Arabella Advisors Network

Arabella Advisors is a for-profit consulting firm that manages the largest dark money network in American politics — a constellation of nonprofit 'fiscal sponsors' that collectively channel over $1 billion annually to progressive causes. Founded in 2005 by Eric Kessler, a former Clinton administration official, Arabella manages four primary nonprofit entities: the Sixteen Thirty Fund (501(c)(4) political advocacy), the New Venture Fund (501(c)(3) charitable projects), the Windward Fund (environmental advocacy), and the Hopewell Fund (health and education). These entities serve as fiscal sponsors — meaning they create and house hundreds of 'pop-up' groups that appear to be independent organizations but are actually projects operating under the fiscal sponsor's tax-exempt status. This mechanism allows donors to fund what looks like a grassroots movement but is actually a centrally coordinated campaign. For example, during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, Arabella-managed groups like Demand Justice and Fix the Court appeared to be independent advocacy organizations but were projects of the Sixteen Thirty Fund and New Venture Fund respectively. The fiscal sponsorship model provides multiple layers of anonymity: donors give to the fiscal sponsor, which is not required to disclose contributors; the fiscal sponsor then funds its housed projects, which have no independent legal existence and file no separate tax returns. Arabella Advisors itself takes a management fee (reportedly 8-15% of funds managed) for providing this infrastructure. The network has been particularly effective in judicial confirmation fights, ballot measure campaigns, and climate advocacy. Conservative critics have dubbed it the 'dark money hydra' of the left. Arabella's annual revenue across its managed nonprofits has exceeded $1.7 billion in recent years, making it larger than the Democratic National Committee and comparable to the Koch network in scale. Despite this massive footprint, Arabella Advisors itself maintains an extremely low public profile — it has no public website for its consulting operations and its executives rarely give interviews.