Media outlets began circulating news this week that the United States had been added to a “global human rights watchlist” due to President Donald Trump’s policies. What the outlets failed to report, however, is that the group responsible for publishing the watchlist takes millions of dollars from many of Trump’s political adversaries, including George Soros’s philanthropic network.
CIVICUS, a South Africa-based nonprofit organization that exists to “strengthen civil society,” added the U.S. to its human rights “monitor watchlist” on Monday. The group defended its decision by arguing that the Trump administration was engaged in an “assault on democratic norms and global cooperation” after it “slashed federal funding for organizations supporting people most in need, dismantled [the U.S. Agency for International Development], and reversed progress on justice, inclusion, and diversity.” Media outlets, including Time, the Hill, the Guardian, Newsweek, and the Independent, all jumped on CIVICUS’s report to pump out stories implying that human rights in the U.S. were comparable to Pakistan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, both of which are also on the list.
None of these outlets, however, mentioned that CIVICUS is funded by an array of liberal donors.
Open Society Foundations, for instance, gave $1.8 million to the group between 2020 and 2023, according to tax filings. The organization is part of a network of nonprofit groups funded and controlled by the Soros family, which has long played a key role in financing both the Democratic Party and the broader liberal movement.
Democracy PAC, run by Soros’s son, Alex, spent $67.5 million during the 2024 election cycle to elect Democrats to Congress and the White House. George and Alex personally donated millions of dollars to fund former President Joe Biden’s and former Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed presidential bids. Direct political spending aside, Soros’s nongovernmental organization empire also serves as a vital financial lifeline to nonprofit groups working to oppose the Trump administration’s agenda through coordinated protests, public messaging campaigns, and lawfare.
“While we receive funds from multiple sources, our research and programs are not influenced by any of our funding relationships,” a CIVICUS spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “In our work, we prioritize the needs and challenges faced by our civil society allies and local communities around the world.”
The spokesperson stressed that a large network of global partners supports the group’s work and is nonpartisan. They also rebuffed other outlets’ comparisons of the U.S. to the Congo and Pakistan by pointing out that, per their rating, America is more comparable to Italy.
The rhetoric employed by CIVICUS largely mirrors that of the individuals and organizations funding it.
“The Trump Administration seems hellbent on dismantling the system of checks and balances which are the pillars of a democratic society,” interim CIVICUS Co-Secretary General Mandeep Tiwana said in a press release. “Restrictive Executive Orders, unjustifiable institutional cutbacks, and intimidation tactics through threatening pronouncements by senior officials in the Administration are creating an atmosphere to chill democratic dissent, a cherished American ideal.”
Bill Gates is another major Democratic donor who has pumped considerable funding into CIVICUS. Tax forms show that his charitable foundation contributed roughly $1.5 million to the group in 2018. According to the New York Times, Gates’s political bend is clear, as the Microsoft co-founder donated $50 million to support the Harris campaign during the 2024 election. The Gates Foundation has also long provided financial support to left-of-center groups such as Planned Parenthood.
After receiving funding from Soros and Gates, CIVICUS published a report in 2021 praising the U.S. for electing Harris as the nation’s first female vice president.
“At the year’s end, the USA elected its first-ever female vice-president, Kamala Harris, who was also the first African-American and Asian-American to hold the office,” the report reads. “This happened in no small part in reaction to an outgoing administration that had become the paradigmatic example of toxic macho leadership.”
CIVICUS’s affinity for Harris comes as one of the organization’s top funders is run by allies of the former vice president.
The Ford Foundation poured roughly $8.3 million into CIVICUS between 2020 and 2023, according to tax documents.
Darren Walker, the foundation’s president, has a long history of hobnobbing with Harris. According to White House visitor logs and media reports, Walker met Harris one-on-one in April 2021, attended an event at the then-vice president’s private residence in October 2022, and dined privately with Harris and her husband in fall 2023.
Beyond socializing, Walker and Harris collaborated frequently through public-private partnerships. The Ford Foundation collaborated with the Biden-Harris administration on artificial intelligence initiatives, community violence prevention, economic development, and distributing tens of millions of dollars to technology programs.
FORD FOUNDATION PAID CCP ALLIES MILLIONS TO AID CHINA’S GLOBAL INFLUENCE OPERATIONS
Laurene Powell Jobs, a Democratic megadonor and close friend of Harris, sits on the Ford Foundation’s board of trustees. The New York Times described the relationship between the two as a “genuine friendship built on a shared political philosophy, an interest in art and culture and their mutual trials as women in the public spotlight.”
In addition to being led by left-of-center individuals, the Ford Foundation is a major funder of liberal activists and political organizations. In recent years, the foundation has pumped tens of millions of dollars into left-of-center think tanks such as the Center for American Progress and New America, legal advocacy groups that often challenge conservative politicians, abortion-rights organizations, and groups linked to mass protests, among other liberal causes.
