The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nation’s largest charitable foundation, has severed financial ties with Arabella Advisors, a leading conduit for progressive funding, ending a 16-year relationship that directed nearly $450 million to Arabella-managed nonprofits. The move, disclosed in a New York Times report on August 27, 2025, delivers a sharp setback to a consulting firm long criticized for channeling donor money into left-leaning causes.
According to an internal announcement reviewed by The New York Times, the Gates Foundation froze its grants to Arabella funds in late June. A June 24 staff memo described the decision as a strategic shift to fund grantees more directly, rather than through intermediaries. “The decision to cut ties with Arabella was ‘a business decision,’” the foundation stated, pointedly avoiding any reference to politics.
The break comes as scrutiny intensifies around Democratic-leaning nonprofits, many of which President Donald Trump has accused of abusing tax exemptions to act as partisan political operations. Arabella has faced particular criticism for steering money toward lobbying and activist efforts. The Washington Free Beacon reported that its Student Experience Research Network financed research advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in education. The New York Post further noted that Arabella steered $5.6 million to two groups organizing demonstrations against Trump’s crime crackdown in Washington, D.C.
The foundation’s realignment reflects broader shifts in its long-term planning. Earlier this year, Bill Gates announced the foundation would sunset by December 31, 2045—decades earlier than once envisioned. The Times also reported that Gates has begun “de-emphasizing the type of diversity and inclusion initiatives that Mr. Trump abhors, to insulate his charity from political pressure.”
The Gates Foundation itself has attracted controversy over its partnerships abroad. In 2023, it launched a $50 million collaboration with Tsinghua University, an elite Chinese institution tied to classified military research and implicated in cyberattacks. The foundation has also funneled millions to China’s National Health Commission and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, raising concerns among U.S. officials.
The Gates Foundation’s break with Arabella highlights the shifting terrain of big-money philanthropy, where politics and public scrutiny now drive strategic choices. For Arabella Advisors, losing its marquee patron raises doubts about the stability of its donor network and, by extension, the resilience of progressive activism under mounting political pressure. It joins other leftwing “nonprofits” that were reliant on billionaires they hate or taxpayer funding that have seen millions of dollars taken away from their radical projects.
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