A dark money group funded by a Swiss billionaire quietly granted tens of millions of dollars in 2021 to other dark money entities allied with President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, tax forms revealed.
The Berger Action Fund, a left-of-center advocacy and lobbying group, is affiliated with the private Wyss Foundation, a group that Democratic megadonor Hansjorg Wyss has bankrolled since 1998, records show. That same fund, which has no legal obligation to disclose donors, steered roughly $72 million in 2021 to dark money nonprofit advocacy organizations that support Biden and boosted Democratic congressional candidates during the 2022 midterm elections cycle, according to its 2021 tax forms.
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“As long as it remains legal, Democrats will tap into dark money, which you obviously are seeing,” Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the left-wing think tank Public Citizen, told the Washington Examiner. “Democrats and nonprofit groups should avoid dark money, as well as setting up super PACs, because I do view that as a contradictory statement of what is right and wrong.”
Democrats, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), have long criticized dark money and been unsuccessful in garnering bipartisan support for legislation that would require groups to disclose donors giving over $10,000 in an election cycle. Still, influential left-wing dark money groups shelled out over $1.5 billion in 2020 to elect Biden as president, whereas GOP-aligned groups spent over $900 million to back Trump.
The Berger Action Fund, which aims to combat “the biodiversity and climate crises, income inequality, and health disparities,” touts on its website that the group has allocated resources to safeguarding policies like the Affordable Care Act, a law signed by former President Barack Obama in 2010 that overhauled private insurance. The fund pulled in almost $358 million in 2021 and granted $72.71 million to 12 groups for “pro-conservation and social welfare advocacy,” tax forms show.
“The Berger Action Fund does not endorse political candidates,” a spokesperson for the fund told the Washington Examiner. “We have strict policies prohibiting our funds from being used for get-out-the-vote activities, voter registration, or supporting or opposing candidates or political parties.”
In 2021, the Berger Action Fund granted $42.4 million to Sixteen Thirty Fund, a group managed by Arabella Advisors, the largest liberal dark money network in the United States. Like other groups in the Arabella network, it does not disclose its donors and fiscally sponsors left-wing groups that, in turn, are not required to file tax forms with the Internal Revenue Service.
Sixteen Thirty Fund doled out $410 million in grants in 2020, much of which helped to support Biden. The fund in 2021 hauled in $191 million and spent $174 million, the Washington Examiner reported. Between February 2021 and December 2022, it also steered over $940 million combined to liberal political action committees, like Open Democracy, which spent over $4.8 million backing Democrats from December 2021 to December 2022, according to campaign finance disclosures.
“Berger’s funding supported advocacy on behalf of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided for environmental progress, investments in our infrastructure, and expanded healthcare access for families,” a spokesperson for Sixteen Thirty Fund told the Washington Examiner.
The spokesperson added: “None of Berger’s funding supported electoral activities. Like other fiscal sponsor organizations, nearly all of the donations we receive are intended for specific projects or purposes and every contribution is used in compliance with all guidelines, regulations, and laws.”
The Berger Action Fund also granted over $20.2 million in 2021 to Fund for a Better Future, a dark money group focused on issues such as climate, election integrity, healthcare, and immigration rights, according to tax forms.
Niki Woodard, a Fund for a Better Future spokeswoman, told the Washington Examiner that money from the action fund and other donors helped it support “organizations advocating for policies that protect the environment, build climate resilience in communities across the nation, improve our country’s critical infrastructure, and preserve healthcare for working families.”
Fund for a Better Future dished out over $34 million in grants in 2021, including $20,000 to the Sixteen Thirty Fund and $4.9 million to Fair Fight Action, a group founded by twice-failed Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams that was ordered in January to pay the Peach State more than $231,000 after losing a lawsuit that alleged Georgia violated voting rights.
In addition, Fund for a Better Future granted over $10.6 million in 2021 to the League of Conservation Voters, a left-leaning environmental group whose advocacy arm endorsed a swath of Democratic House and Senate candidates during the 2022 elections, tax forms show. Biden’s 2020 campaign pocketed over $2.3 million from the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, campaign filings show.
The LCV also happens to be the third highest grantee in 2021 of the Berger Action Fund, raking in over $3.4 million, according to disclosures.
“The Berger Action Fund’s grant supported our long-term efforts to advocate for federal action on the climate crisis and the 30×30 pledge to permanently protect 30% of U.S. lands and oceans by 2030,” David Willett, a spokesman for the LCV, told the Washington Examiner. “We’re proud that our advocacy plays a role in game-changing climate policy and recent land conservation actions in the U.S.”
Other recipients of the Wyss-linked cash in 2021 included the progressive Center for Popular Democracy and the Indivisible Project, which received $665,000 and has come under fire in the past for publishing a guide online that instructed activists on how to pressure members of Congress.
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Since 2016, the Berger Action Fund has contributed $339 million to left-wing nonprofit groups, disclosures show. Meanwhile, Wyss has been accused of violating federal law in the past through his political spending.
The Swiss billionaire may have “indirectly funded federal electoral advocacy through his nonprofit organizations,” since foreign nationals are barred from donating to committees, Americans for Public Trust alleged in a May 2021 complaint to the Federal Election Commission. In April 2022, the conservative watchdog filed a lawsuit against the FEC that alleged it failed to act on the complaint. The case was voluntarily dismissed by Americans for Public Trust in August 2022.
