America Votes, a major national progressive organizing nonprofit, nearly quadrupled its funding to an Ohio political nonprofit in the year before federal officials subpoenaed the organization for records related to an ongoing FBI investigation.
According to America Votes' latest tax filing, the organization provided a $1.97 million grant to the Ohio Organizing Campaign, a 501(c)(4) advocacy group affiliated with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. The grant appears to be possibly the largest publicly disclosed contribution ever reported to the Ohio Organizing Campaign and represents a sharp increase from the $500,000 America Votes provided the organization the previous year.
The disclosure comes days after Votebeat reported that the FBI's investigation into the Ohio Organizing Collaborative had expanded beyond Ohio, with America Votes confirming that it had received a federal subpoena seeking records related to its funding relationship with the organization. America Votes told Votebeat that it was informed it is not a target of the investigation.
The Ohio Organizing Collaborative, one of Ohio's largest progressive organizing networks, has become the focus of national attention following FBI searches of properties associated with the organization earlier this month. While federal authorities have not publicly detailed the scope of the investigation, reporting from Votebeat and Signal Ohio indicates investigators have examined voter-registration activities connected to the collaborative and its affiliates. The Ohio Organizing Campaign and Ohio Organizing Collaborative share an address in Youngstown, as well as board member overlap.
The newly disclosed America Votes grant highlights the financial relationship between the national coalition and the Ohio group's political arm.
Ohio Organizing Campaign reported $10.8 million in contributions and grants during 2024, meaning America Votes' $1.97 million contribution accounted for roughly 18 percent of the organization's annual fundraising, if in fact it all came in that year. It should be noted that America Votes’ fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30. As PolitiFi first reported, during their latest reporting period America Votes raised $176 million. 5 unknown donors accounting for $120 million—68 percent of their revenue. They spent $168 million, mostly in grants to political organizations.
The filing also reveals that the Ohio Organizing Campaign directed the overwhelming majority of its spending to a single contractor.
According to the group's 2024 Form 990, the Ohio Organizing Campaign paid $9.15 million to Black Fork Strategies for consulting services. The payment represented approximately 93 percent of the organization's annual expenditures.
Black Fork Strategies has surfaced in previous reporting surrounding the federal investigation. Signal Ohio reported that federal investigators had questioned election officials regarding voter-registration activities associated with the firm.
The raid itself was first reported by MSNow.
Public organizational records show that Black Fork Strategies is owned by Kirk Noden, a founder of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. Noden also serves on the boards of both the Ohio Organizing Collaborative and the Ohio Organizing Campaign.
Tax filings show Noden listed as a board member of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative's charitable arm and separately as a board member of the Ohio Organizing Campaign, the advocacy organization that paid Black Fork more than $9 million in 2024.
Civil rights groups, voting-rights advocates, and Democratic elected officials have criticized the FBI raids, arguing that they risk intimidating voter-registration organizations ahead of a major election cycle. Critics contend that large-scale searches of organizations engaged in voter outreach could have a chilling effect on civic participation, particularly in communities that have historically faced barriers to voting.
Federal authorities have not alleged any misconduct by America Votes, nor have they brought any official allegations or indictments against the Ohio Organizing Campaign, Ohio Organizing Collaborative, Black Fork Strategies, or Kirk Noden beyond the executed search warrants. The investigation is still ongoing.