Last week, The Daily Beast published a misleading article about the Hewlett Foundation’s support of a grantee organization, American Compass, that was subsequently picked up by The New Republic and shared on social media in posts that were even further from the truth. Both The Daily Beast and The New Republic imply that we sought to hide our support of American Compass, which is false. We have been clear about our support for American Compass, and our reasons for it, on our website, at our events, and in the press. We are transparent about all of our grants via our website, and that includes our grants to American Compass.
Both articles are misleading in conflating our support for a conservative nonprofit, American Compass, with the work of a coalition of more than 80 conservative organizations, Project 2025, to provide a policy blueprint for the next Republican administration.
American Compass is in our Economy and Society Initiative portfolio, in part, because of their work to move conservative thinking in a more worker-friendly direction — which is what they were doing in contributing to the labor section of Project 2025’s policy agenda. American Compass’ work on that chapter does not reflect, or even imply, endorsement of anything else in Project 2025. While Hewlett does provide grants to American Compass, we do not provide grants to Project 2025. Indeed, there are many ideas in Project 2025 that Hewlett does not agree with, including some in the chapter on labor.
The New Republic article also falsely states that “Donald Trump is receiving money” from the Hewlett Foundation. The Hewlett Foundation has never provided funds to Donald Trump or any other candidate. The foundation does not engage in any electioneering and, like all private foundations, is prohibited by law from contributing to any candidate.
The Hewlett Foundation is committed to supporting dialogue across difference. We support organizations across the political spectrum where our views align on a given issue. That doesn’t mean we agree with our grantees on everything, nor require them to agree with all of Hewlett’s positions. We believe that kind of dialogue across difference is critical to our democracy, and our bedrock commitment to democratic principles remains unchanged.