The Democracy Alliance is a collective of left-of-center donors that has been active in orchestrating “the activities of a permanent ‘left infrastructure’” since 2004.[1] The organization, the brainchild of Democratic consultant Rob Stein, was established as “a taxable nonprofit” corporation and is not a 501(c) organization.[2] The group was not created to “dole out money itself,” [3] rather it was meant to operate more as an “exclusive collective”[4] of “partners,” billionaires and millionaires (and later, organizations) committed to providing at least $200,000 per year to left-of-center organizations. Billionaire financier George Soros and late Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis are the most notable Democracy Alliance donors, but the list of Democracy Alliance partners includes many “of the biggest names in liberal politics.”[5]
In 2014, the Democracy Alliance recommended that its partners provide a total of “$39.3 million to 20 organizations.” [6] Currently the group recommends 32 organizations for funding as well as seven “state funds,” which are nonprofits run by Democracy Alliance staff but under the auspices of other 501(c) nonprofits.
Since the group’s formation in 2005, the Democracy Alliance has “steer[ed] more than than $600 million. . . to a portfolio of carefully selected groups, including pillars of the Clinton-aligned establishments like the think tank Center for American Progress and the media watchdog Media Matters.”[7]
According to documents obtained by The Washington Free Beacon in 2019, “the Democracy Alliance’s partners have infused $1.83 billion into the left since its inception.”[8]
The Democracy Alliance has faced numerous criticisms that focus on the hypocrisy of the organization. “Many of the donors and operatives” of the Democracy Alliance decry so-called “dark money” and “support measures to reduce the role of money in politics” and yet “they are nonetheless active participants.”[9]
