Tides Center Funnels $170 Million in Taxpayer Money to Left-Wing Groups

Nearly $170 million in government grants has passed through a liberal dark money behemoth that houses numerous left-wing groups, including the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, tax forms show.

The taxpayer-funded grants were disbursed to groups through the Tides Center, a San Francisco-based nonprofit incubator that wealthy liberal donors use to bankroll progressive causes. A number of radical left-wing groups have fallen under the auspices of the Tides Center, which acts as a "fiscal sponsor" to nonprofits by providing its 501(c)(3) tax and legal status. This arrangement lets the groups under its umbrella avoid registering with the IRS.

The grants went to liberal initiatives housed at the Tides Center over a 17-year span between 2001 and 2018 and have steadily increased over time, according to a review of the center's tax data.

"The Tides Center is as liberal and politically active as they come; its entire purpose is to create new activist groups," said Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center. "For example, we recently revealed that the Tides Center sponsors the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, one of the top groups in the Marxist-led BLM movement. It's fair to question whether tax dollars sourced from all Americans should flow to nonprofits that have such an open ideological axe to grind."

Walter noted that the Tides Center's recipient profile on USASpending.gov, which posts government grants, shows $34 million in federal funding since 2008. The grants were primarily from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Health and Human Services. While USASpending is meant to inform the public of where government grants are coming from and where they are going, it contains incomplete data. During the period of time in which the website says the Tides Center received $34 million in federal funding, the group's own tax forms show that it had received $139 million in government grants.

The total annual sum of government grants awarded to projects at the Tides Center has steadily risen over the years. In 2001, the Tides Center reported $3.4 million in such grants on its tax forms. By 2018, the number shot up to $19.2 million, which was nearly 15 percent of the $137 million it reported in total grants and contributions that year. The $170 million in government funding was disbursed to projects between that time. Due to the Tides Center's set up as a fiscal sponsor with numerous nonprofits that fall below it, it is virtually impossible to pinpoint where the government grants end up. Tides did not respond to an inquiry on the funding.