Arabella Advisors

Arabella Advisors was a Washington, D.C.–based limited liability corporation that advised left-leaning donors and nonprofits about where to give money and managed several dark money groups supportive of the Democratic Party and the progressive movement. It was founded in 2005 by former Clinton administration appointee Eric Kessler. Between Arabella's founding in 2005 and 2021, Arabella raised $6.5 billion, the vast majority of which flowed to policy and litigation groups on the left.

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. These groups have been active in various efforts to oppose the Trump administration and to organize opposition to numerous Republican politicians and policies.

In November 2025, Arabella Advisors announced that it was closing and rebranding to Sunflower Services, a new entity that will continue managing fiscal sponsorships for progressive advocacy groups. According to the Washington Free Beacon, "Under the rebrand, things will remain functionally the same for Arabella's dark money network, including the New Venture Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund." The Chronicle of Philanthropy wrote that "This change marks a significant shift for the consultancy world, in which Arabella was among the best-known and most controversial entities of its kind."

Arabella Advisors was founded in 2005 in Washington, D.C., by Eric Kessler as a limited liability corporation. Kessler's family owned Fel-Pro, an auto parts manufacturer in the Chicago area, and after selling the company for $750 million in 2005, he worked for the Family Alliance Foundation, a philanthropic organization formed with some of the proceeds of the sale. Kessler has also worked for the League of Conservation Voters, was a United States Department of the Interior appointee during the presidency of Bill Clinton, and spent six years working for the National Democratic Institute prior to founding Arabella Advisors. After the initial D.C. founding, Kessler quickly expanded the reach of the firm to Chicago with Bruce Boyd.

Arabella Advisors and its affiliated entities utilize tax regulations in which groups who use a fiscal sponsorship arrangement do not have to file a Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service. Using "pass-through" arrangements, funding is passed from one organization to another, making it difficult to trace where a donor's money ends up.

In 2018, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the New Venture Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Windward Fund had combined revenue of $635 million. According to OpenSecrets, in 2018 the Sixteen Thirty Fund had "thirteen multi-million dollar secret donors." One donor gave $51.7 million to the group in 2018, while another donor gave $26.7 million and a third gave $10 million. The group is not required by law to reveal its donors and it has not disclosed who its funders are. Known donors to the group include Nick Hanauer, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Wyss Foundation. Michael Bloomberg gave $250,000 to a super PAC linked to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and Democratic donor group Democracy Alliance, whose members include billionaire George Soros, has recommended that donors give generously to the Sixteen Thirty Fund.

The Arabella network spent nearly $1.2 billion in 2020 and raised $1.6 billion that same year.

Between 2020 and 2021, the New Venture Fund and the Windward Fund directed $473,000 to the Alliance for Global Justice, a group which funds and organizes anti-Israel protests across the United States. Following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, the Washington Examiner reported on the ties between the Alliance for Global Justice and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Soon after, the New Venture Fund and Windward Fund announced they would no longer provide funding to the Alliance for Global Justice due to its ties to Palestinian terrorist groups.