BREAKING NEWS: Dark Money Mothership Arabella Advisors — Gone or Just Rebranded?
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Is the Sugar Daddy funding source for many large-scale voter “advocacy” programs withering under scrutiny?
By Kristine Christlieb, MFEI News & Commentary Editor
November 19, 2025
A newly formed Public Benefit Corporation called Sunflower Services, is acquiring Arabella Advisors, the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm associated with channeling "dark money" into progressive advocacy and electoral efforts, including substantial investments in Michigan voting reforms.
Announced on Monday, the acquisition takes effect immediately. The deal was backed by lead investor New Venture Fund along with the Windward and Hopewell Funds, all three were former Arabella clients. Together, the three entities represent the founders of Sunflower Services.
Conspicuously absent from the transaction is the Sixteen Thirty Fund, an Arabella client and another high-profile backer of progressive causes founded by Clinton operative Eric Kessler who also co-founded Arabella Advisors with Bruce Boyd.
A Georgetown University case study notes that Arabella Founder Eric Kessler began his career "creating progressive advocacy tools as national field director for the League of Conservation Voters, the 501c4 environmental advocacy and get-out-the-vote group [MFEI emphasis] on a mission to '…build political power to protect people and the planet.'”
By 2023. Arabella Advisors was valued at $60M had 425 employees. But cracks were beginning to form under the weight of government investigations.
According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy reporting: "The announcement follows months of speculation about the future of Arabella. The group was a frequent target of Republicans due to its ties to the Democratic Party and liberal funders . . . Arabella’s association with progressive causes has proved damaging"
In August, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pulled out of Arabella, severing a 16-year relationship involving the management of $450M in nonprofit funds. The Hill's headline reporting on the story read: "Bill Gates may have just set off the death of far-left-tainted philanthropy."
Arabella's Impact on Michigan Elections
Arabella's fingerprints are all over recent Michigan ballot initiatives. The organization's funding through the Sixteen Thirty Fund has been instrumental in passing landmark reforms that expanded Michigan's voting infrastructure and influenced competitive races and policy debates.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund, founded by Arabella co-founder Eric Kessler, has directed tens of millions into Michigan efforts to expand voting access, combat gerrymandering, and enshrine election reforms in the state constitution.
These contributions often supported citizen-led ballot measures, helping secure voter approvals that reshaped Michigan's electoral landscape.
The 2018 Midterm Cycle
The Sixteen Thirty Fund poured nearly $9 million into Michigan activist groups and ballot committees, with a heavy focus on initiatives to overhaul redistricting and broaden voter participation.
Proposal 2: Independent Redistricting Commission Initiative
The fund contributed $6,017,250 to Count MI Vote, the nonprofit arm of the Voters Not Politicians campaign, which spearheaded this anti-gerrymandering measure. The initiative aimed to strip partisan lawmakers of control over congressional and state legislative maps, replacing it with an independent commission. It passed with 61% voter support, fundamentally altering Michigan's electoral map-drawing process and reducing gerrymandering's impact on future elections.
Promote the Vote Initiative
The fund donated $250,000 to this group, which advocated for Proposal 3 (though often conflated in reporting with broader voting reforms). The effort successfully pushed for no-excuse absentee voting, same-day voter registration, and straight-ticket voting options—key expansions of voter access that were adopted via legislative action following ballot pressure. These changes were framed as enhancing election integrity by making voting more accessible and less prone to suppression.
Additional support included $250,000 to the Michigan League of Responsible Voters for nonpartisan education on ballot measures, further amplifying turnout and awareness around election-related reforms.
2022 Ballot Initiatives
Building on 2018 momentum, the Sixteen Thirty Fund escalated its involvement in 2022, contributing over $17 million to Michigan ballot measures, with a primary emphasis on codifying voting protections.
Proposal 2: Voting Policies in the Constitution Amendment
This was the fund's largest single-state investment that cycle, with $11,261,370 directed to supporting groups. The initiative amended the Michigan Constitution to guarantee rights like automatic absentee ballot applications, early in-person voting (up to nine days before Election Day), prepaid postage for absentee ballots, and protections against undue influence or harassment at polls. It also reaffirmed existing voter ID requirements while expanding access for military and overseas voters. Approved by 59% of voters, Proposal 2 was hailed by proponents as a bulwark against future restrictions on voting, particularly in light of national debates over election integrity post-2020.
Sometime after 2023, Eric Kessler resigned from the board of the Sixteen Thirty Fund. The Washington Free Beacon is saying: "It's unclear if the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the primary political arm of the Arabella network that raised $275 million in 2024, will work with Sunflower Services. The Sixteen Thirty Fund did not return a request for comment."
The independent redistricting efforts they’ve funded in Michigan sound like good policies, like those Republicans admirably support in California. I’m confused if that’s being described as a strike against Arabella’s record.