Left-Wing Dark Money Outfit Accused of Trying to Buy Social Media Influencers

One of the most influential left-wing dark money organizations stands accused of trying to buy social media influencers, aiming to unify the Left as Democrats struggle to find the path forward after President Donald Trump’s historic victory in November.

Trump’s interviews with conservative YouTubers, podcast hosts, and alternative media influencers accumulated more than 100 million views ahead of the 2024 presidential election, and it seems the group Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has ties to Arabella Advisors, is intent on galvanizing this new strategy on the other side of the aisle.

Will its efforts unite the woke infrastructure of the Left with the large audiences who flock to left-wing influencers? Or will the exposure of this effort further divide the Democrat activist class?

Sixteen Thirty Fund forms a key arm of the Left’s dark money network, bankrolling many of the activist groups that staffed and advised the Biden administration and supporting ballot initiatives across the states. The for-profit company Arabella Advisors manages Sixteen Thirty Fund as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, alongside other nonprofits like New Venture Fund, Windward Fund, and North Fund. These nonprofits then prop up fiscally-sponsored projects, allowing donors to support the projects without disclosing which projects they fund.

Taylor Lorenz, a left-wing journalist not usually known for turning on her own side, wrote a lengthy Wired exposé about Chorus, which Lorenz identified as a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund.

A Sixteen Thirty Fund spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Signal that Chorus is a fiscally-sponsored project of Sixteen Thirty Fund.

“Sixteen Thirty Fund (STF) became a fiscal sponsor of Chorus in April 2025,” the spokesperson said. “Fiscal sponsorship is a very common model for nonprofit work. In our case, it allows us to provide a shared operational home to new, progressive nonprofit projects like Chorus. This model enables these projects to focus on their programmatic goals while STF provides administrative services such as compliance and human resources.”

The Sixteen Thirty Fund’s Chorus

Stuart Perelmuter, the former communications director for Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., founded Chorus in November. Perelmuter had previously launched Good Influence, a for-profit influencer marketing agency aimed at helping content creators connect with left-leaning causes. Perelmuter co-founded Chorus with Democratic influencer Brian Tyler Cohen, who has more than 4.6 million YouTube subscribers.

Chorus reportedly claims that its initial creator cohort has a collective audience of more than 40 million followers with more than 100 million weekly viewers.

The nonprofit reportedly offered dozens of Democrat political influencers $8,000 per month to join Chorus’ program—but the money comes with extensive strings attached.

According to Wired, Chorus contracts prohibit content creators from using any program funds to make content that supports or opposes any political candidate or campaign without express authorization from Chorus in advance and in writing.

The contracts reportedly forbid influencers from disclosing their partnership—a standard practice—stipulating that they will “not publicize” the Chorus funding without Chorus’ consent.

The contracts also reportedly give Chorus the ability to force creators to remove or correct content based solely on the group’s discretion if the content was made at an event organized by Chorus.

According to a fundraising deck Wired acquired, Chorus aims to “build new infrastructure to fund independent progressive voices online at scale.” The creators are expected to attend regular advocacy trainings and daily messaging check-ins. 

Democratic content creator Keith Edwards has described the program’s structure as “predatory.”

Sixteen Thirty Fund’s Response

Sixteen Thirty Fund defended Chorus’ work in a statement to The Daily Signal.

“Chorus is doing crucial work to spread a pro-democracy message to Americans,” the spokesperson said. “Creators working with Chorus have always been encouraged to talk about their involvement in the program.”

“Chorus creators are not paid to support or oppose candidates, but they are free to do so on their own time,” the spokesperson added.

Brian Tyler Cohen’s Response

Cohen also responded to Lorenz’s claims in a video posted on X. He described Chorus as “a scholarship program to teach creators how to grow their accounts, foster engagement, launch their own shows, and become profitable on their own.”

“It’s an incubator program to build the pro-democracy ecosystem,” he added.

“Chorus does not pay creators for content, does not tell them what to say, does not control who they talk to or work with, and there is absolutely nothing in the contract that could even be reasonably interpreted to say that they do,” Cohen said. “There are zero restrictions on their content.”

He acknowledged that the program has “a standard confidentiality clause in the contract to protect the privacy of the creators,” yet he insisted that during the workshop, Chorus clearly told creators that they could talk publicly about the program.

Even if Lorenz’s claims are baseless, Chorus represents an attempt by the donor class to organize social media influencers toward the Left’s goals.

What This Means for the Left

After the woke activist class dominated the Biden administration and turned off the country, leading to Democrat Kamala Harris’ defeat in November, moderate-leaning Democrats have launched futile efforts to distance themselves from the toxic Marxist brand of gender ideology, climate alarmism, racial division, and technocratic government.

The consulting group Third Way has published a list of words Democrats should avoid—all terms related to the ideology of the activist Left.

Arabella Advisors, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and the network of foundations set up by Hungarian American billionaire George Soros (and now run by his son, Alex) help to bankroll the woke activist groups pushing this ideology. The Biden administration propelled these nonprofits into positions of influence in the government, and it seemed to endorse every woke cause imaginable.

Many influencers agree with parts of this ideology, but as individuals, they prefer to pick and choose, crafting their own takes that gain them attention and views. Some of them may moderate toward Third Way, but I suspect most of them largely walk in lockstep on these issues.

They bristle, however, at the idea of one massive dark money network bringing them together and calling the shots. This looks, to them, like institutional capture—and they value their freedom.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am grateful to Taylor Lorenz for exposing this move, and I hope many left-wing influencers notice it for what it is.

For far too long, the Left has acted as though the only “dark money” activism is on the Right—with the likes of Charles Koch and Leonard Leo. In reality, the Left’s dark money network is larger, partially because the Left represents the party of America’s woke elites.

If more left-leaning influencers wake up to the dark money on the Left and realize this attempt to coopt their voices, they won’t start supporting Trump. But they might think twice about the institutional structure that upholds the woke ideology—and if that helps them question whether the world is ending because of climate change or whether a man can become a woman just by saying so, I’ll consider that a win.

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