Talk:Castle Rock Foundation

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The Castle Rock Foundation (CRF) was founded in 1993 as a 501(c)(3) organization with an endowment of $36,596,253 from the Adolph Coors Foundation.[1] Both the Castle Rock Foundation and the Adolph Coors Foundation were funded by Coors brewing company executives to funnel Coors profits into conservative and open market politics.[2] In November of 2011, Castle Rock Foundation was merged back with the Adolph Coors Foundation which remains the "surviving corporation." [3]

In 2011, Castle Rock Foundation reported a total annual revenue of $528,589, received no grants, and gave a total of $1,760,000 in grants. [4]

Ties to DonorsTrust, a Koch Conduit

DonorsTrust is considered a "donor-advised fund," which means that it divides its funds into separate accounts for individual donors, who then recommend disbursements from the accounts to different non-profits. Funds like DonorsTrust are not uncommon in the non-profit sector, but they do cloak the identity of the original donors because the funds are typically distributed in the name of DonorsTrust rather than the original donors.[5] Very little was known about DonorsTrust until late 2012 and early 2013, when the Guardian and others published extensive reports on what Mother Jones called "the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement."[6][7]

Americans for Prosperity, an organization founded and funded by the Koch brothers, received nearly $9.5 million from DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund from 2010 to 2012.[8]

DonorsTrust Funding

The Castle Rock Foundation contributed $347,000 to DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund between 2009 and 2011 (see links to the foundation's IRS forms 990 below).

A report by the Center for Public Integrity exposes a number of DonorsTrust funders, many of which have ties to the Koch brothers. One of the most prominent funders is the Knowledge and Progress Fund, a Charles Koch-run organization and one of the group's largest known contributors, having donated nearly $9 million from 2005 to 2012. Other contributors known to have donated at least $1 million to DonorsTrust include the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation, Searle Freedom Trust, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the John M. Olin Foundation.[9]

Since its inception in 1999, DonorsTrust has been used by conservative foundations and individuals to discretely funnel nearly $400 million to like-minded think tanks and media outlets.[9] According to the organization's tax documents, in 2011, DonorsTrust contributed a total of $86 million to conservative organizations. Many recipients had ties to the State Policy Network (SPN), a wide collection of conservative state-based think tanks and media organizations that focus on shaping public policy and opinion. In 2013, the Center for Media and Democracy released a special report on SPN. Those who received DonorsTrust funding included media outlets such as the Franklin Center and the Lucy Burns Institute, as well as think tanks such as SPN itself, the Heartland Institute, Illinois Policy Institute, Independence Institute, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, South Carolina Policy Council, American Legislative Exchange Council, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, and the Cascade Policy Institute.[10]

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

The Castle Rock Foundation has granted $650,000 to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) between 1995 and 2011, according to a review of the Bridge Project's Funders data by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).[11]

About ALEC
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our ExposedbyCMD.org site.

Groups Funded

Funding SPN and SPN State Think Tanks

TOTAL to SPN and SPN State Think Tanks 1995-2011: $16,750,360, broken down as follows:[11]

Additional Right Wing Funding

TOTAL to Additional Right Wing Organizations 1999-2011: $4,602,000, broken down as follows:[11]

Forms 990

  • Castle Rock Foundation, 2011 Form 990, Foundation's IRS filing, April 4, 2012.
  • Castle Rock Foundation, 2010 Form 990, Foundation's IRS filing, March 18, 2011.
  • Castle Rock Foundation, 2009 Form 990, Foundation's IRS filing, March 29, 2010.
  • Castle Rock Foundation, 2008 Form 990, Foundation's IRS filing, March 31, 2009.
  • Castle Rock Foundation, 2007 Form 990, Foundation's IRS filing, April 17, 2008.
  • Castle Rock Foundation, 2006 Form 990, Foundation's IRS filing, February 14, 2007.
  • Castle Rock Foundation, 2005 Form 990, Foundation's IRS filing, April 12, 2006.
  • Castle Rock Foundation, 2004 Form 990, Foundation's IRS filing, March 28, 2005.
  • Castle Rock Foundation, 2003 Form 990, Foundation's IRS filing, April 14, 2002.

Additional conservative organizations the Castle Rock Foundation has funded:


Board of Directors

Before dissolving back into the Adolph Coors Foundation in November of 2011, the board consisted of:[3]

  • John W. Jackson, Executive Director, Secretary
  • Peter H. Coors, President
  • Robert G. Windsor, Vice President
  • Jeffrey H. Coors, Treasurer
  • William K. Coors, Trustee
  • Melissa Coors Osborn, Trustee
  • Cicily Coors Garnsey, Trustee

Contact

CASTLE ROCK FOUNDATION
4100 E MISSISSIPPI AVE STE 1850
DENVER, CO 80246-3074 [1]

Phone: 303 388-1636
FAX: 303 388-1684
URL: http://www.castlerockfoundation.org/
Now re-directs to the Adolph Coors Foundation website.

Resources and Articles

External related articles

Joe Conason, The Coors campaign's deceptive advertising, Salon, October 22, 2004.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 , Economic Research Institute, Castle Rock Foundation, Economic Research Institute, accessed June 6th, 2013.
  2. ↑ , Joe Conason, The Coors campaign's deceptive advertising, Salon, October 22, 2004.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 , Castle Rock Foundation, 2010 Form 990, organizational annula IRS filing, 2011.
  4. ↑ , Bridge Project,Castle Rock Foundation Financials, Bridge Project, accessed June 10th, 2013.
  5. ↑ Rebekah Wilce, A Reporters' Guide to the "State Policy Network" -- the Right-Wing Think Tanks Spinning Disinformation and Pushing the ALEC Agenda in the States, PRWatch.org, April 4, 2013.
  6. ↑ Andy Kroll, Exposed: The Dark-Money ATM of the Conservative Movement, Mother Jones, February 5, 2013.
  7. ↑ Suzanne Goldenberg, "Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks," The Guardian, February 14, 2013.
  8. ↑ Center for Media and Democracy, DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund Grant Recipients, SourceWatch.org, accessed December 2014.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Paul Abowd, Donors use charity to push free-market policies in states, Center for Public Integrity, February 14, 2013.
  10. ↑ Donors Trust, GuideStar.org, IRS form 990, 2011.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 ,Castle Rock Foundation Grants, "Bridge Project", accessed July 17, 2013.
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