Caitlin Sutherland Testifies Before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means on Foreign Influence in American Nonprofits

“Foreign nationals, foreign charities, and foreign governments are actively exploiting loopholes to funnel their foreign dark money into important American policy fights, institutions, and electoral tools – and they’re utilizing the nonprofit sector to do it. Over 40 years ago, Congress banned foreign nationals from directly or indirectly influencing our elections. And while federal law is still inadequate when defining what foreign nationals can and cannot do in the electoral space, it is even worse to nonexistent in the nonprofit policy space.”

  

“This threat of foreign interference is not a hypothetical one. In October 2025, Americans for Public Trust released a report on how just five foreign charities spent almost $2 billion bankrolling U.S. policy fights, litigation, research, lobbying, and protests. The foreign money identified in this report originated from charities and foreign nationals in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Denmark, and then flowed into the United States, mostly through 501(c)(3)s.”  

“One of those charities, KR Foundation, wants to, ‘popularize a shared vision of how cities could be much better places to live without private cars,’ and they financed numerous climate protests and litigation. The Switzerland-based Oak Foundation poured $650,000 into the 501(c)(3) Environmental Law Institute that houses the Climate Judiciary Project, which has faced accusations of training judges to rule favorably on climate litigation. And the UK-based Quadrature Climate Foundation sent almost $50 million to the 501(c)(3) Windward Fund, in part to support, ‘environmental justice advocates in the U.S.,’ and for calling for diet shifts away from red meat to plant-based proteins. Abolishing private cars. Eating less meat. Training judges. Protests. Suing energy companies. These are just a few examples of what is being financed by foreign money, and it must stop.”  

“Notably, after Americans for Public Trust exposed how British activist hedge fund manager Christopher Hohn funneled over half a billion into U.S.-based organizations, he announced he would no longer be financing U.S. causes in the future. But the damage with his foreign money has already been done, as he’s been bankrolling advocacy campaigns and pushing a radical green energy agenda for over a decade – all while he and his charity maintain close and questionable ties to Communist China, work with CCP officials, and support the CCP’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative.’ While it is a fantastic victory that Hohn was called out and shamed into changing course, it is simply not enough given the influx of foreign money coming into the United States. We must have more guardrails in place to protect our democracy.”  

…

“Another ever present threat to American politics is Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss. Ms. Wyss, who once said he, ‘never felt the need to become an American,’ has instead, as stated in his biography, found a way to ‘exert an influence on American domestic politics through his foundations.’ The precise reason this Swiss billionaire, or any other foreign billionaire, can do this is because foreign money running through foundations and nonprofits to influence policy and advocacy is not prohibited. This has allowed Mr. Wyss to keep the lights on at numerous left-wing nonprofits around town, including giving $280 million to Sixteen Thirty Fund, $30 million to the League of Conservation Voters network, $9 million to the ACLU network, and $7 million to Indivisible – the chief organization leading nationwide protests.”