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==Tea Party Funding==
A 2010 Facing South analysis found that a family foundation led by Art Pope has given the [[Americans for Prosperity Foundation]] (AFP) over $1.3 million since 2004, making it the group's second-largest institutional backer. Pope also sits on AFP's four-person board of directors. Americans for Prosperity has key leadership roles in the [[Tea Party Patriots]] movement. AFP delivered "Home Organizing" kits to Tea Party activists and sponsored dozens of trainings at local and national Tea Party events. Americans for Prosperity also works closely with the [[Tea Party Express]]. AFP called for a national [[Tax Payer Day Tea Party ]] in Washington, D.C. in October 2009 to channel the movement's energy. The N.C. branch of Americans for Prosperity is behind N.C. Tax Day Tea Party 2010, an effort to coordinate Tea Party protests across the state.<ref name=ck>Chris Kromm, [http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/10/art-pope-still-dancing-at-the-tea-party.html "Art Pope: Still dancing at the Tea Party?"] Facing South, Oct. 21, 2010.</ref>
Since spring 2009, staff of the Pope's [[Civitas Institute]], which receives nearly all of its funding from Pope's family foundation, and the [[John Locke Foundation]], which receives over 80 percent of its funding from Pope's foundation, have spoken at dozens of Tea Party rallies. Together with the N.C. chapter of [[Americans for Prosperity]], in May 2010 the Civitas Institute organized two "Tea Party Summits" -- one in Hickory ("Tea Party Summit West"), and another in Wilmington ("East"). According to the website, the events aimed to "channel the tea party energy" towards the groups' favorite conservatives causes, like "forced annexation" and cutting taxes. Both the East and West Tea Party summits in North Carolina featured a "State of the People Luncheon" led by the Civitas Institute. They also included a Citizen Watchdog/Investigative Journalism training led by Civitas staff.<ref name=ck/>