This section examines foundations and individuals who provide financial backing for leftwing groups and causes. The database identifies 115 major leftwing foundations with combined assets exceeding $90 billion. Among these funders of the left are the largest philanthropic foundations in America or anywhere, including the Ford Foundation, the Pew Trusts, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Carnegie Corporation and the MacArthur Foundation. Several very large tax-exempt entities -- most notably the Tides Center, but also the JEHT Foundation, the Liberty Hill Foundation, the Shefa Fund, and the Proteus Fund -- are pass-through operations designed to mask the relationship between donor and gift. Many of the foundations described in this section are so large that entire cultural and political movements can be shaped by a single one of them. (See, for example, the Ford Foundation's role in underwriting The Open Borders Lobby.)

To view any foundation's in-depth financial information, including comprehensive lists of all its recent grants, visit GuideStar.org by clicking here. Guidestar provides access to the IRS Forms 990, which contain this data. Guidestar requires a one-time registration, at no cost, to view the forms.