$85 million flowed from 14 distinct groups of donors to the groups that have been most active in advocating for state anti-ESG legislation, in the last three years of available records. Half of these donors are donor advised funds, which act as go-between grant makers for donors who wish to remain anonymous:
Most of the top donors to anti-ESG policy groups that can be identified also give money to these same donor advised funds, topping $720 million in grants in the last three years. In turn, the donor advised funds receiving that money routed $37 million to the anti-ESG policy groups in this map. This small sample of donors, groups, and donor advised funds illustrates the mystery of dark money in modern political activism, offering very little specific detail about the flow of funds, and questions about who else is missing from this web of influence.
For more context on the anti-ESG trend, please review the other relationship map published as part of this project, and the related report by the Center for Media and Democracy:
https://littlesis.org/oligrapher/9756-foundation-donors-to-the-anti-esg-lobby