, the latest DonorsTrust tax filing says. DonorsTrust fields funding requests from its account holders and, ultimately, has the final say on where the money goes. In the end, financial disclosures list grants as coming from DonorsTrust, not individual donors or groups who opened accounts, allowing parties to retain anonymity under IRS rules long celebrated by Republicans for facilitating free speech rights. To many on the Left, the rules allow billionaires to influence the political system quietly without public accountability.

Last year, DonorsTrust granted over $100 million to influential right-leaning think tanks, activist groups, and legal organizations shaping political discourse in conservative and libertarian circles, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of financial disclosures.

The State Policy Network, a national coalition of conservative and libertarian think tanks focused on shaping policy at the state level, received over $10.5 million from DonorsTrust in 2023 — making it one of the largest beneficiaries of the donor-advised fund. Bader, DonorsTrust’s president and CEO, serves on the board of directors for the State Policy Network, which said in its 2023 annual report that it supported expanding school choice, cutting taxes, and deregulation.

The Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, the Acton Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Manhattan Institute, among other think tanks, collectively brought in tens of millions of dollars in grants from DonorsTrust.

A constellation of legal groups, such as Alliance Defending Freedom, the America First Legal Foundation, and the Pacific Legal Foundation, also counted on funding from DonorsTrust as they zeroed in on cases involving free speech, religious liberty, and, as a whole, fought the Biden-Harris administration’s agenda.

The Federalist Society, which counts Leo as its co-chairman, received more than $5.1 million from DonorsTrust.

“With millions of dollars in their war chest, they continue to bankroll the conservative movement to remake America,” Caroline Ciccone, the president of a left-wing group called Accountable.US, said of DonorsTrust. Accountable.US was formed under the New Venture Fund, a charity managed by Arabella Advisors in Washington, D.C.

Bader said a third of DonorsTrust’s grants are directed to groups outside of the public policy space involved in education, religion, the arts, and medical research. In 2023, DonorsTrust directed well over $20 million in donations to public and private universities in the United States, including the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., George Mason University, Texas A&M University, and Johns Hopkins University.

DonorsTrust also served as an important source of funding for churches, synagogues, and other religious organizations across the country — disbursing tens of millions of dollars to this cohort in 2023. The Legion of Christ, an organization of Catholic clergy, received $25 million.

The largest single donation made by DonorsTrust in 2023, $100.6 million, was to the Dechomai Asset Trust — another donor-advised fund.

Bader, the DonorsTrust CEO, told the Washington Examiner that the purpose of his group is “to preserve donor intent for certain types of givers, and to ensure that certain kinds of public charities are being funded.”

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The median account size at DonorsTrust is $19,000, Bader said, noting that donor-advised funds “are available to any giver from the socioeconomic scale.” Therefore, Bader said, the majority of DonorTrust’s account holders are not necessarily wealthy. 

But, Bader added, “they are very, very generous.”