A significant portion of the money bankrolling the Heritage Foundation — the conservative think tank behind the sweeping “Project 2025” initiative to reshape the federal government if former President Donald Trump is reelected — comes from a growing network of shadowy charity groups run by the nation’s top financial firms that use a legal carve-out to keep their ultrawealthy donors hidden.
These groups, called donor-advised funds, have donated more than $18 million to the Heritage Foundation since 2020, according to a new Lever analysis and research by the Institute for Policy Studies shared exclusively with The Lever — and the amount is increasing.
