Exclusive | Cash-strapped woke Wall Street watchdog braces for Trump administration crackdown on political nonprofits: sources
A watchdog group that has attacked the private-equity industry is hitting up donors for fresh funds ahead of an anticipated crackdown by the Trump administration on ‘political’ nonprofits, The Post has learned.Sources said the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) — which outlined a mission in a recent social media post to “expose abuses, bring transparency, and fight to hold this industry accountable to people, not profits” — is now scrambling for cash, sources said.Specifically, the Chicago-based group has asked supporters to donate on ‘Giving Tuesday’ ahead of an expected 2026 Treasury and IRS probe of the latest tax filings by so-called 501(c)3 nonprofit groups.“It is more like Terrified Tuesday,” said one DC insider of the outfit that is often name-checked by left-wing firebrands such as AOC and Elizabeth Warren.George Soros’s Open Society Policy Center, another nonprofit that could be in the Trump administration’s crosshairs, donated a total of $400,000 to PESP from 2021 to 2022.The donations stopped in 2023, according to the latest available filings for both outfits.“All you have to do is look at who works at these places, their pronouns, and the sort of political activism they have been engaged in,” the source said.
“They’ve handed in their homework, and now it’s going to get graded.”A well-placed source said 501(c)3 organizations will face “heavy scrutiny” if they “blur their lines” between genuine advocacy and political activism.In addition to Soros’ Open Society, that could put left-wing groups, including Black Lives Matter, under the microscope, the source said.Insiders pointed to Chicago-based PESP’s move to raise money that “would help fund potential lawsuits with the federal government.”“The administration has a laundry list of suspects who have been using and abusing their non-profit tax status,” the source added.
“No one is against political work.But you need to pay your fair share of ...