Bill Gates Distancing Himself From Dems?

Bill Gates spends more money on philanthropic efforts than anybody else in the world. You may not like where he puts his cash, but if you are a nonprofit of any kind, you are hungry to get a chunk of that change. 

Much of his giving has gone through Arabella Advisors, a left-wing “donor-advised fund.” Their shtick is vetting potential recipients of contributions and making recommendations to donors about where their contributions will do the most good. What it really does is fund a bunch of dark money groups to oppose Republicans. Here is a capsule summary from Wikipedia. 

Arabella Advisors is a Washington, D.C.–based for-profit consulting company that advises left-leaning donors and nonprofits about where to give money and serves as the hub of a politically liberal “dark money” network.^[2] It was founded by former Clinton administration appointee Eric Kessler.^[2] In 2023, Arabella raised more than $1.3 billion in anonymous donations and sent nearly $1.5 billion to other organizations.^[3] Between Arabella’s founding in 2005 and 2021, Arabella took in $6.5 billion, the vast majority of which flowed to policy and litigation groups on the left.^[4]

Organizations incubated by and affiliated with Arabella Advisors include the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the New Venture Fund, the Hopewell Fund, the Windward Fund, the North Fund, and the Telescope Fund.^[5][6] These groups have been active in various efforts to oppose the Trump administration and to organize opposition to numerous Republican politicians and policies.

According to The Atlantic, Arabella Advisors has “undeniably benefited from the rush of panicked political giving on the left during the Trump years.”^[7] In 2020, the Sixteen Thirty Fund donated $410 million toward defeating Trump and winning Democratic control of the U.S. Senate.^[8] Because of the way they are legally structured, Arabella Advisors and its affiliated groups are not required to disclose their donors, and they have not opted to do so. Billionaires George Soros and Pierre Omidyar have disclosed multi-million donations to the network. Politico has described the Sixteen Thirty Fund as a “left-leaning, secret-money group”, writing that the group “illustrates the extent to which the left embraced the use of ‘dark money’ to fight for its causes in recent years. After decrying big-money Republican donors over the last decade, as well as the Supreme Court rulings that flooded politics with more cash, Democrats now benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars of undisclosed donations as well.”^[8]

As you can see from the names of the “funds,” they are designed to be anonymous. “New Venture Fund” sounds benign enough; perhaps it invests in tech companies? Nope. It goes to left-wing causes intended to hurt Republicans and stack the deck for Democrats. 

Gates has run a lot of money through Arabella Advisors in the past, but no more. He’s out, and that could have a big impact on both Arabella’s bottom line–it is a for-profit organization–and on the behavior of other donors. If Gates puts his money there, others assume it is safe. If he pulls it, people wonder why. 

Link: https://t.co/4WlhhwwRh6

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) August 27, 2025

The Times says it knows why: Gates is moving away from left-wing politics. If so, that will put a big dent in the liberal ecosystem, which is already suffering mightily. 

America’s largest charitable foundation has quietly ceased backing a nonprofit network closely associated with the Democratic Party and criticized by conservatives, a symbolically significant blow to a powerful player in liberal politics.

The Gates Foundation decided in late June to halt making grants to nonprofit funds administered by the consulting firm Arabella Advisors, according to an internal foundation announcement reviewed by The New York Times.

That decision, attributed to the foundation’s chief executive, Mark Suzman, has sparked unease in the world of progressive philanthropy. Some nonprofits that work with Arabella are already seeking distance from the firm in order to preserve their relationships with the Gates Foundation, which primarily supports health initiatives around the globe.

In addition to its consulting work on behalf of nonprofits and philanthropists, Arabella also manages several “dark money” funds that support Democrats and the progressive movement.

One of the many ways the Clinton crowd has maintained control over the Democratic Party for over 30 years is that they have access to a LOT of money. Arabella is closely tied to the Clinton machine, and if it weakens, so will the Clintons. 

Mr. Trump has been steadily attacking the global-health and foreign-aid infrastructure that is core to the work of the Gates Foundation, and Mr. Gates has been flummoxed over how to handle it.https://t.co/79sFy9iNf9

— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) August 26, 2025

Gates’ move is not, in itself, a crippling blow to Arabella or the Democrats, but it seems to be a part of a large-scale shift in sentiment among big donors. They saw the election of Trump in 2016 as an anomaly, and in many cases redoubled their efforts to help Democrats during Trump’s first term and during the Biden administration. While these donors lean left, one of the key reasons they poured money into Arabella and left-wing groups was a sense that their bread is buttered by the Democrats, or, in some cases, the donations to left-wing causes were a way to buy immunity from Democrat retribution. 

Trump’s reelection proved that the market value of donations to left-wing organizations has plummeted, and along with that, the money has evaporated. The DNC is in a shambles, and liberal groups are seeing their funding dry up. Opposition to Trump is no longer quite the moneymaker it used to be. 

Client departures would also deal a blow to Arabella itself. While the New Venture Fund is a nonprofit entity on its own, it is a significant moneymaker for Arabella Advisors, which is a for-profit company. In 2020, Arabella was bought by a private-equity firm, Concentric Equity Partners, and generated over $60 million in revenue in 2022, according to its internal 2023 study.

Concentric is still its investor, but quietly deleted Arabella from its public “investments” page earlier this year.

When the company that bought Arabella is trying to hide its ownership now, it’s proof that being associated with it is no longer the asset it once was. 

Help us continue to report on President Trump’s successes. Join Hot Air VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.