Follow the Money

About FairVote:

FairVote, based in the state of Maryland has dedicated its focus on Ranked Choice Voting and any type of proportional representation in lieu of our traditional voting system.  FairVote's two major programs are the Fair Representation Act (13) which changes voting for Congressman to Ranked Choice Voting and the National Popular Vote which are focused on eliminating the Constitution's Electoral College. (14)

FairVote Funding:

Left Private Grantmaking Foundations:

Laura and John Arnold Foundation - Texas - former Hedge-Fund Mgr

Omidyar Network Fund - founder of Ebay - linked to Open Society Foundations

George Soros Open Society Foundations - Multiple Affiliations

Jennifer & Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation - Linked to the Open Society

Democracy Fund - Chaired by Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar 

Tides Foundation - Funnel-through for left-leaning non-profits

William & Flora Hewlett Foundation - Focused on legislative influence

Public Welfare Foundation - Grants to left of center organizations

Soros Fund Charitable Foundation 

Rockefeller Brothers Fund - Interested in restricting election-related speech

Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation

Carnegie Corporation of New York - Large grants to ACORN Community Organization

(14)

A Comparison of RCV Campaign Finance locally and around the Nation

*numbers in parenthesis are the links to documents on the Source page)

2020 Bloomington, MN 

     Bloomington Patriots Committee - (NO RCV Committee) - $6081 - Resident Donations (20)

     Committee for Ranked Choice Voting Bloomington (YES RCV Committee) - $130,013

FairVote Minnesota, St. Paul, MN provided $126,672 in donations, with $1051 in kind donations from out of state vendors.   Expenditures included $67,210 in advertising costs, $28,457 for salary related expenses, $26,046 for professional fees. (21)

2020 Minnetonka, MN 

     Minnetonka Citizens for Common Sense (NO RCV Committee) - $360 resident contributions (19)

     Committee for Ranked Choice Voting (Yes RCV Committee) - $103,032 

FairVote Minnesota, St. Paul, MN provided $99,783.00, with out of state donations of in-Kind donations of $851. Expenditures included $58,953 in advertising costs, $5,500 compensation of officers and other payroll of $18,740 and professional fees of $12,022.00 (18)

2015 Duluth, MN 

     NO RCV Committee - $7,016 

     YES RCV 2 Committees  -  $181,281 - 98.6% of the funding was from out of state. (Action Now contributed almost 70%, FairVote - $8000, two Metro area donors for $25,000 each) (16)

" And the vast majority of the money spent to promote ranked-choice voting
came from outside of Duluth. Local donors contributed just $2,515 in support of
pro-RCV efforts — a 1.4 percent sliver of the campaign’s funding pie. " (17)
 

2018 Santa Clara, CA

     NO RCV Committee - $7,800

     YES RCV Committee - $105,000 ($57,500 of it from John Arnold's Foundations Action Now, FairVote $47,500 and others contributed the balance.   (15)