by Brian Leach
Sebastian County Libertarian Examiner
October 1, 2009
The Tides Foundation, based out of San Francisco, is a huge, tax-exempt group founded by Drummond Pike in 1976. The current board of directors includes Wade Rathke, founder of ACORN and SEIU Local 100 and Local 880.
The Tides Foundation’s central tenet is “healthy societies rely fundamentally on respect for human rights, the vitality of communities and a celebration of diversity.” Seems quite harmless at first glance but upon further inspection of this organization, the group’s motivation becomes quite clear: the promotion of radical leftist beliefs on the American public through any means possible.
The Tides Foundation has generated revenues between $67 million and $115 million every year since 2004. Its offshoot, Tides Center, raised funds totalling between $47 million and $53 million between 2003 and 2006. Both tax-exempt non-profit groups are supposed to be non-aligned politically but the reality is both Tides groups have provided more than $650 million since 2002 to radical progressives and social activists.
Form 990 also lists groups that receive funds from the Tides Foundation. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of recipients, including several hundred outside of the United States. In 2008, the Tides Foundation provided $20.04 million for these “foreign charities.” This does not include the “sister charity” – the Tides Center as its 2008 990 form was not available.
Of course many more groups are funded by the Tides Foundation within the United States. On Form 990 the recipients are listed in order of value and at the top of the list is $1.5 million to the Rudolf Steiner Foundation. A quick browse to the Rudolf Steiner Foundation website says that the group is dedicated to “using the tools of finance to bring about positive, real-world change,” adding that “our goal is not only to make capital available to innovative projects; it’s to fundamentally transform the way the world works with money.”
“Fundamentally transform” that is certainly a popular catchphrase with the Obama administration and we’re seeing these radical changes proposed and forced through Congress with little input from the public. All that has stood in the way of socialized medicine is an outpouring of opposition at August town hall meetings throughout the country.
Listed second on the list of recipients, also with a grant of $1.5 million is Third Way. Third Way’s website says the group is “the leading think tank of the moderate wing of the progressive movement.” The group is careful to use the term “moderate” – it could use Marxist or radical could it? Click on any of the links on the site and you will find the talking points of the Obama administration – “Winning the Debate on Health Care Reform” for example.
More here.
