Who (or what) is behind “Indivisible Montgomery”? The shadow organization that claims it is “in Montgomery County, MD, in defense of diversity, inclusion, fairness, transparency and the empowering of all Americans. We do what works best: influencing policy through our representatives and senators.”
It further claims that it “is a diverse group of nearly 1,700 Maryland citizens concerned about the Trump agenda becoming reality. Indivisible Montgomery originally consisted of people in Montgomery County, Maryland, but the way the congressional districts are drawn, people from all over western Maryland will find actions they can take with this group.
Started in the waning days of 2016, Indivisible Montgomery provides its members with a newsletter and a single call-to-action for each week. We also meet in person and participate in events in the Northern Virginia/Washington D.C./Maryland area.”
But who is behind this organization? And when someone donates to it, where does it go? These seem like simple questions for an organization claiming to be committed to “standing up for democracy” per its “annual picnic” ad and hosting Jamie Raskin (below):
It appears the org was started by a Chris Pickett, but per his public facing LinkedIn page, it doesn’t appear that he leads this organization anymore:
There was a fundraiser that was started on GoFundMe.com for the organization, presumably by Mr. Pickett. But it has since closed and a lot of the “donations” appear to be anonymous giving (screen grab below):
Where did that money really go? Now if one goes to the donations page at https://indivisiblemontgomery.org/about-indivisible-montgomery/, you’ll be taken to something else entirely, and scrolling to the bottom, you’ll see:
So your donation is going to something else entirely? Huh? Something called Indivisible.org. Per InfluenceWatch.org this organization’s 501c3 charitable arm gets a ton from big money private foundations, not individual donors: Indivisible Civics receives a large sum of money from private foundations. It was reported that Indivisible Civics and the Indivisible Project received a combined total of $14.9 million in 2019 of which only 17.3 percent came from small donations while 53 percent came in the form of grants from private foundations.
The 501c4, which is what you are ostensibly donating to at the MoCo site, is also funded by big “dark money” Democrats:
Kenneth Vogel, a reporter at the New York Times, attributed growth in Indivisible to funding from prominent liberals including “the tech entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, as well as foundations or coalitions tied to Democracy Alliance donors, including San Francisco mortgage billionaire Herbert Sandler, the New York real estate heiress Patricia Bauman and the oil heiress Leah Hunt-Hendrix.
Finally, again, there is no “steering committee” or leadership listed at the “Indivisible Montgomery” website. It is all a black box. Intentional? Why is MoCo Congressman Raskin appearing at this event? Why is the President of the MoCo Board of Elections? This organization doesn’t even disclose its leadership. Seems fishy.
