The right-wing State Policy Network (SPN) and its affiliates have an overall combined revenue of $270 million, according to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) of the latest publicly available IRS filings. This marks a 77% increase since CMD last reported on SPN’s core finances in 2022.
CMD analyzed the IRS filings of all 64 affiliates of SPN from 2023, with a few available from 2024. The network’s overall combined expenses for this period were $230 million, with net assets coming in at $255 million. These numbers do not include core financials from the Great Plains Public Policy Institute or the Roughrider Policy Center since they bring in less than $50,000 per year and therefore do not have to disclose them, according to IRS regulations.
SPN groups play an integral role in promoting passage of legislation in state houses across the country — by providing academic legitimacy when their members testify at hearings, producing “studies” or model legislation, and attracting media attention. That legislation is sometimes drafted as model bills by corporate lobbyists and lawmakers at SPN’s sister organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
SPN is holding its annual meeting this week in New Orleans, where school privatization, AI, deregulating nicotine, noncitizen voting, bitcoin, DOGE, and more are on the agenda.
Goldwater Institute Lands Major Endowment
SPN’s Arizona affiliate, the Goldwater Institute, led all SPN groups with $31.7 million in revenue in 2023, a four-fold increase over what it disclosed for 2022.
A 2023 audit obtained by CMD shows the massive jump in revenue can be attributed to a $23.3-million donation in government securities from Arizona-based architect and real estate developer Logan Van Sittert and his wife Barbara to endow the Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy. Goldwater founded the Center in 2020 — a year before both of its benefactors passed away — to “defend our founding principles and instill those values into [sic] our next generation of Americans,” according to a press release.
The audit also shows that Goldwater received endowment contributions in 2023 from the Duncan Endowment ($700,000), the McClelland Fellowship ($100,330), the Norton Fellowship ($64,025), and the Goldberg Endowment ($50,830).
The Goldwater Institute is listed as a “federalism partner” sponsor of this week’s SPN meeting and is sponsoring a full-day, invitation-only Litigation Summit to wrap up the gathering on Thursday.
Rounding out the top five SPN organizations with the most revenue in 2023 are the Texas Public Policy Foundation ($24 million), the Freedom Foundation ($17 million), the Foundation for Government Accountability ($16 million), and Libertas Institute ($14 million).
Top Executive Pay
Aaron Withe, CEO of the Freedom Foundation, was the highest paid executive in the SPN network, earning a total of $525,000 in 2023, according to IRS filings. Withe makes nearly double the average salary of chief executives at SPN. Unlike in CMD’s previous report, all of the top five paid executives at SPN affiliates made more than $400,000 (as of 2023). Salaries of the other four highest paid executives are listed below.
Withe has been with the Freedom Foundation since 2015, when he first started as a canvasser and became Oregon director the same year, followed by national director in 2019. The foundation’s board of directors appointed him CEO in 2021, according to the organization’s website.
Earlier this year, the Freedom Foundation launched an anti-union network for teachers aimed at “battering the entrenched power of left-wing government union bosses who represent a permanent lobby for bigger government, higher taxes, and radical social agendas.”
Solid research! Well done!