The under-the-radar move may signal different times for Democratic party fundraising efforts.
The Gates Foundation quietly ended a longstanding partnership last week with a firm heavily linked to the Democratic party. The Bill Gates-led charity has awarded grants to consulting partners Arabella Advisors for years, but an internal memo from June appeared to show the Gates Foundation ending the partnership. According to the memo, the nation’s largest philanthropy wing is aiming to interact more directly with non-profit organizations or other grant recipients in the future.
Arabella Advisors has been under scrutiny from some conservative watchdog organizations in recent years. The consulting firm is accused of handling “dark money” used to fund and support “liberal causes” and has been linked to billionaire activist George Soros. Over the last sixteen years, the Gates Foundation donated close to $500 million to funds managed by Arabella, according to the New York Times.
“Teams are increasingly working directly with programmatic partners — organizations that are deeply embedded in the communities we serve and closely aligned with our mission,” the note from the Gates Foundation in June said. “As we look ahead, this is a chance to build deeper, more durable relationships with those partners — and to reinforce the kind of legacy we want to leave behind.”
Despite this recent move, Bill Gates personally remains opposed to the GOP and speaks out against President Trump. In particular, Gates criticized Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for reforming USAID, a previous partner of the Gates Foundation. Shortly after, USAID officially shuttered its operations and merged its remaining day-to-day business with the U.S. State department. Gates was critical of DOGE – which cut millions of dollars of alleged waste and fraud from the federal budget – and posted on the Musk-owned social media platform X in June.
“The devastating effects of these cuts are entirely preventable—and it’s not too late to reverse them,” Gates said. He posted a link to a story of a doctor in Africa opposed to Trump’s budget cuts.
The move by the Gates Foundation to halt funding to Arabella reportedly comes at an inopportune time for the Democratic party, which has reported decreasing contributions from donors, and took in less than $15 million so far in 2025.
In February, the primary fundraising and outreach platform ActBlue came under fire after several members of the board of directors abruptly quit. In April, President Trump accused ActBlue of allowing foreign contributions into U.S. elections. Three separate Republican-controlled House committees subpoenaed ActBlue shortly after. Leadership of the House Judiciary committee said that while the platform had initially cooperated with the investigation, it failed to provide documents requested by the federal government.
