Tides Foundation

Tides Foundation is a left-leaning donor advised fund based in the United States that manages over $1.4 billion in assets. It was founded in San Francisco in 1976 by Drummond Pike. Tides distributes money from anonymous donors to other organizations, which are often politically progressive. An affiliated group, Tides Advocacy, is a "massive progressive incubator."

History

Tides was founded in 1976 by Drummond Pike, who worked with Jane Bagley Lehman, heir to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company fortune. In the chapter entitled "The Givers" in his 2017 publication by the same name, ''The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age'', which is a more recent edition of his 2010 book, ''Fortunes of Change: The Rise of the Liberal Rich and the Remaking of America'', David Callahan wrote that Pike was an "entrepreneurial activist" and that Pike and his "wealthy friends" teamed up" to create Tides which "used donor-advised funds to direct resources to progressive causes." Callahan, who is the co-founder of the think tank Demos, contrasted this with a similar approach taken by Donors Trust, an American non-profit donor-advised fund that was founded in 1999 to safeguard the "intent of libertarian and conservative donors".

Lehman served as the chair of the organization from its founding to her death in 1988. Tides was conceived as a nationally oriented community foundation, and founded out of Pike's frustration with established philanthropy's perceived neglect of progressive issues. He envisioned using fiscal sponsorship for progressive political activism. Fiscal sponsorship uses a tax-exempt charity to provide financial support to a non-exempt project or organization, therefore lending it tax exemption as long as the charity retains control of the way its funds are spent. He served as its CEO until he was replaced by Melissa L. Bradley in 2010.

Pike founded a Canadian version of the organization, Tides Canada, in 2000. Tides Canada, which is based in Vancouver, makes grants through its foundation and has a charity that supports environmental and social justice projects. In 2020, Tides Canada changed its name to MakeWay.

By 2009, Tides allocated $75 million per year in donor money, most of which went to fund progressive political causes. In 2011, Tides received about $90 million in funding, and awarded about $96 million to various individuals and organizations.

Reception and image

In 2021, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse described the Tides Foundation as an instance of "Democratic dark money", which he said mirrored – and had caught up with – similar organizations exercising covert influence on the Republican side.

In 2024, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation sued the Tides Foundation, saying that Tides had "egregiously mismanaged" more than $33 million in donations earmarked for Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter and Tides had been partners, with the former acting as the fiscal sponsor for the latter while the organization awaited its tax-exempt status. Black Lives Matter ended its partnership with Tides in 2022 and alleges that Tides has refused to transfer millions of dollars that are owed to the group. Black Lives Matter alleges that Tides "is operating as an unregulated financial institution that derives significant financial benefit at the expense of the Black-led organizations it sponsors."

Donations

Organizations that began as projects of Tides include Campaign to Defend the Constitution, Higher Education Recruitment Consortium, People for the American Way, Pew Internet and American Life Project, Rockridge Institute, Social Venture Network, Urgent Action Fund, and V-Day. The Tides website lists 130 current grantees. As Tides is a public charity, it allows sponsors to donate money to different organizations—including for-profit as well as nonprofit entities—through donor-advised funds. Donor-advised funds are funds held in accounts by nonprofit organizations, like Tides, that then make grants to third-party entities on the donor's behalf. Organizations that have partnered with Tides to set up these funds include Girl Rising and the Humble Bundle.

In 2000, Tides launched a program called "Bridging the Economic Divide." It focused on funding living wage campaigns and economic justice coalitions. Tides also launched the Tides Death Penalty Mobilization Fund, which supports the anti-death penalty movement. The Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence was founded with support from Tides.

In 2023, the ''Washington Examiner'', a U.S. conservative news outlet, reported that the Tides Foundation and its affiliate, the Tides Center, had donated over $1 million to anti-Israel groups behind demonstrations pushing for an Israel-Gaza conflict ceasefire and downplaying Palestinian terror in the Middle East.

The ''Washington Free Beacon'' reported that in 2023, the Tides Foundation gave $286,000 to the Alliance for Global Justice, a group best known for serving as the fiscal sponsor of Samidoun. Samidoun has been designated as a terrorist group by Canada and Israel. Samidoun was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in October 2024 and labeled a "sham charity" for providing material support to a Palestinian terrorist organization that participated in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.

In 2024, ''Jewish Insider'' reported that the Tides Foundation had funded a number of organizations involved in anti-Israel protests on college campuses and was "facing scrutiny from the House Ways and Means Committee for serving as a conduit to hide the identity of donors to its grantees." Organizations supported by Tides include Jewish Voice for Peace, the Council on American Islamic Relations, IfNotNow, Code Pink, Palestine Legal, the Adalah Justice Project, and the Westchester County Peace Action Committee, which supports National Students for Justice in Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund contributed nearly $1 million to Tides in 2023, earmarking the majority of it for Palestine Legal and the Adalah Justice Project. The Open Society Foundations, funded by George Soros, contributed $25.8 million to Tides between 2020 and 2021, earmarking some of its donations for pro-Palestinian causes. The Ford Foundation is also a donor to the Tides Foundation.

In May 2024, ''Politico'' reported that the Tides Foundation was "seeded by Democratic megadonor George Soros." ''Politico'' reported that Tides was funding Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus protests and occupations during the Gaza war via its donations to Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow. Jewish Voice for Peace led disruptive protests against President Joe Biden, including shouting "genocide supporter", and blamed the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on "Israeli apartheid and occupation — and United States complicity in that oppression."

Advocacy Fund

Tides is affiliated with the Tides Advocacy Fund (also known as Tides Advocacy), a liberal lobbying group. In the 2012 election cycle, the Advocacy Fund gave $11.5 million to 501(c)(4) organizations, including $2 million to the League of Conservation Voters, $1.8 million to America Votes and $1.3 million to the Center for Community Change. The Advocacy Fund has also supported the environmentally-focused groups Bold Nebraska, National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, NRDC Action Fund, and the Sierra Club.

In 2008, the Advocacy Fund contributed to campaigns opposing Colorado Amendment 46, Colorado Amendment 47, Colorado Amendment 49 and Colorado Amendment 54. The Advocacy Fund distributed $11.8 million in grants in 2013 to groups promoting mass amnesty for illegal immigrants, increased worker protections, chemical safety legal reform, and increased investment in the solar energy industry.

Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization which manages Wikipedia, has worked with the Tides Foundation since 2016. The multimillion-dollar Wikimedia Endowment was created in 2016 to support the Wikimedia projects, and is managed by Tides. In 2019, Wikimedia's incoming general counsel, Amanda Keton, had previously served as the general counsel of the Tides Network, the head of Tides Foundation, and the CEO of Tides Advocacy. In 2020, Wikimedia established a $4.5M donor-advised fund, the Wikimedia Foundation Knowledge Equity Fund, at Tides Advocacy.

See also

* United States Agency for International Development
* 2010 Oakland freeway shootout
* George Soros
* Open Society Foundations
* Thoreau Center for Sustainability
* Black Lives Matter

References

Further reading

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External links

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{{Authority control

1976 establishments in California
Charities based in California
Fiscal sponsorship organizations
Non-profit organizations based in New York City
Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco
Organizations established in 1976
Progressive organizations in the United States
Wikimedia Foundation
Left-wing organizations in the United States