The State And Local Governments Funding Political Activism

Earlier this year, Elon Musk stated that George Soros had “hacked the system” by getting the government to pay into the nonprofits that he created, so the government was effectively subsidizing Soros’ activism.

But there is no real evidence that Soros nonprofits got any significant funding from the federal government outside of a handful of grants from agencies like United States Agency for International Development (USAID). And that applies to many of the other organizations that might be aligned with Soros or other politically active nonprofits; there is little sign that federal funding makes its way to activist organizations with a few exceptions.

But at the state and local level there’s much more overlap between activist nonprofits and government funds, including those recently protesting in Los Angeles over immigration enforcement, left-leaning philanthropies, and perhaps the largest activist organizations—unions. Not just protests and advocacy, they actively donate to political causes and campaigns of the governments that pay them, despite Internal Revenue Service (IRS) limits on political activity for nonprofits.

For example, the nonprofit Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), which is involved in organizing some of the immigration protests, has received a measly $1.3 million in grants from the federal Department of Homeland Security. But at the state and local level they’ve received $58.5 million, with $35 million of that disbursed in 2023 alone and 97 percent of it coming from California’s Department of Social Services based on data from Open the Books.

State governments like California’s but also New Mexico’s and Massachusetts’ among others spend millions contracting out to third parties like CHIRLA to handle immigration issues—like legal services and assisting in citizenship applications for new immigrants—and then do community organizing and voter engagement at the same time.

CHIRLA then takes those a portion of those grants and spends it on political campaigns, with over $511,089 spent in 2024 so far through its associated Immigrant Power Super PAC or by funding candidates like Los Angeles ex-district attorney George Gascón, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors member Holly Mitchell, and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass. They raised $1.2 million against the attempt to recall Governor Gavin Newsom in 2021 and regularly lobby on immigration issues.

Their actions sound not too different from another community organizing group that received government funds: the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN. There is little evidence that ACORN was actually doing much housing assistance that they were originally contracted to do. Instead they mainly worked on political advocacy like voter outreach. After increased scrutiny of their actions, ACORN had their federal grants eliminated, removing the main source of their funding.

San Francisco Pays Tides For Political Advocacy

The Tides Center is a major grantmaking organization out of the bay area in California. The Tides network is at the center of a constellation of some of the largest left-leaning philanthropies like the Open Society foundations and the Arabella network, and much of their budget comes from other left/liberal philanthropies like the Soros network and the Rockefeller fund or other donor advised funds (DAF) that obscure the original donors. It has annual budgets in the hundreds of millions which are used to fund a large spectrum of smaller left/liberal nonprofits. They have received a few federal grants and contracts, like a $24.7 million grant from USAID in 2024 and an early education training contract from the Department of Labor for $5.9 million.

But a good portion of their budget also comes from local governments, particularly that of San Francisco and the surrounding bay area. According to IRS filings, Tides Center brought in $233 million in 2023, of which $35 million was from government grants, although data from Open the Books shows a higher $51.3 million in government revenue that year, which might include contracts as well as grants.

Between San Francisco city, the greater San Francisco county, and nearby Alameda county, those municipal governments have handed Tides $136.8 million since 2017. That’s a lot of government money considering that the Tides Center doesn’t do much work itself but instead hands that money to other nonprofits.

A recent story from the Free Beacon noted that Tides had received $18 million from the California state government with a lot of unknowns as to where all the money was going. A “community air grant” handed out by the state’s air regulatory board actually went to diversity initiatives.

While Tides Center is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that allows no political advocacy whatsoever, many of the funding recipients that it incubates are quite politically active—like that of the Indivisible Project which organizes immigration protests and anti-Trump protests—and many of them are actively managed by Tides:

“…including financial, compliance, insurance, governance, and human resources support — as well as management, consulting, and grantmaking services.”

For example, the Tides group Fair and Just Prosecution advocates for criminal justice reform like that of other Soros-funded nonprofits. It actively supported justice reform advocates—like district attorneys for Los Angeles George Gascòn, Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby, and St. Louis’ Kim Gardner—and funded international trips for those candidates. As a Tides Partner, it files no separate paperwork with the IRS.

Tides also funds Tides Advocacy—a 501(c)(4) nonprofit specifically focused on political action. According to their IRS filing for 2023, Tides Center gave $343,753 to Tides Advocacy, which is about the same amount that Tides Advocacy gave to political candidates and campaigns like the Working Families Party in 2024 according to OpenSecrets.

Multimillion State Contracts With Unions

Potentially the largest activist organization funded by local and state governments is unions. Unions regularly protest on behalf of labor issues or any number of left-aligned policies. That might range from immigration enforcement to anti-Trump advocacy or return-to-work mandates during COVID. As 501(c)(5) organizations they are allowed some amount of political activity and regularly endorse candidates, but it can’t be their main activity. While a large portion of their budget comes from dues-paying members and some from federal grants, it’s at the local and state level where the grants and contracts are in the tens of millions.

Looking at just the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)—one of the largest in the country which represents many hospital workers and government employees and is active in the recent immigration protests—they have taken in over $340 million since 2017 from local and state grants and contracts. Illinois paid them $16.5 million in 2024 alone for healthcare related services and Oregon paid them $9.7 million for a training program in 2021.