Report Reveals Coordinated Network of Progressive Nonprofits Shaping Arizona Politics

A new report released this month (see below) by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club in partnership with the Liberty Network alleges that a coordinated network of progressive nonprofit organizations, national donor funds, labor unions, and media outlets operates as a permanent political infrastructure influencing elections, public policy, and public opinion across Arizona.

The 25-page report, titled “Arizona’s Liberal NGO Syndicate,” argues that Arizona’s political shift over the past decade is not the product of isolated grassroots activism but rather a long-term strategy supported by national donors operating through nonprofit intermediaries and tax-exempt entities.

In announcing the report’s release on X, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club said the report, “exposes how a massive network of nonprofits, activists, and political operatives is quietly steering Arizona’s future,” adding, “This billion-dollar machine isn’t operating in the open… but its influence touches our elections, our policies, and our communities every single day.”

JUST RELEASED: The Arizona Free Enterprise Club has just released the Arizona’s Liberal NGO Syndicate Report, and it exposes how a massive network of nonprofits, activists, and political operatives is quietly steering Arizona’s future.

This billion-dollar machine isn’t operating… pic.twitter.com/bHF6olhljd

— Arizona Free Enterprise Club (@azfec) December 12, 2025

“This isn’t activism — it’s a professional, tax-advantaged political operation designed to look local but controlled from afar,” the Arizona Free Enterprise Club said in a statement to The Arizona Daily Independent, adding that “Arizona isn’t changing — it’s being engineered,” and warned: “Conservatives need a clear roadmap, strong counter-infrastructure, and strategic engagement to protect the state’s future and preserve local control.”

Funding Networks and Nonprofit Structures

The report details how donor-advised funds, national dark-money intermediaries, and teachers’ unions funnel large sums into local groups to influence elections, ballot campaigns, litigation, and media narratives, often with little transparency, and suggests that “billionaires, George Soros and Hansjörg Wyss deserve to be categorized separately as Upstream Sources,” of the funding citing “the size and nature of their involvement.”

The report shows that national donors, including Fidelity Charitable, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, channel more than $1 billion collectively into intermediary networks such as Arabella Advisors/Sunflower Services, Tides Nexus, and Soros/Wyss-backed networks that then deploy funds to Arizona organizations. 

The report emphasizes that this funding model is designed to build lasting political infrastructure — equipped to operate year-round, not just during election cycles. 

The report also described The U.S. Agency for International Development or USAID as the final upstream source of funding noting that ,”federal agencies such as USAID and the Department of Labor directed tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to progressive “philanthropic” organizations to supercharge the Biden administration’s agenda,” specifically citing former President Biden’s “open borders policies,” and stating that the agencies “enriched many progressive actors who stood to benefit handsomely from the crisis at the border and the influx of aliens in the country.”

Arizona Organizations Identified

The report identifies several Arizona nonprofits as central components of what it describes as a coordinated political ecosystem, including One Arizona, LUCHA, Arizona Center for Empowerment (ACE), Arizona Wins, Mi Familia Vota, and Chispa Arizona. These groups are described as coordinating voter outreach, legislative advocacy, and ballot measure campaigns across election cycles. 

A highlighted section of the report reads:

“The unions are not a side operation but are woven directly into the fabric of the Left’s political network. National union money fuels Arizona’s campaigns and advocacy efforts, while local education dollars sustain the infrastructure between cycles… What results is a single, coordinated ecosystem where unions provide the steady heartbeat…” 

In addition to advocacy organizations, the report names several Arizona-based media outlets, including the Arizona Mirror and Copper Courier, and alleges they receive funding from the same donor networks that support advocacy groups. The report argues this overlap raises questions about transparency and the separation between journalism and political advocacy. 

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club states that the report is based on analysis of publicly available tax filings, nonprofit financial disclosures, and grant records. The report does not claim to be a neutral academic study or legal audit.

The organizations named in the report have not uniformly responded to the allegations, and the report does not include rebuttals from those groups. Some of the organizations have previously denied coordination in similar contexts.

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club said the report’s purpose is to encourage greater scrutiny of nonprofit political activity and to highlight what it views as systemic transparency gaps among tax-exempt organizations involved in elections and public policy debates.