The latest tax filings for one of the top liberal dark money groups, Future Forward USA Action, reveals the group raked in $60.9 million in 2023, while spending $58 million. The group sent $8 million of it $9.6 million in grants to its sister organization, the Biden-Harris-supporting Future Forward Super PAC.
Notable Expenditures
Salaries made up Future Forward’s third largest expenditure category at $6.9 million, with 43 employees at Future Forward were compensated in excess of $100,000 in FY 2023. The organization also reported paying 33 vendors at least $100,000 in FY 2023, including:
- Future Forward’s largest contractor was Waterfront Strategies, a D.C. advertising firm deeply tied to the Democratic Party, which was paid $24.5 million to run advertisements.
- Its second largest contractor was Cint, a Swedish-based market research platform with American operations in New Orleans.
- Future Forward paid $338,579 to PFB Media, a firm co-owned in part by FF directors Chauncey McLean and John Fromowitz.
- Future Forward paid $370,216 to GCJ Research, a firm that Future Forward says is owned by one its directors.
- Though the 990 makes no mention of which director(s) own GCJ, the first initials of the organization’s three directors suggest it could be jointly owned by them. Business records show GCJ Research LLC was set up by Graham Wilson, an attorney with Elias Law Group.
Grantees
Future Forward sent grants to 6 organizations other than its own Super PAC: America Works, Ready Campaigns, Nevada Alliance, Act Now Project, Texas Blue Action Fund, and EquisLabs.
- America Works: As the top grantee America Works received $680,000. It is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) that spent tens of millions in FY 2023 on various campaign related activities.
- Ready Campaigns: Future Forward sent $355,000 to Ready Campaigns, a St. Louis, MO-based 501(c)(4) progressive advocacy group conducting partisan GOTV operations. Ready Campaigns does business as Blue Ledger Group and is tied to Daniel McCarthy, a CPA specializing in “cannabis accounting” with a “passion for social justice.”
- Nevada Alliance: Described as a “state based donor collaborative committed to building sustainable Democratic gains,” Nevada Alliance received $250,000 from Future Forward. Nevada Alliance regularly supports Democratic campaigns and liberal ballot initiatives in Nevada. It was a major funder of Protect Your Vote Nevada in 2022, which backed a ranked choice voting ballot initiative.
- Act Now Project: Future Forward sent $150,000 to the Act Now Project, a newly-formed 501(c)(4) nonprofit seeking to leverage a “Silicon Valley approach to build innovative, user-friendly, and data-driven solutions to today’s urgent problems.” Among other projects, it supports Rewiring America, a climate-change advocacy project backed by Arabella Advisors.
- Texas Blue Action Fund: This Democratic GOTV operation in Texas received $150,000 from Future Forward.
- EquisLabs: Future Forward sent $50,000 to EquisLabs, a 501(c)(4) in California working to “massively increase Latino civic participation.”
Contributions
- Future Forward listed contributions from 29 anonymous large contributions, representing $57.9 million in revenue.
- The 10 largest contributions were in the amounts of: $15,000,000, $12,000,000, $8,233,333, $6,632,000, $3,450,000, $3,250,000, $1,500,000, $1,036,980, $1,000,000, $1,000,000
Click here to view Future Forward USA Action’s 2023 Form 990.
