Fake news Fox6 completely glosses over where the grant is coming from.
Center for Secure and Modern Elections (CSME)
Parent Organization: New Venture Fund (NVF)
The Center for Secure and Modern Elections (CSME) is a left-of-center advocacy organization created as a project of the New Venture Fund, a leading “dark money” pass-through funder and fiscal sponsor, to promote sweeping changes to the elections process, including state laws that automatically register voters at state agencies. [1] [2] CSME Action, the group’s lobbying arm, is a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the 501(c)(4) “sister” nonprofit to the New Venture Fund.
The Center for Secure and Modern Elections represents itself as a bipartisan organization, but is funded primarily by left-of-center donors. [3] Its parent organization, the New Venture Fund, is part of a $731 million nonprofit network run by the consulting firm Arabella Advisors in Washington, DC. The New Venture Fund has been criticized by the New York Times for its “system of political financing, which often obscures the identities of donors,” as “dark money,” calling the network “a leading vehicle for it on the Left.” [4] Right-leaning critics have called it a major “dark money outfit” that serves as a way for left-leaning groups to anonymously funnel money toward various advocacy issues. [5]
The Center for Secure and Modern Elections primarily engages in advocacy and lobbying for “automatic voter registration” (AVR) laws that would automatically register eligible individuals to vote when they acquire or renew a driver’s license, apply for social services, or otherwise interact with a state government agency. The Center for Secure and Modern Elections has also opposed legislation intended to reduce voter fraud in Texas. [6]
CSME is closely connected with another left-of-center elections advocacy group, the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), which was criticized by liberal and conservative commentators for distributing $350 million in grants from billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to hundreds of county and city elections offices in the months leading up to the 2020 election. [7] [8] Critics allege that CTCL’s private funding of elections aided Democratic presidential nominee Joseph Biden in defeating incumbent President Donald Trump, largely by targeting key Democratic cities in swing states critical to the election outcome. [9]
Both CTCL and New Venture Fund (in its capacity as the parent organization of CSME) were sued by the Louisiana Attorney General in October 2020 for unlawfully interfering in the state’s 2020 election, “to prevent the injection of unregulated private money into the Louisiana election system,” identifying 13 parishes which were targeted for CTCL grants exceeding $500,000 per parish. [10] A state judge ruled against the state on October 26, 2020, on the grounds that the Attorney General’s office had “no cause of action” for the lawsuit. [11]
New Venture Fund (NVF)
Parent Organization: Arabella Advisors
The New Venture Fund (NVF) is a 501(c)(3) funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit that makes grants to left-of-center advocacy and organizing projects and provides incubation serves for other left-of-center organizations. The fund focuses primarily on social and environmental change, issuing grants for a variety of projects that include conservation, global health, disaster recovery, education, and the arts. [1] It is the largest 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the network of four nonprofits created and managed by Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based philanthropy consulting company that caters to major foundations and organizations on the political Left. A January 2020 profile of Arabella Advisors’ network by Inside Philanthropy noted that the company “handles over $400 million in philanthropic investments and advises on several billion dollars in overall resources.” [2]
Associated Organizations
Hopewell Fund (Non-profit)
Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation (Non-profit)
Schott Foundation for Public Education (Non-profit)
Sixteen Thirty Fund (1630 Fund) (Non-profit)
Windward Fund (Non-profit)