December 9, 2025
Highlights
Americans for Financial Reform presents itself as a “nonpartisan” grassroots check on Wall Street and concentrated wealth, but its funding and grantmaking tell a different story. Since 2018, it has received over $1 million from labor unions, with the majority coming from the Communications Workers of America, and millions more from large liberal philanthropies, including Soros‑affiliated foundations, the Hewlett Foundation, Ford, Kellogg, and others. Its Education Fund frequently eclipses AFR’s own fundraising and distributes substantial grants to like‑minded activist groups, effectively channeling resources within the same ideological ecosystem. This reliance on the very concentrations of money it criticizes undercuts AFR’s claims of independence and grassroots credibility.
Millions In Union Funding
Despite claiming to be a “nonpartisan” watchdog fighting for financial fairness, AFR has received over $1 million in support from labor organizations dating back to 2018.
According to the Department of Labor’s LM2 Database, AFR has received $1,040,000 in contributions from union organizations since 2018. These contributions came from the Communications Workers Union (CWA), the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the AFT, the Postal Workers Union, SEIU, the UAW, and the Building and Construction Trades Union. 75% of their labor contributions came from the CWA, which contributed a total of $780,000, including a $10,000 contribution to AFR’s sister 501(C)(3) project, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.
Funding From Deep-Pocket Liberal Organizations
Despite claiming to fight against concentrated wealth, AFR and AFR Education Fund have received millions in funding from some of the wealthiest and most prominent liberal donors.
While a significant amount of funding into AFR comes through their Education Fund, other funders include left wing organizations such as George Soros’ Open Society Action Fund, ClimateWorks, and Public Citizen. AFR’s Education Fund has received funding from similar groups and has received up to 7.5 times the amount of total funding compared to its parent organization. George Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society has provided a total of $848,624. Other liberal organizations that have contributed to the AFR Education Fund include The Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Sunrise Project, New Venture Fund, Tides Foundation, and The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Providing Funding To Similarly-Aligned Groups
The AFR Education Fund has also provided over $2 million in grants to organizations that do similar work to AFR and other community organizing groups.
AFR Education Fund provided $225,000 to the group Action Center On Race and the Economy Institute (ACRE), which claims to “directly take on the financial institutions and anti-democratic actors that are responsible for pillaging communities of color and poor families, subverting voting rights, and destroying our environment.” AFR Education Fund also provided $95,000 to the ACCE Institute, a group that broke off and formed out of the California chapter of the embattled group ACORN. ACCE has been accused by Congress of attempting to obfuscate its relationship with ACORN, and AFR’s Co-Executive Director Lisa Donner previously worked for ACORN. AFR also provided $100,000 to the group Demand Progress, an entity sponsored by the left-wing dark money groups Sixteen Thirty Fund and New Venture Fund.
See Also: Pinpoint’s Other Watchdog Reports
Pinpoint Policy Institute has also published reports detailing the funding sources of the “nonpartisan” watchdog groups American Economic Liberties Project and Americans for Financial Reform.